Ubuntu livecd does not install on old PPC iMacs correctly

[Joakim Larsson]

Installing from any 6.06 Dapper Drake based livecd on an 400 MHz PPC iMac with 128 Mb of RAM I have encountered the following problems with xorg.conf:

- Monitor section does not define values good for internal CRT monitor leaving a black screen entering X. Here is a working Monitor section:

Section "Monitor"
        Identifier "iMacDVMonitor"
        HorizSync 60-60
        VertRefresh 60-75
        Modeline "1024x768" 78.740 1024 1056 1152 1312 768 769 772 800 +HSync +VSync
EndSection

- Option UseFBDev "true" does not work from livecd due to SIGSEGV reported as https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-video-ati/+bug/63072

I also had this problem with the installer:

- Lowmemory freeze because livecd installer turns off the swap. I did 'cp /bin/true /sbin/swapoff on the ramdisk as a workaround.

I think a new livecd is needed to save more of these old iMacs from the recycle bin. Please do! I now finally have Xubuntu on my loved 400 MHz grape iMac, It's alive!

[Vassilis Pandis (pandisv)]

Please file the installer issue as a separate bug. Thanks for reporting this.

[Joakim Larsson (joakim-bildrulle)]

The swap problem is identified as bug #40788 which is already reported.

[Clive Darra (osde8info)]

see https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/86066