No problem man let me know how it goes. Yeah they suggested Debian awhile back but the newer versions are not as user friendly I do not think.

I gave that a shot last night, couldn't complete because it makes you select your own packages individually, and I have NO idea what I need to put on there to make it do what I want, Arch Installer was not about to load all items needed for a desktop environment, it wanted me to type in the names of all packages I want other than core. I think I may just be doomed to buying new Macs whenever my old ones are no longer supported. But I may try the Debian Installer a few hundred more times or who knows maybe the Arch but Arch with you on a chat or phone, unless you have a special secret to get Arch to decide on it's own which packages I need or if it's a short list you could type it in here, but the way that installer works I will be typing to you at every step.

THANK YOU Aurora Zero For All Your Help!
Let me know if there is a better way to use the arch installer.
I'll post updates if I have news
NK9sBoo

You can try ubuntu and see if it will go better man. Some say that version 10.10 works well on the g3 series. Have a look see here man http://www.maclife.com/article/howto...linux_your_mac . This may give you some ideas as to what works and what does not.

1 members found this post helpful.

Hey, Thanks AuroraZero! I will check that all out also! As far as Arch goes, I could probably figure it out IF, the PowerPC installation manual online was not out of date, I found a few updated articles, but no complete install info for the current installer, in other words, everything I found did not describe what my installer was doing. Either way it was a fun try.

Thanks Again!
I'll post any news on my situation here in this thread, until I figure something out
I'll be persistent, just may have to let my usage drop for a few days before trying to download another distro (Wildblue needs a package with more than 17 GB per 30 rolling days.)

If you get any new ideas, I'll check here almost every day, sometimes more than once
NK9sBoo

Do you have high speed at your local library? Could always download the .iso there put it on a flash drive bring it home and burn it. Arch was my fault really. I forgot you have little to no Linux experience and suggested t off the top of my head. It is more geared to the expert side of things rather then the new people.

Mint is a good way to go to learn on. They tend to gear things to normal users instead of the tech guys lol. Ubuntu is not one of my favorites but it also tends to lean towards normal users and not the tech guys.

Hey AuroraZero, No sweat man! I enjoyed giving the Arch install a try, and as I said, I can follow instructions very well if they actually match what I am trying to do, unfortunately the good people at Arch have it seems not updated the PPC instructions for a few years

Now on to the possible good news: I did try a re-install of Debian, twice actually, first time, it went back to keyboard not working in Linux -b from the hard drive (no CD in slot), the second time well, I now have the keyboard working and your chmod 755...... command seems to have done something because I ran fsck after and it gave me a warning about the volume is now mounted and any changes you make WILL damage your system, so I canceled that.

So it seems I may have write permissions now, I'll try to verify and re-post, apt-get update now no longer complains about any locks, but it says unable to resolve security at ftp.us.debian.org and some packages were not downloaded old ones used instead.

I also tried to get to the config files for X, aptitude says X is installed and Gnome Desktop, but I now gotta figure out how to find and change those pesky Horiz & Vert refresh rates, at least I hope that will get me further, but I HAVE accomplished more than I could imagine so far, with YOUR help.

THANK YOU AuroraZero!
I'll be messing with it and seeing what I accomplish until I find a new idea.
NK9sBoo

Glad it is running now man. Definitely a step in the right direction.

Run this command dpkg-reconfigre xserver-xorg and choose the vesa driver.

If that does not work try running /etc/init.d/kdm stop, /etc/init.d/gdm stop, /etc/init.d/xdm stop, cd /etc/X11/, Xorg -configure . This should give you a file at /etc/X11 called xorg.conf. I use vim so I would use the command vim /etc/X11/xorg.conf. That would open the file and allow for editing.

1 members found this post helpful.

Hi AuroraZero,

I was almost there doing as you say above and saw my video driver on the list r128 I believe for ATI Rage 128?
then got fatal server error
caught signal 7 (Bus error)
Server aborted

(doing this from memory since I now cannot get back in, keyboard issue is now back)

Looks like I may have to re-install again?

also: I can't get machine to shutdown using any commands from the LQ Wiki, it will show me a list of shutdown options, but won't accept any of the listed commands, so I was forced to shutdown using the power button AGAIN, do you think this is causing me to lose my keyboard support? it seemed fine the first 2 times but now won't respont at the prompt to give root password for maintenance or type Control D to continue, neither works just like before last re-install.

THANKS AGAIN FOR ALL THE HELP!
NK9sBoo

Hi AuroraZero! How's things with you man?

Overnight I did a new install using my Debian ISO CD and typing "auto url=mintppc" at the Yaboot prompt instead of "install". I just started it up, and for fear of having to use the power or reset buttons again and being a big chicken about it , I booted "Linux -b" on the first time, well THAT did NOT work, I was greeted with the same useless keyboard. At this point I figured oh whatever so I hit the reset button, let MintPPC go to runlevel 2, and: POOF screen goes black, now I know this is the xorg configuration problem and I still need to deal with that, which I may try from some of the MintPPC install instructions link to various xorg-configurations for various machines, but am so freaking nervous to mess up what I accomplished that I'm kinda waiting to hear what you have to say before I touch it .

THE GOOD NEWS:
Once Mint loaded to runlevel 2, I had this idea that I saw on one of the forums which did never work on my straight Debian installs EVER. I typed "Control-Alt-F1" and away went my black screen! I now have a prompt like this: "Linux MintPPC 9 tty1 debian login:" I am assuming I now type my root pw or root and then I'll get a Password: prompt not sure, still just staring in amazement that I am where I am!

I read up on the MintPPC version cause you suggested it, it looks like it will be exactly what I want, also the guy doing it says he has worked out many of debian's bugs within MintPPC, he does explicitly say that people will most likely need to configure X

I tried dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg, it simply went to next prompt line.

Tried cd /etc/X11/ .......I got:
debian
X11 #

typed "Xorg -configure ...... I got:
Fatal server error:
Server is already active for display 0
If this server is no longer running, remove /tmp/.XO-lock
and start again.

The MintPPC page had something about a command to get the configuration files shown as needed by specific machines, I'm just not sure if it installs it or just downloads the text or what exactly, also I can't find the same page here on my GF's MacBook, maybe I can go find it on my G5 in Firefox History, I'll try that and see if I can post the command I mentioned so you can look at it and tell me what you think. Otherwise if you already are sitting there saying to yourself "I know exactly what he needs to do now" then I'll just listen to you.

I would not have got where I am now without your help!
So I trust your ideas and try to implement them as best I can.



THANKS AGAIN AuroraZero!
I'll check back here in a while to see if you've been on and replied
NK9sBoo

Server is already active for display 0 means X is running already. You should be able to login with root and then the pass. Then type startx and it should load.

You have done the work man not me. I just threw out the ideas. You got yourself this far and it looks like you may have gotten it. You deserve as much credit if not more then I do man. I am just happy to help out and hopefully bring another into the Linux fold.

1 members found this post helpful.

Hey Thanks My Friend!

My only concern is that when Mint boots to runlevel 2 I still have a black screen, as I have not been able to open and edit the configuration files and change Horiz & Vert refresh rates, I may give it a try without worrying about that cause maybe you have already considered that possibility.

If I remove the file it says and try again, will I damage anything or will it just rebuild that on booting if it doesn't find it?

Also before I ever use the reset or power buttons again, does that damage anything if used when I can't shutdown or re-boot by command? This may not be a huge issue, not sure yet as I have not tried to re-boot or shutdown since installing Mint.

THANKS AGAIN!
NK9sBoo

The reset or power button should make the computer shutdown safely. Rename the xorg.conf file to xorg.conf.old that way you can restore it if it does not recreate it. I would try it first and see if it might be configured correctly before messing with it. It is possible since it is made for the PPC architecture already. You will lose nothing by trying it and hopefully it just works.If it does not work try xorgsetup before modifying the files. That command may configure it for you and might be easier. Still not out anything if it does not work.

Hello My friend AuroraZero,

Well, I have tried many things tonight and none seem to work, xorgsetup = command not found
I am happy to know I can safely use the power and reset buttons, THANKS! was worrying me.
tried getting to the desktop several times and screen goes black every time, I need to reset the Horiz. and Vert. refresh rates but I just can't seem to get into that file to edit it no matter what I do, if I fix one issue there will be at least one new one generated by the repair of the original issue. I'm getting a little frustrated because I have gotten great advice and I can just feel it that I am almost there to have desktop up, I just can't get quite there. I tried renaming the xorg.conf file but it didn't seem to do anything, maybe I am doing THAT wrong. I am making progress to be proud of either way. do you know how I can force all currently running Xserver to quit so it won't tell me it is already running?

THANKS AGAIN FRIEND!
NK9sBoo

Hi AuroraZero,

I now have a desktop, someone from the mintppc forum answered last night and with a combination of their new suggestion and the knowledge you so generously shared with me and all the help you gave me, I know you had to look for that stuff too and you aren't using the same system, so YOU deserve a HUGE THANK YOU! and to give yourself a pat on the back.

While tinkering this A.M. I got frustrated because I wasn't getting anywhere so I tried the command "shutdown now" it shut down to single user mode and let me do this:

Code:
wget http://mac.linux.be/files/xorg/imac5.txt
mv imac5.txt /etc/X11/xorg.conf

which I wasn't even sure had done anything, until I typed: startx after doing the above and success! SO FAR! I may be calling on you or the other good person at mintppc forum for help if something reverts and I can't get it going again, but for now all looks good

I was thinking it might be helpful to other people if I put a link in this thread to my thread at mintppc forum and vice-versa, just in case anyone else has such an unruly iMacG3 on their hands and is trying to set up linux.

Here is the link to my thread at MintPPC Forum:
http://www.mintppc.org/forums/viewto...2&p=3591#p3591

Either way MintPPC was a great suggestion, so THANK YOU AuroraZero!

I already know a few things to ask you, but I will do some searching around first before I ask, see what I find.

PLEASE KEEP IN TOUCH! I feel like I have a new friend who I have never met in person!
NK9sBoo

Awesome man glad you got it going. Hope you enjoy your new linux machine man and have fun with it.