Taking the Ubuntu plunge (PPC Mac)

Sic · 22 Feb 2007 at 12:43

after long chats with Ubuntu users at work, I've decided to run it parallel with OSX on my powerbook for a while, and if i like it, i'll make the full change to Ubuntu. I'm aware that they're not supporting PPC anymore, but by the time i need to upgrade, I'll have a new laptop anyway!

I've got a couple of questions that I'd like to ask before I install; these things are imperative to me adopting this system at all, so it makes sense to know before i go through the rigmarole!!

what's it like using the Airport and Bluetooth?

how am i going to fare using a Wacom Graphire Bluetooth tablet?

is it going to be possible to access an HFS-formatted drive/partition from my Ubuntu partition? I'm going to need to be able to read and write to HFS as all my music will be store on the OSX partition for the time-being. I really don't want to have to format anything as FAT32

thanks in advance!

dt22 · 22 Feb 2007 at 13:10

I have Ubuntu 6.10 installed on my powerbook G4 with no real issues.

Not tried the bluetooth properly to be fair but the wireless aiport card works fine. Quite a few guides on how to get it working. If I can find the one I used I'll post the link.

I believe you can read & write to HFS+ filesystem from within linux but you have to turn off journaling first. Which you would need to do anyway if you wanted to resize an existing partition.

Hope this helps.

David

Sic · 22 Feb 2007 at 14:05

ooh, you can resize an existing partition? i figured i was going to have to start over?

dt22 · 22 Feb 2007 at 15:28

You should be able to boot of the install CD and before you begin use a program called "parted" to resize the volume. Make sure you have turned off journaling on the volume in OS X first though.

I resized my main voume with no problems, I also turned on journaling again for the volume once I had installed Linux.

David

Sic · 22 Feb 2007 at 16:23

awesome, thanks for that

titchard · 22 Feb 2007 at 17:40

dt22 said:
I have Ubuntu 6.10 installed on my powerbook G4 with no real issues.

Not tried the bluetooth properly to be fair but the wireless aiport card works fine. Quite a few guides on how to get it working. If I can find the one I used I'll post the link.

I believe you can read & write to HFS+ filesystem from within linux but you have to turn off journaling first. Which you would need to do anyway if you wanted to resize an existing partition.

Hope this helps.

David

You managed to get your airport card working?! damn you! wish I had you about before I sold my iBook! I would have so kept it with Ubuntu on if I could have got that working.

I was told it was a total NO because of closed source drivers.

Rich