insights get wheezy distro on iMac G4?[generally solved]

[este_el_paz]

It seems that you do have the correct (PPC) kernel for your hardware, or more than just the ethernet wouldn't work.

Yes, MintPPC makes sure that the kernel will work with PPC, and that I think is correct. My question was whether the kernel cared whether it was running a laptop or a desktop--in Mac the platform matters, at least for the GUI stuff that I know about.

The best advice I can give you is to see exactly what the system lists for components, try:

Code: Select all
lspci | grep -i ethernet

and then do a google search for that particular part.....

OK, I ran the suggested command, and I got "0002:20:Of.0 Ethernet controller: Apple computer Inc. UniNorth/Pangea GMAC (Sun GEM) (rev ff)" as the result from a TTY shell, I don't know how to copy/paste from a shell so I'm glad it was so short. But, what, pray tell, am I going to search google for that part for or what terms are you suggesting? I'm not sure what you are thinking? Find a new part? I'm in the OSX partition right now typing this post and I'm connected by the wired ethernet . . . so in OSX it's fine. If you mean use the part to search for conversations about fixing that part and Linux kernels that are appropriate for it ??? that might be useful, but as I said I think MintPPC has that one under control. It might be that the Squeeze based version of MIntPPC 9.2 which is I think Debian 6 may be what would work for the iMac, but I had that iteration on my iBook before and it isn't as interesting as the newer Wheezy based version which is 11 and it's falling behind the technological wave, etc. I'd like to try to get 11 going on the iMac or WheezyPPC, other people posting to the forum there have had some issues getting 11 going on their iMac's but then figure it out using their Linux skills and get it done . . . I just have no skills . . . with Linux, particularly . . . .

So, what is the intention of searching google with the ethernet part name??? Mongo no understand . . . .

e.e.p.

[JohnDeere630]

So, what is the intention of searching google with the ethernet part name??? Mongo no understand . . . .

e.e.p.

Sorry I was unclear. What I meant was google "getting Ethernet controller: Apple computer Inc. UniNorth/Pangea GMAC (Sun GEM) (rev ff) working on debian" or some combination like that and see if someone has posted a workaround or some such. I did not mean to imply that you had to physically replace any parts

The search string I referenced above shows several bug reports and a few possibly promising leads. Something this esoteric usually requires quite a bit of digging and scratching and trying different things, otherwise known colloquially as a "learning experience"

Good luck, and sorry I couldn't give more specific help. Oswaldkelso is the resident expert on ppc hardware at forums.debian.net, which is down at the moment. He has an account here; kelsoo, I think, but I don't "see" him here very often.

[nadir]

I am not good with internet-problems. that said:
I usually start troubleshooting with ping.
ifconfig tells me my address range and my ip.
If ifconfig doesn't give a result for eth0, i do: "ifconfig -a"
If that doesn't give a result, i remove this file:
$ ls /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules
/etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules
and reboot (the file will be created during boot).

ping localhost -> works/worksnot ?
ping 192.168.1.1 -> the router, assuming that is my routers IP. works/works not?
ping google.com -> works/works not?

Do you have got a router and a local network, so you can ping from machine from the other?
(and in the long run ssh from one to the other).
If yes, ping them too.
run: nmap -sP 192.168.1.0/24 from the one which has a working connection
(that willl show all hosts which are up on the network range of 192.168.1. (else pick the according IP).
If no, i ain't got a router: consider buying one.

If localhost works, but google.com fails, you might want to look at /etc/resolv.conf (DNS-resolution).

You said: iwconfig, several times. Why?
You can use wired internet, right? If yes, do that.

-----------------
I didn't read all posts from above.
This is not "instead of"-what has been posted, but it is what i would do, and what came to my mind.
Do what has been said, and consider this as a side note.

To me it looks as if it would not be related to the hardware being ppc.
Skip all that info, and focus on the problem "how do i connect to the internet?" or "how do i troubleshoot network-connection".
It will make a very confusing problem (always confusing, not here, but in generl), a bit less confusing.

The good news is: There are lots of people who are good with network-problems. But help them being interested by completely skipping the ppc-part.

[nadir]

. . . I just have no skills . . . with Linux, particularly . . . .

No worry, you will get them.
This is a quite difficult problem ( a) ppc and b) networking and c) troubleshooting it from the cli ) , and you are doing fine.

Let me try to find and run the Mint-iso.
And yes, kelsoo is the one who knows about ppc (i think mr-bisquit too, and i seem to recall BroTiag, lost in the universe, was into it too).
As soon i will meet him i will ask him for help for this very thread.

[JohnDeere630]

Nadir, I don't think he can ping anything. My understanding is that his wired ethernet port does work at all. I also am a bit confused about the iwconfig stuff, since the OP hasn't mentioned wireless. More relevant would be the ifconfig values.

[este_el_paz]

Nadir, I don't think he can ping anything. My understanding is that his wired ethernet port does work at all. I also am a bit confused about the iwconfig stuff, since the OP hasn't mentioned wireless. More relevant would be the ifconfig values.

Nadir/JohnDeere630:

Thanks to both of you for the follow-up, and for the troubleshooting info, I will look into that. Yes, on the "iwconfig" . . . proof that I don't do much command line work . . . that stems from what I had to do for my iBook and MBPro to get the wireless going . . . . Right, at home on the desktop I always use the wired connection. I did get a suggestion from Freenode chat on "ping google" . . . I may have posted the results on MintPPC, but it definitely was different than when I pinged on the iBook. So, indeed, the wired connection is the issue . . . only in Linux partition, and only after install is completed. I'll try to run through the various steps posted and see what comes up--looking at the "ifconfig."

Much appreciated; thanks, it may be a couple days before I post back with an update--it's tax time in America.

e.e.p.

PS: Thanks also for the "beats" post. . . that will fill my empty mind while I'm trying to ping my connection.

[este_el_paz]

Just a quick update, there's been a new development in the thread on MintPPC, where a post from "ojordan" asked me to try out a LiveDVD of Lubuntu . . . so I tried it out last night . . . so far no difference; couldn't get to a GUI desktop or passed the two color screen. But, whatever works--it looks like he or others are trying for a specifically designed kernel for desktops. I sort of wanted to continue in the Debian direction, but perhaps I'll settle for the laptops in Debian and the desktop in LUbunutu.

eep, can you test the lubuntu beta desktop/live cd for me please? Here is the link http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/lubuntu/relea ... 04/beta-1/
There are some slight differences between how debian and ubuntu set up their kernels and I think these maybe significant to you.
I think I know how to solve your mint problem very easily, but running the lubuntu desktop cd will confirm it. We're trying to get the ubuntu desktop cds to work out-of-the-box on as many computers as possible or if not possible, pin down exactly the yaboot commands you need to use.

Back on the ranch, since I was playing with the iMac, I ran the "sudo ifcongig" command and then "sudo ping google.com" in TTY and then I later compared it to the iBook (plugged in to wired connection)--didn't have nadir's suggested list in front of me of all the things to try to test out. The iMac only showed a "lo" output, whereas the iBook showed the "lo" AND an active "wlan0" . . . the iMac showed "ping: unknown host google.com" but the iBook showed line after line of the "pinging." This is from the iBook, edited to (more or less) what I wrote down from the iMac TTY but it shows the same basic data on the "lo" .

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:10 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:10 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:796 (796.0 B) TX bytes:796 (796.0 B)

[este_el_paz]

Latest update on the Debian/Linux installation on the PPC iMac . . . . So, two weeks ago I had the four hours needed to do a third installation of MintPPC11 on the iMac, and I used the "expert" installation, which was to provide more choices about what to instal, including "rescue," and "ssh" . . . and for one reason or another that resulted in an OS that only booted to kernel panics . . . . And, a poster on the Mintppc forum suggested that I post the syslogs, desmg?? and the /var/x11/0???? (from memory, I know that's not right, but that's the sketch) . . . so I needed a GUI to get that data posted, but, trying the MintPPC9 LiveDVD, the Ubuntu LiveDVD, and the Lubuntu LiveDVD did not work. The Lubuntu was closest to being able to boot into a GUI, but the colors were so blurred together that I couldn't read anything, I gave up on that. Tried to run "rescue" from one of the installers . . . figured that the system was not going to be salvageable . . . so I had a straight Debian Wheezy install waiting for a rainy day, and yesterday it was raining, so I went for it. 3 hours later I had a GUI working on the iMac, which was the first time that I had a Linux system that was read-able. Booted into IW and posted a happy message on the MintPPC forum; but as I continued using it things were not going that well. The Debian swirl was there but the colors weren't great, rough edges; mouse clicking took a number of clicks to work; it was hard to drag windows out of the way; launching the Terminal took over a minute to get a window; typing in the Terminal the letters didn't appear; GNOME 3 had announced that it couldn't launch because the system wasn't capable of supporting, so it must have been, what? GNOME2?? I like GNOME, and it was some GNOME variation, but things weren't going well. I managed to add myself to the sudoers list and I decided to try to add the xorg.conf file that had been the suggested solution to fixing the MintPPC 11 installation, the "iMac8.txt" file from "mac.linux.be" and unlike in the MintPPC where the ethernet was broken after the installation, here it worked and the file was retrieved quickly and I "mv'd" it into the X11/xorg . . . something and got a new prompt without any message of failure, so I assume that it was done properly. I rebooted, got the Yaboot prompt, picked Linux, and we booted into . . . a TTY login window . . . the GUI was gone. I tried to add, the "xserver-xorg-video-nv" not knowing too much of why there had been a GUI, rough, but sorta working, and then after adding the probably correct xorg.conf file, it was gone. On the xserver, Terminal said, "file not found," before I "wget" ed the iMac8.txt, I ran "sudo apt-get install xorg" and it came back saying, "xorg is up to date," . . . but, not knowing if that meant it wasn't needing the iMac8.txt i wget-ed it and mv-ed it anyway. Was that wrong?

Anyway, for a couple of minutes I had a semi-working Wheezy system that had a working GUI and I did a few things, but it was terribly slow, not really use-able. It sort of gave me hope that a straight Wheezy installation might be the way to go on the iMac G4 800 MHz . . . but, can't tell, if I did an "expert" install and picked "XFCE" or LXDE somehow in the choice(s) for DE, that it might resolve all the problems. I'm not sure if there is a way to "rescue" this installation, since in the "add packages" window the message said "press enter to select items" and when I did that it just went with the default choices. Figuring that the installation was going to fail as had the previous 3 and numerous Live DVD's I didn't "go back" at the end and try to add stuff like "rescue," . . . . There was a brief moment of joy to have a Debian system, and then it was gone . . . so close, and yet . . . not. Perhaps I'll try again next Sunday, maybe try "expert 32" and see what happens . . . .

e.e.p.

[este_el_paz]

Folks:

I've changed the subject line to reflect more closely that this thread is about the issues found by myself and others getting a working wheezy/debian based OS installed on my iMac G4 800 MHz . . . . I tried three times to load MintPPC11, and then switched to a straight Debian Wheezy for PPC installation as I detailed it here last week . . . and in fact that installation perhaps came the closest to being use-able, but then something got lost when I tried to add the iMac8.txt xorg file . . . after that effort what was a somewhat use-able GUI went away. In the regular installation there was an operator error and the "rescue" package did not get added, does it seem like this installation might be salvaged or start fresh, try again with expert? Any ideas appreciated . . . .

e.e.p.

[lester]]

why are you using wheeze?
have you tried squeeze ppc install disk?
a G4 is still a powerpc processor, right?

Oh yeah, you'd be better off if you leave all your osX / aqua knowledge behind an start from scratch learning Linux.
Same goes for the Windows converts.