Newbie on powebook g4

Bloosey

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Have a powerbook g4 that came with ubuntu 12.4 installed. Foolishly i updated to 16.4 and have not been able to run th unity gui or any other.
I have spent about two weeks researching which has been very educational and have tried many things non of which have worked. I think the problem is something to do with DISPLAY . I have learned about open firmware but cant get the machine to boot from cd or usb even though i have followed a number of tutorials.
Currently I have access to 16.04 command line so can learn a lot but i would still like a gui.

Can anyone help as to where i can start...restart.
 


When i try to update to 18.04 it tells me it cant find ubuntu minimal and reverts to 16.04 . Any ideas?
 
do you just get a commandline?
On startup it gous to kununtu i then get the loginn screen which frezzes. I can use ctr alt f3 to get to the terminal if i do it before the startup appears.
 
G'day @Bloosey and welcome to linux.org :)

Seems you have got yourself in a bit of a pickle?

Foolishly i updated to 16.4 and...

Not so foolish, End of Life for 12.04LTS 'Precise Pangolin' was April last year, so you needed to move on.

What means are you using to communicate with us? Mac or Windows?

I have not worked with Apple rigs so I am in a bit over my head, but what is the RAM on that rig? I read 512MB somewhere.

Do you have access to USB sticks or DVDs for downloading and burning an .iso, perhaps of another Linux?

On startup it gous to kununtu

Is that Kubuntu ? Tell us a bit more about that. Do you get a Grub Menu and what does/did it have on it?

One of us will get you sorted, I expect:)

Chris Turner
wizardfromoz
 
Once when trying to start 16.04 gui i got a scrren askking me to update video display but not any more can you ppoint me to instuction oon how to do that from command line.
 
I am communicating on an android samsung s3. When i boot i get yaboot which gives me the option of booting from the kernal or the cd rom. I have the ubuntu alternative on dvd and also usb but have not been able to boot from either. I also have a disk with slacko. I need some more help understanding how to access grub. Quite happy to reinstall if i can get the powerbook g4 to boot from a disk or usb flash drive. Can you help with this please.
 
Yes a blue screen with kubuntu written shows but then the login screen freezes up.
 
Sudo update-grub yeild an error does this mean grub is not working
 
Sudo update-grub yeild an error does this mean grub is not working

That is likely because you are not in what we usually regard as a full Terminal (console) with access to a wide range of commands.

The process you are in is called "tty", where tty is an abbreviation for teletype or teletypewriter, which you and I are old enough to have known of.

Commands available to you are limited to what you find when you type help and see what is listed.

Can you tell us if at the top of screen it says eg tty1, tty2, or whatever?

This is likely beyond my paygrade, sadly :(

I had to Google yaboot to see that it was involved with PowerPC's.

I'll give it some thought, and hope that The Cavalry will come riding in and help :)

Cheers

Wizard

Edited - added BTW

BTW that is why sudo update-grub will not work, it will not be in that list of commands available under tty.
 
Thanks for that. The tty T the top is tty 1. Is bash the fuller console you are talking about. If not how do i access a fuller console. Sorry to be a pest but i am trying to understand. By the way from tty1 I cn run and use python
 
Also when i start up it tells me it is missing B43legacy......if that throws any light. I am relatively well versed in windows command line...old dos..but unix is still a mystery.
 
Is bash the fuller console you are talking about.

Yes, it is, it is typically accessed through a window with black background and white text, not unlike the old MS-DOS Terminals you and I might have cut our teeth on. Even has some similar commands, due to the Unix history. I do not know how to access it from tty, even if that can be done.

I had to Google up "yaboot" and for the benefit of The Viewers and possible helpers:

https://www.debian.org/ports/powerpc/inst/yaboot-howto/ch9.en.html - but there may be better articles, this was just from a search under "yaboot mac" :)

I would be inclined to try the
Quite happy to reinstall if i can get the powerbook g4 to boot from a disk or usb flash drive
... approach.

B43Legacy is the Broadcom 43xx wireless driver/s.

If you can get Kubuntu installed (do you have Ethernet?), you could download it from https://pkgs.org/download/firmware-b43legacy-installer as a .deb package, and then we could find a way to install it.

Sorry to be a pest but i am trying to understand.

Not at all, these are reasonable questions, and I wish I could help you better.

If using a USB stick to burn the .iso to, there is a good product, Etcher, which can be found here under new owners Balena - https://www.balena.io/etcher/ and it is cross-platform including Mac.

Cheers

Wizard

Edited - added BTW

BTW, Lubuntu might be a better bet than Kubuntu because it has lower memory requirements.
 

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