2011-10-16 Installing Ubuntu 11.10 on my iBook G4

Upgrading my *iBook G4* to *Ubuntu 11.10* went without a hitch. But as the system rebooted, I ran into a problem:

WARNING *boot device may be renamed*. Try root=_dev_sda3 Gave up waiting for root device. [...]

Now what? The Ubuntu forum got me the answer I was looking for:

the answer I was looking for

1. at the first boot prompt, answer `l` because you want to boot Linux

2. at the second boot prompt, answer `Linux root=/dev/sda3`

3. if that works, fix your config by running `sudo yabootconfig -r /dev/sda3` from the command line

Thanks, Internet! ❤ :D

There is one strange, tiny problem I do have, however: The trackpad will not work if the laptop boots with an external mouse connected. When I run `sudo trackpad show` I get back no trackpad ! Weird, but not really a problem. 😄

no trackpad !

• Update*: For those of you coming here via Google search—if you are wondering how I got Unity to work—I did not. I switched to Xubuntu! Back when I was using Ubuntu 10, I made my switch: From the command line, I ran `sudo tasksel install xubuntu-desktop`. then, in order to save disk space, I ran `sudo apt-get remove ubuntu-desktop` and `sudo apt-get autoremove`. I haven’t tried it in a long time, but upgrading my Ubuntu system still works. Yay! 😄

I made my switch

​#Ubuntu ​#iBook ​#Mac

Comments

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Thanks, exactly what I needed to fix an errant Mac Mini server. 😄

– Kirk 2012-11-26 20:58 UTC

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Awesome. 😄

– Alex Schroeder 2012-11-26 22:57 UTC

Alex Schroeder