Lubuntu 13.04 (Raring Ringtail) daily build

An always helpful commenter named Keith came through again today by posting a comment about his experiences with trying the 13.04 build out.

His comment from the Firefox 18 on Lubuntu PowerPC post:

"Zen. I wanted to let you know I am running the live cd of Lubuntu 13.04 on my 12" iBook G4, 1.33 Ghz. I loaded it via the usb port because my combo drive has been broken for many years. Also, the cd is oversized, so unless one has a superdrive, usb is the only way to go.

I had the same issues installing this version as I did for 12.10--needed to use "live video=radeonfb:1024x768-32@60" to get the right resolution and color depth. Also, no wifi or sound, just like 12.10. I haven't tried the fix for those yet, as I don't have the time to spend on it tonight. Still, it is running very well off the ethernet.  Keith"

I have been meaning to download and try it myself but my busy schedule has gotten in the way as per usual.   I will provide some feedback and screens once I give it a test drive later tonight.  I am downloading it as I type this.

As Keith notes above it is an oversized (772.1 MB) ISO so it will not fit on a CD.  You will either need to use a DVD or the USB boot method from a thumb or external drive.  The alternate install however does fit on a CD.

As Keith also notes above you will need to use this command at the Yaboot screen if you have a Radeon GPU:

 live video=radeonfb:1024x768-32@60

Change the 1024x768 to your screens default res if it is not that.  32 refers to the colour depth and 60 refers to the screen refresh rate.  For best results confirm what all these are for the display in question.

If you have an Nvidia GPU you will need the Alt. Install image.   Here are the configuration instructions for after the install.

For those with ATI Rage 128 GPU you need to follow the instructions found here.


Download:

Desktop
Alternate

Please share any feedback.  These are daily builds so don't expect perfection. 



Update

I installed 13.04 on my G4 1.0 GHz test system on thursday night after I originally made this post.  It installed perfectly via a fresh install and all apps and updates installed without issue.  I have not tried an upgrade install from 12.04 or 12.10 so I cannot speak for how that will work yet.

Although I have only been able to play with it a few times after setup I am quite impressed with the experience so far.  The app versions keep climbing along with the kernel which is at 3.8 now compared to 3.2 in 12.04 and 3.5 in 12.10.  The small amount of PowerPC developers in the Linux world are doing an incredible job in my opinion.

Some notable app versions in Lubuntu 13.04:

Firefox 19
Transmission 2.76
VLC 2.0.5
Thunderbird 17.0.2

Once I get a better idea of it's pros and cons I will write something.

Screenshot

PowerPC heroes

A few posts back Zen, who always tells it like it is, gave credit where credit was due and nominated some PowePC friends among us. I’d like to go a step further and nominate some PowerPC heroes among us. My definition of a hero is someone who goes above and beyond the call of duty, and these folks have certainly done that for a platform Apple abandoned many years ago now.

Cameron Kaiser

For those who don’t know Dr. Kaiser (yup, he is a bona-fide MD, with degree, and unlike this DVM can also code) is the man, the myth, the legend behind both Classilla and Tenfourfox. During the day he practices the finer medical arts on homo sapiens. At night he is almost single handedly is keeping viable browsers alive on not one, but two PowerPC operating systems. In 2013 this is no mean feat, and has required many selfless hours of coding and pathching in front of a PowerMac G5. Classilla is, for the one person reading this blog not already aware of it, the only browser anyone should be using on Mac OS 9. Now at version 9.3.2, Kaiser is focusing on a series of security rollups that will hopefully bring Classilla on a par with Mozilla 1.6 in the near future. You might not want to do your internet banking with Classilla, but for routine tasks it is surprisingly usable. Even if you don’t use or like Tenfourfox we all owe an enormous debt to Kaiser and the rest development team for keeping a Mozilla browser at source parity with Firefox in 2013. Dr. Kaiser also consistently declines all donations, as he thinks money would cloud things up. He’s probably right, but I wish I could give something other than praise and thanks to this most noble cause.

Tobias Netzel

An important contributor to Tenfourfox, Tobias is also the developer behind Leopard Webkit. Leopard Webkit gives you an up to date webkit-rendering engine in the skin of Safari 5.0.6, turning what was a terrible web browsing experience with Safari on Leopard into something…frankly awesome. The hybrid gold ringed Safari/L-webkit icon is now my go to browser on 10.5, something I would have never thought would happen.

Marc Hoyis

Marc is the guy behind Click to Plugin and I belive also now maintains Click to Flash. These are Safari extensions that give a delightful one-two punch to the most hated software ever made (that would be, I don't like to even say the word, so I'll just sign it out Freddy Mercury style...."Flash-ahh-haaaaa") and replace it with Quicktime on not only Youtube but also a surprising number of other commonly visited web sites. It may seem ridiculous at first to have both extensions installed, but as the very useful macrumors forum poster B-G discovered, Click to Flash not only blocks Flash but also presents itself to the server as Flash 11.5. This fools even the BBC, I had all but given up ever watching clips on the site in Leopard but now most video gets served up to my PowerPC mac with no complaints. The Click to Plugin extension takes over at this point and gives you several file quality playback options in either the native HTML 5 player or Quicktime. On a lower speck G4 ibook Quicktime in 360p works…awesome. You may not think 360p is all that, but Quicktime does it good. Combine that with a Quicktime Pro license and you can also download the file once it fully loads. They are just....awesome extensions.

Jeroen Diederen

Jeroen hails from the low country across the pond and is the lead developer and chief cheerleader of MintPPC. Taking a basic Debian PPC install and slapping the Mint LXDE desktop on top of it in 2009 was a stroke of genius, and has breathed new life into many an old mac. Jeroen has removed most of the major headaches from your typical Debian PPC install, though even a casual browse of the MintPPC forum will show there are still tons of issues. Most of them due to the exotic mobile hardware choices Apple made back in the day. Lets face it, Apple never intended for Linux to run on an ibook G4, and the fact that it does at all, let alone well, is pretty remarkable. Jeoroen is always helpful to those with difficult hardware, always willing to compile the applications people want for MintPPC, and never gets impatient with people less technically savvy than he. Which would be almost everyone. An honorable mention must also be made here to os911, a regular MintPPC contributor who has written some excellent installation manuals, and is also uniquely helpful, especially with old world macs and all the challenges they bring to the table.

Microsoft

Yes. That Microsoft. Microsoft still provides regular security updates for Office 2004 and 2008 for PowerPC. Apple doesn’t do anything similar for its in house apps, and credit is where credit does, the behemoth from Redmond gets some respect from a former hater.

Well, those are my nominations for PowerPC heroes. Please feel free to disagree, or nominate anyone else you think worthy in the comments and thanks again to the above for keeping this architecture “Alive and Kicking…”. Man, I just had a Freddy Mercury and a Jim Kerr moment in one post. Its officical, the Doctor is old. Very old.

Best OS for the job in 2013

I have been promoting the dual use of Linux and Mac OS since I started this blog.  Each OS has it's own set of strengths in terms of certain tasks and capability.  In terms of content creation like graphic arts, video and audio work it's hard to beat Mac OS.  It has so much more capability right out of the box even with an old version of Photoshop or other established content creation apps.

The clear main strength of Linux today is that it is far more secure for internet and network tasks.  I see constant kernel, general security and browser updates in Lubuntu 12.04 and 12.10.  The same can be said for Debian.  In terms of OS X on PowerPC there is zero development going on from Apple and because it's all closed code (other than Darwin) it will stay that way forever.  For secure online and network activity Linux or BSD is an absolute necessity on the architecture.  Any practical and sane user would not even see it as an option. 

When it comes to security on Mac OS PowerPC there is nothing any of us will ever be able to do now to improve this at the OS level.  A wise user helps in terms of habits and actions but this can only do so much with such a mass of neglected code that cannot be fixed.  Updated browsers like the TenFourFox family or Leopard Webkit can only help you at the browser level.  It is still possible to exploit OS level stuff with the right cracks.

The good news for the people who are in the creative arts game is that virtually everything is safe and secure in this regard.  The one exception would be Flash content for obvious reasons.  I mention these people specifically because they make up a majority of Mac users.  Some of my clients own audio or video production companies and several of them still use PowerPC systems as old as a beige PowerMac G3.  In the audio industry specifically there is a lot of running old apps on old hardware that happens.  I normally see more G4 and G5 towers than anything else.  The old adage that you have proven methods with certain tools and they never let you down so you stick to them.  If it's not broke don't fix it as they say.  I once saw a video of an Ice T interview inside his studio around 2008.  He was still using a PowerMac 8500 and System 7 for all his sequencing. He said the reason was that it's the most reliable tool and hardware/software combo with the best results he had ever used. 



Breaking it down


Linux/BSD

There is really no need to get overly wordy about what is best for what task.  Keeping it simple keeps the lines in the divide clearer.

Linux and BSD is where it's at in terms of any type of real software development on the architecture looking forward.  The capability and growth is only as limited as the audience of users.  With the proper skill and ability anything is possible in the Open Source OS world.  This is something you will never get from any version of Mac OS or Windows.  The true barrier for most is the not so simple route to making thought come to life in software.

Open OS like Linux and BSD are the only totally open limitless option for even brand new hardware because of the limitations of the Mac OS and Windows world.  On PowerPC these are the only OS still developed today.

There are things like MacPorts and older versions of Xcode to bring open apps to Mac OS PowerPC but you are still stuck with all the abandoned OS code that you couldn't change even if you were the worlds greatest software developer. 

Security is really only important online and in big networks so these areas are where PowerPC users should look for every day type solutions.  Linux and BSD are so much more prepared to protect you online even when compared to modern Mac OS and Windows.  When it comes to things like internet banking I NEVER use Mac OS anymore.  Only OpenBSD or Lubuntu for me.  Even with an updated browser you can't be sure of 100% security in OS X PowerPC because of all the OS code supporting the browser not working to modern standards.

PowerPC hardware is cheap enough these days that you could have a dedicated Linux or BSD machine for online activity and another system dedicated to Mac OS.  The great thing about using both OS is it will give you Mac familiarity to keep you sane while you drink from the *nix fire hose.


Mac OS

It is getting long in the tooth security wise on PowerPC but there are so many common Mac tasks which are not affected by this at all.  You will be able to do all the non-connection based tasks with no worries for as long as your computer runs. 

I wouldn't be shocked at all if I was still using Photoshop CS3 and Pixelmator 1.5 on OS X in 10 years.  Both are from the 2007-2009 era but are more than capable for really anything.  I know professional graphic artists that still use Photoshop 5 on OS 9.  Newer isn't always better for everyone.  As with most software each version brings more fluff than anything in most situations.  The truth is that there is no replacement for a perfect hardware/software combo that never lets you down.  It helps you work with pure confidence and that is what it's all about with creativity.

With things like simple video playback I prefer OS X myself.  As a CorePlayer owner and user of other greats like VLC 1.1.12 and MacTubes I get all I ever desire from Leopard in terms of video enjoyment.

Gaming is another area I always look to Mac OS for.  The Open Source world leaves a lot to be desired in regard to gaming.  As I write about in my gaming article a while back there is a lot to be had in terms of great old games with some as new as 2006. 



In closing

For those that have yet to take the Open OS plunge on their PowerPC hardware I strongly encourage you to try it out for at least internet activity.  This is one of the easiest tasks to use Linux or BSD for.  On Lubuntu you get an up to date OS combined with FireFox 18 and Sylpheed (or modern Thunderbird if you prefer) along with almost daily kernel updates.  This is the only avenue for us now where there are people actively working to keep us safe and secure at the app and OS level. 

Don't ever feel you need to give up Mac OS.  Even on PowerPC it will be a great tool for many tasks where security is not an issue.  Embrace it for all the reasons I mention and add your own in as well.  It's still great for daily browsing of trusted sites where security isn't a concern when you don't need https.

I know I will add more to this but I wanted to get something out since it has been six days since the last post.  Share your best OS for the task thoughts in comments.

Origin of the architecture name and other terms

The main misperception most people have is in thinking the "PC" in the PowerPC name means PC in the way they know.  It does not stand for personal computer.  PowerPC is an acronym for Performance optimization with enhanced RISC Power Computing.  I believe the capital P and C at the end is what leads most to think it means personal computer.

For those that don't know what "RISC" means I can assure you it doesn't mean it takes any type of risk.  RISC and CISC are the two fundamental computer architecture bases.  RISC means reduced instruction set computing and CISC means complex instruction set computing.  ARM, Power and PowerPC are examples of RISC.  Intel and AMD are examples of CISC.  Reduced instruction does not mean it skips things but rather that it carries more data per cycle.  CISC pipelines can be over 20 steps long compared to under 10 for most RISC architectures.  PowerPC systems like the G4 for example only need 7 steps in the pipeline.

Personal computer is another term that has been horrifically misused over the years.  PC is the acronym that was started for computers that could sit on a desk in the era which most still took up whole rooms or at least an entire wall of a room.  The PC term has somehow evolved into meaning wintel/x86 hardware specifically when it really means any computer that can fit on a table.  All Mac hardware is as much a PC as any wintel system.  The sad fact is that Apple themselves have helped twist this term.  They are easily the biggest culprit in all this to be honest.  They have used the term themselves since the 80's to separate the Mac from the rest of the industry.  The proper term for a windows PC is "Wintel".  This term started to specifically mean a Windows system powered by Intel but has evolved to mean windows systems in general.  I assume this was due to Intel's dominance especially early on in the game.   

Although I respect the names of anything PowerPC related that uses the "PPC" term this is an incorrect way to refer to it.  When it comes to the technology industry as a whole most people would take PPC to mean pocket PC.  This is the term used in the CorePlayer pocket PC version and the one that fools the unknowing into thinking they have found Mac copies of it online.  For the record the Mac copy has always been named CorePlayer OS X.  To be fair to those that use PPC I cannot blame them because there are actually developers that use it so it's easy to mistake it for a legitimate acronym.  All the BSD versions available on PowerPC for example are all referred to as PPC as are several Linux distros.  Mainstream Mac software sites like MacUpdate always use PPC also. 

It was years of hearing and seeing these terms misused combined with the google search hits I get here that motivated me to write this.  It's shocking how many separate the power and pc when they type it.  It is an acronym and they don't have spaces.  So once again the "PC" at the end of PowerPC stands for power computing.

Thanks for reading.

Firefox 18 on Lubuntu PowerPC

Today I checked Synaptic for updates and was pleasantly surprised by a Firefox 18 release.  It seems to launch a bit faster than 17 did and it also seems to have gotten a bit faster at page loads.  Everything looks identical which means they are concentrating on more important things like security, performance and function.

There were even a couple privacy and security updates available today.  This is great to see such active development on a "dead" architecture.

As always I recommend you use Synaptic to update things.  Click the reload button if no updates show up in the Status pane.  For Lubuntu 12.04 and 12.10.

Share any feedback please.

A Pseudodock in Lubuntu

So, you’ve decided to take Zen’s advice, and install Lubuntu 12.04 LTS on your aging Powermac. If you are like me and you’ve been using macs a long time (like, since Reagan was in the White House) the Linux interface is just more than a little Windows-esque at first, task bar at the bottom and all. But that’s ok, this is Linux, and we can fix that. Right click on that task bar, bring up properties and put that panel up at the top. Where it frackin’ belongs.

The next thing you are bound to say coming from OS X is where the heck is my dock? Sure, Lubuntu gives you that task bar, and a menu with submenus that give you pretty much all the access you need to your programs and files, but you’ve come from OSX-land and Steve (rest in peace) trained you to like your dock. A simple Google search will give you two options in linuxland: Docky and Cairo. Both are fine programs, and give you lots of eye candy. You like the look of and sudo apt-get install docky from the command line and it goes fine, but there is this fugly black box around the dock. Some more googling and you realize you need to install a compositing manager like compiz or metacity. You do that and....your system.....grinds. To. A. Halt. This should not be unexpected, you have an aging Powermac, afterall.

Some more Googling pops up a lightweight compositing manager called xcompmgr. You are getting used to this command line deal and sudo apt-get install xcompmgr, and on reboot the black fugly box goes away, and your system is still surprisingly usable. All is right in the world until one day out of the blue your computer seizes up on you, and you pull up the task manager and see Xorg is chewing up 90% of your CPU, and xcompmgr the other 11%. Turns out Xorg and xcompmgr don’t always play nice with each other, and since you can’t give up Xorg anymore than you could give up Aqua in OS X, now xcompmgr has to go.

Many diehard mac fanboys would throw in the towel at this point and go running back to OSXland but you are determined to get as much life as humanly possibly out of your mac and aren’t ready to give up just yet. That’s good because this is Lubuntu baby, and given the power of FOSS we can just go ahead and make a dock. That’s right, I said: "Make a dock." Well, actually I prefer to call it a pseudodock.

What we are really doing is modifying a new panel to somewhat look and act like a dock. Right click on that panel at the top, and select create a new panel and position it at the bottom, and center that bad boy. What you’ll see next is very fugly. Under Geometry we need to adjust the  height and width of the panel first, I set both to about 45 pixels, but you are free to play around with those numbers. While we are here lets set the icon pixels to the same height as the panel.

Next under Appearance we want to select solid color with opacity, and right click on the color box so we can bring up a color wheel and eye dropper selector-thingy. You are free to choose whatever opacity or godawful day-glo color background you want, but if you want something  mac-like take the color picker and select whatever wallpaper color is immediately behind your dock.  Personally I like the Lubuntu 12.10 desktop, so that’s what I use. Now, you appear to have a transparent dock, sort of like back in the day OS  X Tiger with Unsanity’s clear dock hack. Now that was some scary software.

Now its time to load some Panel Applets. Clicking Add will bring up a whole bunch of things, and you are free to install them but I find most of them useless, except for the lovely application launch manager. At first  selecting this appears to do absolutely nothing, but that’s because you need to hit Edit, this will bring up all the apps you have in your LXDE winged birdy menu. Add what you want. Move icons around with the up and down functions. You may also need to add spacers to give your pseudodock a slightly more...even appearance. What you will end up with is something rather attractive.

Some caveats: There is no trash can. If anyone can figure out how to install one, please comment it out below. You also can’t just drag icons onto your pseudodock, and there is no minimize/maximize fucntion or bouncing icons, just a subtle color change as you mouse over. You can set the pseudodock to hide and do some other fine tweaking under the ol' Advanced tab.

That’s it. Now open your task manager from your pseudodock and revel in the Plantagenet luxury of 96% CPU free.

The doctor is in

PowerPC Liberation welcomes a new writer to the fold today.  Dr. Dave is someone you may know from his active participation as a commenter and knowledge spreader from PPC Luddite and on this blog along with several others he frequents.

Since my busy life keeps me from posting as much as I would like it was only natural to go this route.  Two heads are better than one as they say and in this situation that is certainly an apt description.   The "Dr" in his blogger name is no front either.  He's the real deal. 

When it came time to add another author here Dave was the first person I thought of.  He is a man of great intelligence and technical comprehension but is far too modest to even understand that about himself.  He has a real knack for sniffing out the greatest software on earth and has on several occasions.  It's always very cleanly coded and efficient software also which shows he not only gets it but has no taste for bloat.  My kind of techie.

So please join me in welcoming the doctor.

Friends amoung us

I want to point out those that are invaluable to the PowerPC community.  It's not like I am the only one preaching these forward thinking ways for PowerPC.  I am simply more forthright than most.  The others all have the same basic outlook and range from newbie to seasoned user when it comes to Linux.  The common moral is that we all know Linux or other still developed OS like BSD are the secure future of the architecture while still using Mac OS for tasks where security isn't a concern.

I am certainly not trying to ever push Linux down anyones throat but rather speak out against the ones who actively say not to use it.  What I find very encouraging is how many PowerPC users have taken an active interest in Linux and BSD.  Most of them have zero nix experience also but they are able to mentally grasp why learning this software is helpful if you want to be safe and secure.  I would say there are about 60-70 people trying Linux for every 1 that claims they never will.



Why do I call them friends?

Because these people have your technical well being in mind.  They have the ability to see the usefulness in tools that may not even be something they are interested.  The real difference with them is they have the technical insight to get how important certain things are and not simply based on their own views/needs.  This is something any good tech writer needs...  technical insight. 


Who are your friends? 

Anyone who puts the well being of you and your computer first in their writing.  The really dangerous ones are those who think they are helping you the reader when they are actually hurting you.  What adds to this is the fact that they don't understand the extent of damage they do because they don't know any better.  The biggest thing that makes people like Dan Knight and Taylor Almond so dangerous is they are both totally oblivious as to how little they actually know/understand.  The people who are your friends know their own limits and don't try to pretend to know about things they are ignorant to.  Just like a good friend in real life.


PPC Luddite

Dan the Luddite is the best thing happening to PowerPC writing at the moment in my opinion.  He has much deeper roots in Linux than I do and I have picked up several great approaches from him to use myself.  This guy seems to be more productive in Linux with a Sawtooth and iBook G3 than I am with four active G4 towers.  Since my background is all BSD and Mac OS I would say Dan is the #1 PowerPC Linux guy to look to for guidance.

His writing is predominantly Debian/Openbox based but all the software he recommends is just as capable on Lubuntu thanks to it's Debian roots.  So whether you run Debian, Mint or any of the Ubuntu family there is a lot to be had on his blog.  His amazing coverage of Debian is why I stick to Lubuntu to avoid redundancy in the PowerPC community.

Dan isn't all Linux though.  He has a vast amount of OS X content that is largely built around Tiger.  This content is all done with usability and security in mind.  In the recent past he wrote a great article on file sharing between multiple OS Like 9, X and Linux which will be of great help to anyone now using Linux.  You will never be misdirected here.  Even when there are security risks he is very open about it and warns people accordingly.


iFix Old Macs

I consider Tom a guy with amazing insight.  When it comes to things he doesn't know so well he is still able to see into how valuable it can be.  Extremely capable yet very humble.  Since his main tech gig is Mac repair he has a broad understanding of hardware function.  Hardware people seem to be becoming outnumbered by software developers so it's good to see people like him around still.  Although I do dabble in software development my main roots are in hardware repair and installations so I really appreciate what people like Tom bring.

Everything he ever links to or posts on his site is always very practical and forward thinking.  Things like repair before replacement, adopting Linux/BSD and Mac OS security.  There is always something interesting to read here.  When he links to things he doesn't just provide the link but adds some great insight that will really help you read what he has directed you to in a proper frame of mind.


Mac PowerPC

I have come to know the founder Marc as a great guy who wants what is best for all PowerPC users.  Although he doesn't write about Linux he certainly understands it's importance.  He asked a while back if he could share my writing with his readers and I happily agreed.  We have an open agreement to share each others content with both sites readers whenever we desire.  He has shared my Lubuntu install guide and gaming on PowerPC articles so far and when I get time I want to help him spread the words he has just as he did for me.

The important thing about Mac PowerPC is the owner Marc's intent to truly help you the reader.  Even though he really has no Linux experience he has the ability and insight to understand it's importance and he wants to help spread that. 

In terms of keeping Leopard/Tiger as current and capable as possible this is a great resource with solutions for virtually every need/task you can imagine.  It's obvious that he must spend many hours a week scouring the net to find new tools to help you all stay productive.



In closing

If you feel anyone else deserves to be listed here please post the site and your logic behind them being good.  Either of the two listed in the enemies post will automatically be vetoed.   In my opinion the three I name here as friends are the only ones with enough content to list them.  There are others I will list in the future. 

I truly mean every kind word I have said in this post.  These guys are our true PowerPC family.  I highly recommend my readers draw from all four of us combined for the best overall tech coverage since we each have our own strengths.