Installing linux / ubuntu on old iBook G4

[tenst...@me.com]

Right I know nothing about how to do this, but, I have got an old iBook G4 and wonder if I can put Ubuntu on it. Or put a new hard drive in it and put Ubuntu on it.

Using Inkscape on my current laptop is kind of much harder than it ought to be, so thought it would be good to try converting the old iBook and put Inkscape on that.

Does anyone know if this is possible/ a good idea? 

Thx

Harriet

[J C]

Dont oniw about good idea but if you want a linux install with embroidermodder already installed i can leand you the druve with it ready to go.

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[tenst...@me.com]

Thx Joe

[Tom Hargreaves]

On Sun, Jan 15, 2017 at 06:31:04AM -0800, tenst...@me.com wrote:
> Right I know nothing about how to do this, but, I have got an old iBook G4
> and wonder if I can put Ubuntu on it. Or put a new hard drive in it and put
> Ubuntu on it.

[...]

> Does anyone know if this is possible/ a good idea?

Terrible idea. Or rather: terrible idea if you're doing this for any
other reason than for the enjoyment of trying to install linux on
exotic hardware. If you just want a usable laptop, ebay it and buy
almost anything more recent. Me, I think it's an awesome idea.

See, your machine predates Apple's transition from PowerPC to Intel
CPUs circa 2006. Since Apple was the last major manufacturer of
PowerPC machines, software support has been slowly dwindling ever
since. Example: Ubuntu has not officially supported PowerPC since
2007. See, e.g.
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PowerPCFAQ#Is_Ubuntu_supported_on_PowerPC.3F

Other linux distros such as debian do still consider PowerPC a
first-class citizen. And since ubuntu is a debian derivative, this
offers some cause for hope.

I admit I am curious as to how well linux could be made to run on an
iBook. But it's unquestionably going to require more mucking
about than if you were to run it on a PC, which your G4 is not.

You should bring it down to the space, see how far we get with it!

Tom.

[tenst...@me.com]

I'll definitely bring it down on Tuesday :)

I'd like to know more about how stuff like this works and I guess finding out what the issues are with the old iBook will contribute to that!

Having skimmed through that link article, I see it might be problematic that it is only 800 MHz, but maybe one of the ubuntu derivatives would work - what do I know though!

Harriet

[Tom Hargreaves]

From that and wikipedia I surmise that it's the 12" 2003 model
(A1054). Yes, something more lightweight than vanilla ubuntu sounds
like a good idea. I like xbuntu myself.

More of a problem than the CPU speed is the RAM. It'll need maxing
out if it hasn't been already. With any luck there'll be something of
use in the big box o' memory.

You mentioned replacing (or adding another, I'm not clear) the hard
drive. I don't know if the idea is to replace OS X or have linux
installed as well, but they should coexist on the same drive. Given
that I know nothing about the Mac boot process though, it might be
simpler to go for a linux-only install for starters (nothing
preventing taking a backup of the entire drive and revisiting this
decision later, of course).

Should you want to replace the (slow, whirry, fragile) drive for other
reasons than having one operating system per drive you might want to
get an IDE-to-CompactFlash (or SD card) adapter:
http://lowendmac.com/2015/the-lowdown-on-using-compactflash-to-replace-an-ide-hard-drive/

Does it have wifi? Wikipedia sez it's "optional".

Tom.

[tenst...@me.com]

Thanks for all of this. 

I don't need anything that's on the drive so linux-only is cool.

It says it has 640 MB DDR SDRAM and it does have wifi.

Woah that's a lot of info in that link, but it is an appealing idea to replace the drive. I looked at the Firewire info and it has 400Mb/sec which I think is positive. Anyway, speak further on Tuesday :)

Harriet