I have a Mac G4 400 Mhz with a flat panel display connected by DVI.
I tried booting with the ubuntu live CD, but when it was at the end of the boot up ( I assume when it was launching gnome), the screen just went black. Is there a way to get a it to work, or live CD that works with my hardware? I don't have the space to do an install.

Hardware Overview:

Machine Name: Power Mac G4 (AGP graphics)
Machine Model: PowerMac3,1
CPU Type: PowerPC G4 (2.9)
Number Of CPUs: 1
CPU Speed: 400 MHz
L2 Cache (per CPU): 1 MB
Memory: 1.12 GB
Bus Speed: 100 MHz
Boot ROM Version: 4.2.8f1

Graphics
ATY,Rage128Pro:
Chipset Model: ATY,Rage128Pro
Type: Display
Bus: AGP
Slot: SLOT-A
VRAM (Total): 16 MB
Vendor: ATI (0x1002)
Device ID: 0x5046
Revision ID: 0x0000
ROM Revision: 113-63001-110
Displays:
FCT1904Z2:
Resolution: 1280 x 1024
Port: DVI
Depth: 32-bit Color
Built-In: Yes
Core Image: Not Supported
Main Display: Yes
Mirror: Off
Online: Yes
Quartz Extreme: Not Supported


CD Burner:
QPS CD-R PX-W8432T:

Firmware Revision: 1.07
Interconnect: ATAPI
Burn Support: Yes (Apple Supported)
Cache: 2048 KB
Reads DVD: No
CD-Write: -R, -RW
Burn Underrun Protection CD: No
Write Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO
Media: No


*Administrators: If this is the wrong forum, for this question, please move it to the right forum.

See this bug: 160434.

That bug is for a powerbook with a very different graphics card. Also how do you edit the config on a liveCD?

Your machine and the Powerbook both use the ATI Rage 128 driver. In both cases, I believe the framebuffer is not being configured correctly.

The liveCDs usually create their environment in RAM, allowing you to edit the files as needed (all changes will revert at the next boot). Some allow you to save your changes to another media (USB flash, floppy, or HD). Check the documentation for the liveCD you are using to determine if that is supported.

Ok how do I edit the environment in RAM if I'm getting a black screen? Ctrl-alt-F1 isn't giving me a command line.

Someone in another forum said that they had the same machine and video card as me but connected to a CRT using VGA and it worked, but when they tried to use their LCD monitor didn't. So the card works with the LiveCD. It seems the problem is with either using DVI or with using the Planar FCT1904Z2 LCD monitor.

Check the list of boot parameters for the liveCD. You may either be able to pass keywords for configuration of the framebuffer and resolution, or boot into single user mode. If you can boot to single user mode, you can edit the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file, and then start multi-user graphical mode with (usually) 'telinit 5'.

Ok now your getting way over my head. Can you give it to me step by step for ubuntu?