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TC10284 · May 27, 2007, 07:21 PM

Hey all,

I am new to these forums. First off, I'd like to say that yes, I am a hardcore PC guru, but I got some PowerBook G3's and some older laptops at a school auction and I'd LOVE to learn more about Mac's for personal reason and possibly for work reasons. So I hope you will give me a chance. Personally I have no bias. I'm the same way with Intel/AMD and ATI/Nvidia.

Anyway, The PB G3's are in good condition. I have two G3's and only one floppy/battery/CD-ROM drive/power adapter for both. Both have around 2GB HD's.
Both laptop HDs have been wiped clean with a data destruction program. Therefore, MacOS is not installed and I don't have a MacOS CD for the systems. I have been researching how to install a distro of Linux on to the G3's. All the guides I see say to press and hold C while the system powers on after hearing the Apple sound. I have the Linux CD in the CD drive and I hear the drive spin up but never see it read. I have tried this on both, but the only thing I can get is a flashing question mark in a floppy disk. I have tried Ubuntu 7.04 and Yellow Dog Linux 5.01, both for PowerPC arch.

Can anyone give me any assistance?

Don Pickett · May 27, 2007, 09:38 PM

You might want to try one of the Ubuntu Alternative Install CDs, which sometimes work better with older hardware. You might want to check the forums at Ubuntu.com, which will obviously be more Linux specific.

TC10284 · May 28, 2007, 12:31 AM

Well, I'm mainly having trouble getting the system to boot from the CD. If I can get that, I can go from there. But right now I need help doing that, if you have any suggestions.

tavin64 · May 28, 2007, 05:14 AM

You using the Ubuntu Egdy PPC cd? Because for Feisty Canonical has stopped PPC support.

TC10284 · May 28, 2007, 08:58 AM

ubuntu-7.04-desktop-powerpc.iso

The other distros I'm trying are for the PowerPC arch also.

tavin64 · May 28, 2007, 05:34 PM

Originally Posted by TC10284

ubuntu-7.04-desktop-powerpc.iso

The other distros I'm trying are for the PowerPC arch also.

If I were you I would go with Debian 4.0 PPC for your G3. Use the net-install cd and install base, desktop, and laptop packages in the installer. Debian offers better support for PPC than Ubuntu.

TC10284 · May 29, 2007, 08:45 AM

Originally Posted by tavin64

If I were you I would go with Debian 4.0 PPC for your G3. Use the net-install cd and install base, desktop, and laptop packages in the installer. Debian offers better support for PPC than Ubuntu.

Well I appreciate the suggestions, but I am still having trouble getting the system to boot from CD. I have to get it to do this before I can try any distro. I've tried holding C and ctrl-opt-shift-del but no luck =(

What else am I missing?

besson3c · May 29, 2007, 09:36 AM

Perhaps the machines have their firmware configured to not allow CD boot as a remaining vestige of being used in a classroom?

If so, this, of course, can be changed...

alphasubzero949 · Jun 9, 2007, 12:46 AM

Originally Posted by tavin64

You using the Ubuntu Egdy PPC cd? Because for Feisty Canonical has stopped PPC support.

Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn)

besson3c · Jun 9, 2007, 02:11 AM

PPC support in Ubuntu has been moved to Community support, but it is still very much there.

dn15 · Jun 10, 2007, 06:24 PM

Do you have a Mac OS disc around? It would be worth trying to verify the optical drive will boot something.

dynamic_compga · Dec 20, 2007, 09:49 PM

I was in the same boat. Picked up an iMac G3 at a school liquidation. I had OS8.5 installed and no other software, so I was looking to put Linux on the machine. Problem was, it only had 64MB of RAM. There was a slot to add an additional chip so I put in a 256 MB PC100 SODIMM. Then I could install Yellow Dog Linux 4.1. I'm still trying with other distros so I can get flash and java installed easier that the Fedora based YDL lets you. Besides that, it is running very well.