PPC Ubuntu Linux first impressions

[Jon Cortelyou]

I have an 600 MHz iBook 'dual USB' with 256 MB of memory and a DVD-ROM
drive.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=43091


Ok, Ubuntu installed off the CD created via the v4.10 RC .iso image. It also
updated itself via the Internet as part of the second phase of the install
without a problem.

It booted first try to a very clean looking Gnome GUI again without a
problem. Mozilla Firefox v0.92 worked like a charm. Various other standard
Linux utils worked fine as well.

Problems:
I did find was that video DVDs would not play at all with their DVD player
Totem. Neither would audio CDs with any of the audio playing programs that
were installed. However the CD player did detect the CD and the displayed
the correct album title song list for the CD.

I ripped a few songs off of a Pearl Jam CD and it took an almost an hour to
rip one song to .ogg format. Oddly when it was ripping the CPU utilization
was only 20%. Maybe the CD-ROM IDE I/O is misconfigured or unoptimized?
That's a guess. I played the newly ripped .ogg Pearl Jam song and it played
but very, very choppy over the iBook's speakers. Again CPU utilization was
about 10%.

I also noticed that it detected my Airport card in the iBook during the
install process but once it fully booted up the Airport did not appear in
the network devices list. However, I didn't try fiddling with the airport
card since I do not have wireless Internet access at home to test it with.
All in all though I'm impress with such a good effort for a PPC build of
Linux! A hearty pat on the back to the devs out there making Ubuntu a
reality!

[Michel Klijmij]

On Wed, 20 Oct 2004 06:48:21 +0000, "Jon Cortelyou"
<***@notsxpamno.hotmail.com> wrote in
<VSndd.8093$***@newssvr14.news.prodigy.com>:

[snip 'what went right']

Post by Jon Cortelyou
I did find was that video DVDs would not play at all with their DVD player
Totem. Neither would audio CDs with any of the audio playing programs that
were installed. However the CD player did detect the CD and the displayed
the correct album title song list for the CD.

IIRC this is a known issue. Have a look at the ubuntu-users mailinglist
(also accesible and searchable through Gmane.org). For DVDs you probably
need to install a few libraries that are in the universe or multiverse
repositories (unsupported but all packages working OK so far on my iMac).

Post by Jon Cortelyou
I ripped a few songs off of a Pearl Jam CD and it took an almost an hour
to rip one song to .ogg format. Oddly when it was ripping the CPU
utilization was only 20%. Maybe the CD-ROM IDE I/O is misconfigured or
unoptimized? That's a guess. I played the newly ripped .ogg Pearl Jam
song and it played but very, very choppy over the iBook's speakers.
Again CPU utilization was about 10%.

I'd look at http://bugzilla.ubuntu.com/ to see if this is a know bug, and
if it isn't, report it.

Post by Jon Cortelyou
I also noticed that it detected my Airport card in the iBook during the
install process but once it fully booted up the Airport did not appear
in the network devices list. However, I didn't try fiddling with the
airport card since I do not have wireless Internet access at home to
test it with.

Don't know about that, all I know is that Airport cards are supported in
Linux but Airport Extreme isn't.

Post by Jon Cortelyou
All in all though I'm impress with such a good effort for
a PPC build of Linux! A hearty pat on the back to the devs out there
making Ubuntu a reality!

My opinion as well. So far, the guys from Canonical have been putting a
lot of effort in this new distribution, and it is getting picked up by a
lot of users. Personally, I like this distribution because you get the
immense choice of packages from Debian without any of the traditional
difficulties of Debian. Combined with the accesability of the developers,
this seems like a distribution with a great future and one that I can
personally recommend for PPC users, even newbies after all the bugs are
taken out and the final release is coming out.

[cutterjohn]

Post by Jon Cortelyou
I have an 600 MHz iBook 'dual USB' with 256 MB of memory and a DVD-ROM
drive.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=43091
Ok, Ubuntu installed off the CD created via the v4.10 RC .iso image. It
also updated itself via the Internet as part of the second phase of the
install without a problem.
It booted first try to a very clean looking Gnome GUI again without a
problem. Mozilla Firefox v0.92 worked like a charm. Various other
standard Linux utils worked fine as well.
I did find was that video DVDs would not play at all with their DVD player
Totem. Neither would audio CDs with any of the audio playing programs that
were installed. However the CD player did detect the CD and the displayed
the correct album title song list for the CD.

IF you get DVDs running let us know how sound is... I never managed to
get sound out properly on an ibook G3/500 & YDL 3.0.1(or 2.3) even
rebuilding xine myself, and trying others suggestions with mplayer, ogle,
or vlc.

Post by Jon Cortelyou
I also noticed that it detected my Airport card in the iBook during the
install process but once it fully booted up the Airport did not appear in
the network devices list. However, I didn't try fiddling with the airport
card since I do not have wireless Internet access at home to test it with.
All in all though I'm impress with such a good effort for a PPC build of
Linux! A hearty pat on the back to the devs out there making Ubuntu a
reality!

Even with YDL, I had to manually configure airport, even though it was
detected as with ubuntu. As a side note, I do not run DHCP, so it was
just a matter of setting up a static address in my case, but it does work.

[Jon Cortelyou]

Yes thanks for the reply.

"Even with YDL, I had to manually configure airport, even though it was
detected as with Ubuntu. As a side note, I do not run DHCP, so it was
just a matter of setting up a static address in my case, but it does work."

I do see the modules (airport, orinoco, hermes) loaded when I type: lsmod
So it appears to be a matter of configuring the card correctly.

When you go to your network settings config panel, does it call the airport
card by name?
In mine, I can only add "Wireless Lan Card". Since I don't have a wireless
hub/router I can't say for sure the card is being added correctly.

Post by cutterjohn

Post by Jon Cortelyou
I have an 600 MHz iBook 'dual USB' with 256 MB of memory and a DVD-ROM
drive.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=43091
Ok, Ubuntu installed off the CD created via the v4.10 RC .iso image. It
also updated itself via the Internet as part of the second phase of the
install without a problem.
It booted first try to a very clean looking Gnome GUI again without a
problem. Mozilla Firefox v0.92 worked like a charm. Various other
standard Linux utils worked fine as well.
I did find was that video DVDs would not play at all with their DVD player
Totem. Neither would audio CDs with any of the audio playing programs that
were installed. However the CD player did detect the CD and the displayed
the correct album title song list for the CD.

IF you get DVDs running let us know how sound is... I never managed to
get sound out properly on an ibook G3/500 & YDL 3.0.1(or 2.3) even
rebuilding xine myself, and trying others suggestions with mplayer, ogle,
or vlc.

Post by Jon Cortelyou
I also noticed that it detected my Airport card in the iBook during the
install process but once it fully booted up the Airport did not appear in
the network devices list. However, I didn't try fiddling with the airport
card since I do not have wireless Internet access at home to test it with.
All in all though I'm impress with such a good effort for a PPC build of
Linux! A hearty pat on the back to the devs out there making Ubuntu a
reality!

Even with YDL, I had to manually configure airport, even though it was
detected as with ubuntu. As a side note, I do not run DHCP, so it was
just a matter of setting up a static address in my case, but it does work.