Ubuntu on e-mac!!

Installing a linux version in a e-mac is a easy process if the right method is known ;). Let me describe about e-mac first. E-mac is a version of apple computers. It is basically used for education purpose. So its termed as e-mac(education mac). E-mac has a power pc processor, so normal versions of linux wont work in e-mac,cos the normal versions of linux work only on an intel processor. So u need to get a linux version for power pc processor.

This was a task given to me n my friend in my college. We had to install a version of linux in this e-mac and v had to make it as dual boot with the existing Tiger OS X. We found out an ubuntu 5.04 version for power pc. Luckily a copy of tat OS was available in my college. So we grabbed it n booted it("C" key should be pressed to boot from a CD-ROM). There were only 2 partitions in tat e-mac. As it was a test system, we took the risk n selected a partition randomly n started installing in tat partition. Unfortunately it was the partition in which Tiger OS X was present :(. Due to lots of scratches in the cd the installation hanged at 16%, showing tat "Retrieving zlib1g". So we had to switch off the power n turn on the e-mac again. We were shocked to see tat e-mac had no OS. Tiger was crashed. But tat was not the end. We were encouraged to start again.

We got an another copy of Ubuntu 5.04 for power pc n proceeded. This time we did it successfully. We allocated 10GB for linux in the entire 40GB hard disk. No change in the procdure of installing linix. It is same as installing it on a intel machine. Atlast the installation was over n we were able to boot Ubuntu successfully :). Here comes the twist. The GUI didn't work. So we googled n found a solution for this bug which i'll share it here. Here's the solution for it.

• Press Alt-Ctrl-F1 to start a console session.
• Run the command wget http://homepage.univie.ac.at/georg.koe./XF86Config-4.emac700nvidia.working
• Try the above command if u have a working internet connection.
• Or else follow this: Open the file Xorg.conf in vim editor and modify under the section monitor as follows.
• Section "Monitor"

   Identifier "monitor1"
  

•  VendorName "Apple"
  

• ModelName "HiRes Display 1152x864"
  

• HorizSync 30.0-112.0
  

• VertRefresh 50.0-160.0
  

• #emac
  

• ModeLine "800x600" 112 800 816 824 840 600 616 624 640 -hsync -vsync

• ModeLine "1152x864" 100 1152 1173 1269 1440 768 769 772 800 +vsync +vsync
  

• ModeLine "1024x768" 100 1024 1108 1280 1408 768 768 780 796 +hsync +vsync
  

• ModeLine "1280x960" 100 1280 1288 1392 1664 1024 1027 1030 1064  

• EndSection
• Under the section screen change the monitor name as "monitor 1"

Finally we did it. The GUI worked!!. It was a "Grand Success";). Few drawbacks r there with apple keyboard n mouse. The right click didnt work. Instead F12 was used as the right click. Then the eject key present in the keyboard didn't work.

The next part was to install tiger OS X with ubuntu as a dual boot. So we booted the Tiger OS cd n started the installation. Unfortunately Tiger OS didn't detect Ubuntu n so it fomatted all the partitions. Tiger got installed smoothly, we didn't have any problem in installing Tiger OS X. After it got over we installed ubuntu again n followed the above procedure n atlast we did it. We created a dual boot n we escaped too ;)!!!.