Help!! Problems With iMac G5 and Lubuntu 16.04 LTS

Hi, i'm new to this forum. I am new to linux as well. Here is what happened with my iMac G5 PPC:

I have a 2004-2006 iMac G5 with a PPC processor. I had it running on Mac OS X 10.5.8 for a while until it reported a fatal error saying the hard drive failed. Earlier before that i noticed the symptoms like when I left it on sleep mode, it wouldn't wake up so I had to shut it down and restart it. later I opened disk utility to make sure everything was all right. That's when it said in red letters: 'your hard drive has reported a fatal error. please back up your files as soon as possible.' And then it never booted Mac OS X again. I decided to try running Linux on it after it's hard drive got replaced. First I tried Ubuntu MATE and then I tried Xubuntu and then Lubuntu. I found out Lubuntu was the right fit for me. It seemed quite slow, though it was an old computer. Then I found out the real problem why it was slow: When I was trying out my 101 Linux distros I didn't notice that I forgot to untick the box saying to 'make a partition between operating systems.' I found out I had a lot of partitions with all my operating systems so I deleted them all and left only the ones I needed. Later after that when I shut it down one time, it wouldn't boot again. When I tried to boot it, it would ask me to press L for linux like any other time then it would say it was booting linux. Then it said 'Please wait, loading kernel…' like normal but it never loaded. It would just sit there saying that and then it's fans would rev up to full speed. That's all it would do. If anybody knows what this means or how to fix this, that would be much appreciated.

Thank you for your time!
Nikolai.

https://s05.flagcounter.com/mini/Bl8...0CCB3/flags_0/

I don't have any iMac's myself and don't have experience with Apple hardware. But from what you're saying, you did have Linux working at some point and then it just stopped working? Did you do any updates or similar when it was working? Are you saying you now just get a blank screen upon trying to boot the Linux install? Have you had any other hardware problems/failures?

I would try a "live" system and check the status of the Linux install you have on it's hard drive. This could tell you at least a couple of things;

* If the partitions and filesystem(s) for your Linux install are still there.
* If the "live" system does boot up, then it's likely that it's a software problem rather than a hardware problem.

Thanks for the help! I will try a system check. As for the updating, I got a message (before it wouldn't boot obviosly), saying there was and update available so I installed it but to be honsest, I can't actaully remebmeber what it updated from. What I do remember is that it's current version was 16.04 LTS before it died. This booting problem has happened more then once so I just reinstall the operating system but this time I have a important file that I need. I would also like to see it working again anyway because updating it took a heck of a long time.

By the way, does anybody know how to run a "live" system check?

Originally Posted by AppleToLinux By the way, does anybody know how to run a "live" system check?

it means to boot the computer from a live medium (usb stick, cd etc.), leaving the internal hard drive untouched, then running various system checks, particularly on the (now unmounted and unused) hard drive.

thanks, I will try that.

Ok, so I booted off a live disk and tried all the system checks on the internet yet, none of them worked. I really need help with this.

Thanks for your time!

Looks to me like you deleted one too many "unneeded" partitions, including one where at least part of your bootloader lived. You should be able to use the live media boot to reinstall the bootloader. Another possible fix would be to download and install rEFInd, which is what I use to multiboot my Intel iMac. Whether it works on a PowerPC Mac I don't know. I finally got rid of my PowerPC Macs two weeks ago.

If you need to reply for further help, provide us output from bootinfoscript so we can better understand the current configuration. It might tell you exactly what's missing.

Originally Posted by AppleToLinux tried all the system checks on the internet yet, none of them worked.

sorry, but i don't understand the first part (system checks on the internet?), and the second is not good enough.
"doesn't work" is never a good problem description. be precise.

Looks to me like you deleted one too many "unneeded" partitions, including one where at least part of your bootloader lived.

Agreed-

-:::-The output from bootinfoscript would be a big help and running fdisk -l with a Live Linux CD/DVD will reveal all partitions.-:::-

https://sourceforge.net/projects/bootinfoscript/
http://bootinfoscript.sourceforge.net/

****----------------------****-----------------------****-----------------------------****------------

What system checks do you mean and what do you mean by 'none of them worked'?

Running that script is easy:-

/home/zebracat/Downloads/bootinfoscript-061# ./bootinfoscript

Boot Info Script 0.61      [1 April 2012]

Identifying MBRs...
Computing Partition Table of /dev/sda...
Computing Partition Table of /dev/sdb...
Searching sda1 for information... 
Searching sda2 for information... 
Searching sdb1 for information... 
Searching sdb2 for information... 
Searching sdb3 for information... 
Searching sdb4 for information... 

Finished. The results are in the file "RESULTS.txt"

Originally Posted by mrmazda Looks to me like you deleted one too many "unneeded" partitions.

When I deleted the partitions, I mean I completely erased the disk and reinstalled the operating system. After I did that, I left the partitions untouched.

Originally Posted by AppleToLinux When I deleted the partitions, I mean I completely erased the disk and reinstalled the operating system. After I did that, I left the partitions untouched.

Your OP said the following:

I had a lot of partitions with all my operating systems so I deleted them all and left only the ones I needed.

Again: bootinfosript would help us help you.

What system checks do you mean and what do you mean by 'none of them worked'?

[/QUOTE]

They either said that the disk was not mounted or it reported an error.

Originally Posted by mrmazda Your OP said the following:Again: bootinfosript would help us help you.

What I am trying to say is that I deleted uneeded partitions, then it stoped booting so I completely reinstalled the OS and erasing the disk leaving the partitions untouched.

Sorry if I created a bit of confusion, as I got a little confused myself.

Originally Posted by AppleToLinux ...erasing the disk

and

leaving the partitions untouched.

are incompatible descriptions."erasing the disk" to any experienced user means erasing the whole disk, which includes the partition tables, and thus the partitions, losing everything they contained.

Bootinfoscript would give us a detailed picture of the current disk state so that we can recommend next steps.