Last night I setup Lubuntu 12.04 on my Stormtrooper (B&W G3 w/G4 500 MHz, 1 GB RAM) and it runs beautifully. With OS X my 400 MHz Sawtooth is normally a bit faster than this machine even with a 100 MHz faster CPU because of the faster memory controller in the Sawtooth. This is not the case with Lubuntu at all, which would be due to how lightweight LXDE is. OS X has such a beefy GUI in comparison so increased memory speed will really show a difference with it because of that.
Another item worthy of note is that of the 5 video cards I have used in all my testing Lubuntu likes a Radeon 7000 PCI the best. In my 400 MHz Sawtooth I have tried AGP Radeon 7500, 9000, 9800 and a Geforce 6200. None of them work quite as well as the 7000 PCI and this must be due to it finding an R100 specific Radeon driver vs. the generic ones all the other cards are assigned. The Geforce 6200 only works when it wants to which is not often. Linux on all architectures has a history of being sketchy with Nvidia GPU.
I have tried every version of Linux available for PowerPC and Lubuntu is my favourite by far. I would put Debian Squeeze and Mint about tied for second. Just a couple days ago I was running Squeeze on the Stormtrooper and within 30 hours I decided I wanted Lubuntu instead. It’s all about preference and since Dan at PPC Luddite already focuses mostly on Debian and Mint it would only make sense for me to cover other distros so as not to be redundant. I will do my best to be a voice for PowerPC Lubuntu.
In terms of the Ubuntu family only Lubuntu gets my personal approval. I have tried every single one and while they are all complete enough to be usable, only Lubuntu is lightweight enough to match and even surpass Debian performance. Some people think that installing LXDE in Ubuntu will produce the same OS which is not the case at all. The lightweight ideology of Lubuntu goes much deeper than the GUI. Lubuntu has the balance that any good OS needs which is great performance combined with full capability. Anything you need that isn’t built in can easily be found and installed in Synaptic.
Install guide coming soon
I have now done approx. 8-9 Lubuntu installs on three machines so I have become quite fluent at it. In the next few days I will post a full Lubuntu install guide since I have had a lot of emails and a few comments asking for help. I will take you from downloading and burning the iso right through to having it fully setup for use.
Thanks for this post, I'm looking forward to your install guide as well. I had Mint PPC on my sawtooth before it's hd went, and haven't installed anything since. I will be following your guide for Lubuntu so I can get it right the first time. Also, I saw your avatar and laughed a bit because sitting right next to me, I have the same thing going but backwards, the old pro keyboard with white keys for the letters and numbers only :-D
ReplyDeleteIf you have time and or inclination a youtube vid of Lubuntu performance on the stormtrooper or any other of your G4's would be very much appreciated by all in the PPC community. I think you have hit the proverbial nail on the head, that while we may be able to use our mac os x installs for a long time to come, if we want to be current and safe on the web, Linux PPC is our only real hope.
ReplyDeleteEagerly await your install guide, I tried a few times with this ol ibook and couldn't install Lubuntu 12.04.
Ubuntu (and Lubuntu) already carry comprehesive documentation in these wiki pages:
ReplyDeletehttps://wiki.ubuntu.com/PowerPCFAQ
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PowerPCKnownIssues
You should be able to use whatever hardware you already have, there is no need to swap graphics cards. If people struggle, it is nearly always because they haven't read the documentation. Yes it may appear intimidating at first, but after countless revisions it has been idiot proofed by now.
Anybody is free to make revisions to the documentation, so if you think something is still lacking then I would urge you to edit the official documentation, rather than creating your own.
You obviously didn't notice that I link to the main Ubuntu PowerPC page which contains both the pages you just shared. I have had that link on this blog since it started in Aug. and people still ask for help all the time so clearly your documentation isn't clear enough for them.
DeleteI personally have read all that documentation and there were still several things I had to figure out for myself.
Since I am someone who has actually installed Lubuntu successfully several times there are people who want my version of the best way to install.
That documentation simply isn't through enough and I have had several readers ask for a guide that comes from my methods and perspectives.
You're going about things as if your post will cover all the info people need. It doesn't. The official documentation doesn't and until it does people will need practical help from a real person rather that documentation which can often be theory as much as fact.
You're not much of a bigger picture type I guess huh?
Zen since you have tried linux mint, how is the performance of cinnamon compared to lxde?
ReplyDeleteI absolutely love cinnamon, maybe because I used gnome 2.X a lot in the past, and like some of the feature of gnome 3.X but not its looks.
Some days ago I saw a friend of mine with a 700MHz G3 Ibook running Ubunut, and it was not bad at all..at least for a g3!
Keep on going!
The Mint I used came with LXDE as the default like Lubuntu. I simply prefer the Lubuntu package as a whole because it's so similar to what my preferences are. After a fresh install I can have everything just the way I want within 30-45 min. This includes installing all updates and apps I need that are not included.
DeleteThats why I always talk about preference with Linux which is why so many distros exist in the first place. Everyone has a favourite ditro and often for different reasons.
In terms of performance Lubuntu is a bit better in my experiences. The great thing for me is that it has two very complimentary window managers in LXDE and Openbox. It's built around lightweight but capable performance all round. With 12.04 I can play video in VLC 2.03 with about 25-30% less CPU use compared to VLC 0.9.1/1.1.12 in Tiger/Leopard.
One thing I will say (this is only based on things I have read) is that Debian tends to perform better on G3's than Lubuntu. I no longer have any G3 chips to try this for myself. The Ubuntu family all have pretty good Altivec support but I have heard mixed results over the years with G3. Your friend should try Lubuntu, Debian and Mint also to see which one performs best.
I have used GNOME with BSD since around 2002 and I do love it but I have grown to love LXDE more. It's capable while still proving to be the most lightweight desktop environment. Even faster and lighter than Xfce.
Puppy Linux is one I really want to run again but there is no PowerPC version other than a beta that was abandoned ages ago. I want to get a used x86 box to run it again and even look into what it would really take to develop a PowerPC version. I have some development skills so I want to see how far I could take them on that.
Looking forward to your install guide coming soon. I haven't tried Lubuntu but last year tried running Ubuntu (ver. 10 and 11) on a 1ghz G4 iMac. It was incredibly slow. I had really wanted for it to work. I had version 9 on it before which was pretty snappy but would not work well with multitasking so I ended up reverting back to OS X.
ReplyDeletepls post your guide to Lubuntu install on ibook g4 ... thanks!
ReplyDeleteI recently ran an install of Lubuntu 12.10 onto an iMac G3, and the only issue was the need for an xorg.conf to be present. There are 'premade' confs out there, but most don't work. If this is also a problem with your machines, please provide your xorg.conf parameters which worked for you.
ReplyDelete