Apple PowerBook PPC G4 - Lubuntu

Hardware Tested | PowerBook G4 1.67 17" (Al)

Install the USB disk image

• Find your USB device

  • diskutil list

• Unmount the USB device before making the bootable drive

  • diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk2

if pv is installed via brew to monitor progress

sudo dd if=lubuntu-12.04-desktop-powerpc.iso | pv | sudo dd of=/dev/disk2 bs=16m && sync

• if pv is not installed...

sudo dd if=lubuntu-12.04-desktop-powerpc.iso of=/dev/disk2 bs=16m && sync

Boot In Recovery Mode

• When at the boot login

Linux single

• Confirm that AMD graphics card is installed

lspci -k | grep -EA2 'VGA|3D

• Edit the default yaboot.config

sudo nano /etc/yaboot.config

• Add the following line to the append config file

image=/boot/vmlinux
        label=Linux
        read-only
        initrd=/boot/initrd.img
        append="quiet splash live video=radeonfb:1440x900-32@60"

Optimization

cat /proc/sys/vm/swappiness

#Decrease swap usage to a more reasonable level
vm.swappiness=10

Keyboard Backlight

sudo modprobe i2c-dev
sudo /etc/init.d/pbbuttonsd restart

sudo modprobe pmu_battery
sudo nano /etc/modules
 > pmu_battery

Setting Up WiFi

sudo apt-get install firmware-b43-installer

Setting Up VPN

• Able to import opvn config file

sudo apt-get install openvpn network-manager-openvpn network-manager-openvpn-gnome network-manager-vpnc
sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart

Notes

The yaboot.config screen dimensions should match your device, the example was for a 17-inch powerbook with an ATI Radeon

There will be times when the screen is off or the ethernet connection may seem slow, be patient.

If the screen stays completely black for longer than five minutes with no response

• no mouse movement
• no keyboard activity
• no network activity

Then it is possible that it was a kernel panic or a setting changed from the yaboot.config that is incorrect for your device.

All credit goes to the countless hours of the opensource Apple | Lubuntu community for breathing life back into old hardware.