Revive a G4 PowerPC iBook?

intok · 06-06-2014, 01:44 PM

Hi, I've got an old 1.33Ghz iBook w/ 1.5Gb of DDR and a 32mb Radeon Mobility 9550 http://apple-history.com/ibook_g4_mid_05 What would be the best candidate for a Linux distro that still supports PPC? Debian? Will the R300 drivers even work for the GPU? What about the AirportExpress wireless and Bluetooth?

Keith Hedger · 06-06-2014, 06:52 PM

used to have a powerbook debian worked well on it

ondoho · 06-07-2014, 11:08 AM

yes!

i don't know about apple laptops, but generally i'd say a machine that age should run all distros in distrowatch.com -> old computers category.
i recommend crunchbang, antiX and slitaz.

i'm pretty sure most old radeon cards are linux supported.

of course you can also install a barebones debian and build a lightweight desktop on that.

DavidMcCann · 06-07-2014, 11:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ondoho

i recommend crunchbang, antiX and slitaz.

None of which have a PPC version!

Yellow Dog are the PPC specialists and their website specifically mentions the G4 iBook. You can also use Debian or Lubuntu.

Keith Hedger · 06-07-2014, 12:32 PM

I tried a couple of times to get yellow dog working and always ended up with screwed up graphics on the power book, but it has been a few years since then.

ondoho · 06-08-2014, 11:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DavidMcCann

None of which have a PPC version!
Yellow Dog are the PPC specialists and their website specifically mentions the G4 iBook. You can also use Debian or Lubuntu.

oops, i stand corrected.
i just generally wanted to encourage op to not give up on a beautifully matured piece of hardware.
in my opinion 10y is not too old.
didn't realise ppc is a seperate cpu architecture.

DavidMcCann · 06-08-2014, 11:55 AM

I agree about old computers. This desktop I built at the beginning of 2005: it's just had a new power supply and CMOS battery, but it's fine. My laptop is a genuine IBM Thinkpad that's even older.

Soadyheid · 06-16-2014, 08:39 AM

Check out Gentoo, it covers most processor architectures; x86, PPC, Sparc, Alpha, Mips, ARM, etc.
Not the easiest but you'll learn more about Linux installing it, check the handbook(s) here. The documentation is very good.

Play Bonny!

rokytnji · 06-16-2014, 08:59 AM

Quote:

Mac (PowerPC) and IBM-PPC (POWER5) desktop image
For Apple Macintosh G3, G4, and G5 computers, including iBooks and PowerBooks as well as IBM OpenPower machines.

Well, Whaddya KNOW? I am kinda shocked.

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/lubuntu/re...14.04/release/

With the low ram and cpu specs. I'd go with xfce or lxde or fluxbox or icewm. Me. I'd use the minimal install iso like I used on my Acer Aspire Desktop tower with a Icewm 14.04LTS install.

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/lubuntu/re...op-powerpc.iso

The above link will download the Lubuntu 14.04 iso which takes no special tweaks like I did with the minimal
iso. The rest is up to you.

Post back if this works OOTB for you as other users may benefit from your success.

applemac_g4 · 12-04-2015, 12:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by intok

Hi, I've got an old 1.33Ghz iBook w/ 1.5Gb of DDR and a 32mb Radeon Mobility 9550 http://apple-history.com/ibook_g4_mid_05 What would be the best candidate for a Linux distro that still supports PPC? Debian? Will the R300 drivers even work for the GPU? What about the AirportExpress wireless and Bluetooth?

I'm using a very similar iBook as my daily driver with Debian.

Works just fine. I'd recommend LXDE or Gnome Classic. The up to date version of GNOME, KDE, even the latest XCFE are just too demanding and will result in substantial lag.

Soadyheid · 12-04-2015, 04:33 PM

MMmmm... This post is a year and a half old. Does it really need to be resurrected?

Play Bonny!