Ubuntu / Apple :: 10.10 Maverick - PowerBook G4 15" Touchpad Jumpy/useless
Nov 13, 2010
I installed Ubuntu 10.10 on my PowerBook G4 (I think that's powerbook 5,6 but I could be mistaken). Most everything is fine from a function standpoint except for the touchpad/trackpad. Unlike most users who seem to be getting an insensitive touchpad, mine seems to be picking up some interference from an unknown source. The mouse frequently jumps around the screen either horizontally back and forth or sometimes vertically. If I disable the trackpad it seems to stop (at least for a few minutes). Sometimes I can lay my palm flat on the trackpad and it will cause the mouse to stand still also which makes the external mouse usable.
Are there any solutions to this? (I did install the, what is it, gpointing-devices package? The one that provides the GUI for touchpad configuration and that has not helped at all, except that I can use it to periodically disable the trackpad for a temporary fix)
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Mar 30, 2011
I have a Powerbook G4 1.67Ghz. My problem is that if I sleep my laptop by choosing sleep from the desktop menu in kde then it sleeps and wakes fine but when it wakes the pointer is locked to the x axis and tends to snap back to the same point when I'm not actively manipulating it. This is also the case if my laptop sleeps after 10mins inactivity. If I sleep the laptop by closing the lid this problem does not occur. When it wakes all is working well.
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Jul 17, 2010
I have a Powerbook G4, 550MHz, and I had 10.04 on it, but the wireless wouldn't work. I know that there are tons of variants, but I am sick of wasting disk, time downloading, testing, ect. Has anyone found a really good version of linux that will work? Or am I better off with OS X 10.4?
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Apr 30, 2010
Just did a fresh install of Ubuntu 10.04 and I can't enable the Extra Visual Effects. I get the error "Desktop effects could not be enabled".
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May 15, 2010
Well currently I am having a problem on the installation, when it goes to step 3 "keyboard layout" and I press forward it just stays there loading and does not proceed. It does not freezes or anything but stays there forever and does no proceed to next step. Burned another live-cd thinking it may be the disk itself but still no luck.
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Apr 19, 2011
i installed ubuntu 10.10 on old powerbook g3 (6g hard disk, i think it lombard)m with xfce as desktop (xfce and not xubuntu wich is slower). anyway, everything works fine, but for some reson my vlc just cannot run video file. each time i play him it show a black screen and fall. i tried config his outpot video, and it still dont work, in smoe mode the audio working but the other not.i tried another movie player, and only totem, kaffeine and xine works ok, although very slowly (the video work not smoothly). kaffeine works fine, but not enough. when i had ubuntu 8.04 in the same computer vlc was the movie player i chose and he did his job perfectly.
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Mar 15, 2010
I want to use an old Powerbook i have as a music juke box and am thinking of using ubuntu to run it - assume that i will dual boot with a small partition for osx? and then run an external hard drive with flac encoded music - into laptop then usb dac to hifi Will ubuntu run ok on this machine? I have removed all the stuff on the old hDD - anything else i need to do?
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May 14, 2010
I'd like to try Ubuntu netbook remix 10.04 on my 12" G4 Powerbook, but I can't seem to find it. Does it just not exist? Apple have a range of older 12" models that are no longer supported that Ubuntu would work great on.
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Jun 27, 2010
I am trying to find out how to get the visual effects working on my PowerBook G4. I have 10.04 installed, and it's running an ATI Mobility Radeon 9600 M10. I can't access the xorg.config because it doesn't exist.
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May 29, 2011
I have an Apple Powerbook G4 17" Feb'2005 (1.67GHz PPC G4 CPU, 1Gb RAM, 100Gb hdd) at home. Having the infamous "vertical lines" problem, I need to use use an external 1440x900 DVI monitor (same resolution as braindamaged Apple LCD). I also have some USB-serial hardware (weather station, Arduino, etc) and a Nokia N900 configured as a router (this lets me use a fixed IP on the Powerbook).
I had Ubuntu 9.10 running 24h/24 up to yesterday, so I just updated the yaboot.conf in /dev/hda2 (the boot partition) and booted natty off hard disk and USB pendrive (great thing having an yaboot on a bootable partition). Since Apple separated me from 2900 bucks (ouch!!) six years ago, I don't want to abandon this Powerbook until its very end. But it seems Natty is not a viable option...
[code]...
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Feb 21, 2010
I just installed Karmic on a PowerBook G4 Titanium. The install went fine after I figured out that I had to set the date in the open firmware because the PRAM battery is dead. Now when I boot, I get a white screen with black text telling me it's found the display then the splash screen shows up but I never get the login screen, just a blank screen. I can switch to the virtual consoles and fool around, but I haven't gotten it to work yet.
Edit: I've attached .xsession-errors (Has UF always required file extensions?)
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Mar 17, 2010
I am trying to install on my Powerbook G4 version 9.04. IT went well and I rebooted it boots up and appears to be loading... In fact says "Loading, please wait"
But the screen begins slowly to fade to white until I can't see anything.
There is one error that might be related I noticed "Radeonfb invalid rom contents".
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Mar 20, 2011
Installed Ubuntu 10.10 on my new-to-me Powerbook 1.67Ghz. PowerPC, as a platform, is most definitely *not* dead. Installation went normal. I installed with network connected to Ethernet rather than Wireless. Installed Wireless firmware. Then I had wireless.
Backlighting didnt work until I added 'i2c-dev' to /etc/modules. Restart, and backlight works, although its a little too sensitive. Hardware acceleration wasn't enabled, so I had to add this to a file called Radeon-kms.conf in /etc/modprobe.d/
"radeon options modeset=0"
Reboot. Then I had hardware acceleration and Compiz.
Install/run sensors and sensors-detect. Run as root. Detected HD temp, CPU, GPU temps and fan speed. Make sure this is in /etc/modules: therm_adt746x. Thats the thermal control stuffs. I then installed openjdk and netbeans and eclipse. OpenJDK is slow, but I feel that is due to OpenJDK itself, and not PowerPC.
This gave me a working CPU ondemand throttling:
apt-get install cpufrequtils
Installing this gave me a working battery-applet that reported a percentage:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:iaz/battery-status && sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install battery-status
/usr/lib/battery-status/battery-status --indicator
I get really good battery life, and everything that shipped on this laptop actually works as designed. Forever PowerPC, Forever Ubuntu
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Jan 8, 2010
I've just installed Ubuntu 9.10 on an old PowerBook G4 I have, and when I go to Power Management, it doesn't provide the tab for battery-related settings (nor do I get the little battery/charge icon in the upper-right panel). I'm comparing this to the version of Ubuntu 9.10 I installed on my EeePC netbook, where those things are present. Is there anything I can do to get the Power Management preferences to recognize that the machine has a battery?
If it helps: the PowerBook had Ubuntu installed on it using the 9.10 "alternate" .iso, as I was having trouble burning the "desktop" .iso to a CD.
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Feb 12, 2010
I have a Good Way Technologies BU2220 CardBus USB 2.0 card which works fine on this same Mac under OS 9.1. It also works fine on a more modern mac with OS X. But I cannot understand why it's not working in Ubuntu 9.10. I had it recognized (I think??) when I had Kubuntu 5.10 (Breezy Badger) installed on this system. I have an old dog - a PowerBook 3400c 240 Mhz 80MB Ram, with a 40 GB HDD. I have Mac OS 9.1 installed on a 5GB partition, and the rest is Ubuntu 9.10, using the LXDE GUI. I switch between Mac OS and Linux using Boot X.
When I slide in my USB card (making sure I have the external power supply attached to it), the system shows a bit of activity, and my display brightness reverts to default. Then there's no more activity. Of course, USB flash drives and USB mice won't work when plugged in. I navigated to /var/log, and looked in the Messages log. There were the following entries:
Feb 11 13:42:09 PowerBook kernel: [ 374.949456] pcmcia_socket pcmcia_socket1: pccard: CardBus card inserted into slot 1
Feb 11 13:42:09 PowerBook kernel: [ 374.949881] pci 0000:05:00.0: PME# supported from D0 D1 D2 D3hot
Feb 11 13:42:09 PowerBook kernel: [ 374.949916] pci 0000:05:00.0: PME# disabled
[code]....
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May 23, 2011
I have a Titanium (Onyx) 550 Mhz G4 Powerbook and the standard gnash does not work. I read that you can compile a custom version of gnash for laptops with low spec graphic cards. Could anyone give me guidelines how to do this with gnash? or swfdec? or lightspark?
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Mar 14, 2011
I've had a Apple Powerbook G4 for a while now, but being mostly a Windows user I've never used it. I remember when it ran it's native OSX (Which I can't for the life remember) Probably Tiger? Anyways... I tried installing Ubuntu on it about a year and a half ago, the installation was botched and I left it sitting there with no purpose in life. :O
So I've decided to dust the laptop and give it another go. I've progressed a little further with my Linux experience, having installed and tested a few distros and even switching over to Ubuntu 9.10 for about 4 months. Enough of my life story and more to the point.Has anyone installed Ubuntu, or any distro for that matter on the Apple Powerbook G4? I know there are different versions of the G4 and I'm not entirely sure what my version is, It's the 1.6Ghz version with The Nvidia card (Err I think) and extra Wireless card installed. I am not very capable with Mac - After checking Apples website I believe it's the 15inch.
I've read the FAQ thread and will begin trying to install Ubuntu tonight at home, I just wanted some suggestion and some pointers in the right direction. What distro would be most suitable for my hardware? and What is easiest to set up?
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Aug 7, 2010
Anyway, I've a decent understanding of the various Linux console commands and know how to work my way around a text editor or file system. But I can't seem to fix what's wrong with my computer. I'll list my info here and then discuss the most pressing issues that I need help with.
It's a 17" PowerBook G4, with Airport Extreme (which I understand is a headache all on its own: I'll likely get to that later)
Results of ~$ lspci:
I downloaded the most recent .iso for the PowerPC from [url], specifically the 4.4 GB DVD copy.
During installation, I told it to install only the Desktop Environment and Base System. Installation went through without a hitch, though it failed to connect properly to my Wireless card.
The first issue I encounter after booting is during the login. When logging in as a non-root user, I'm told to change my password immediately (root enforced). I've done this every time I've logged in. Immediately after when I log in I'm told that the system clock is wrong: It's currently set to Jan. 1, 1970. If I try to change it, I get a message saying that I can't, and my desktop won't load properly. If I ignore the system clock issue and try to change it in System > Administration > Time and Date later, after entering my admin password I get a message that says
Failed to run time-admin as user root.
Failed to communicate with gksu-helper.
Received:
Changing password for root.
While expecting:
Apparently the password issue is related to the Time and Date settings (according to Google), but I can't fix those because it wants me to change my password.
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Oct 17, 2010
I have synaptics touchpad on my Acer One netbook. When stuff is loading after login (panels, nautilus, etc.) i can move cursor and it's ok, but after a few seconds (when environment is loaded, i guess) touchpad freezes, and i have to press hardware "enable/disable touchpad" key twice to get it working. How to fix it?
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Mar 3, 2010
I tried installing and using gsynaptics as well, but that just broke my touchpad (yes, I editted xorg and whatnot) on my Macbook 5.1 (aluminum).Really, my touchpad has been working well by default, but it's far to sensitive and moves around as my palm grazes it during typing (even with the "disable while typing" option turned on). Tapping is so sensitive that I accidentally click things all the time. Yes, I can turn that off... but I LIKE it. I love tapping.At any rate, it seems that ubuntu is ignoring whatever settings I add to the said file and I just want to tweak it a little.
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May 9, 2011
I have a MacBook Pro 6.2. The touchpad works well, but I miss two things from OSX:
- Pressing the touchpad with one finger, then using another one to move windows around. Now I have to click with one finger, and drag with the same one.
- Four finger swipe for expos.
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Jan 20, 2010
I recently bought a macbook pro 5,5 (unibody) and I'm running both OSX and Ubuntu 9.10. I love the laptop, but I've been having some issues with the touchpad in karmic.
In OSX, I can keep my thumb on the bottom of the touchpad as if it were a button and operate the rest of the touchpad as normal. With my thumb on the bottom of the pad, I can still click and drag and use two finger scrolling.
In ubuntu, I've used the instructions from[url]
If I have a thumb on the touchpad, it always assumes I'm two-finger scrolling. I've tried synclient BottomEdge=600, but it doesn't make any difference.
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Sep 21, 2010
Is it possible to get the touchpad on a MacbookPro-6,2 to do a right click some how. Feel crippled without it.
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Apr 4, 2011
I'm having a few problems with my touchpad on my MBP 5,5. First off, even though I have selected "disable touchpad while typing" I still randomly click with my palms when I'm trying to type. Am I missing something here? Also is there any fix for the click and drag issues? Most of what I've read on the forum here is old and the apt-get for the packages mentioned gives me a "file unavailable" error. It's okay when I'm at home but I don't normally bring my bluetooth mouse with me everywhere. If only apple had left the mouse button on here...
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Jul 1, 2010
using gsynaptics to increase the touchpad sensitivity on my macbook 4,1. However,installing gsynaptics makes my fans increase to 6000rpm every 10 minutes. I uninstalled gsynaptics, and it no longer does that.But, I want greater sensitivity! =( its a catch 22.Is there a manual way to increase sensitivity without installing gsynaptics? or another alternative tool?
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Dec 3, 2010
My biggest problem has always been with this touchpad. The fix that I have makes it so that if you click and drag, then release a finger too early, the drag fails. It makes it almost unusable. It is also overly sensitive. I was wondering if anyone has found a solution to this. Right now it is the only thing stopping my migration from Windows.
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Feb 26, 2011
Currently I can:
- Tap with two fingers to right-click
- Scroll with two fingers
- Move the mouse with one finger
- Tap with one finger to click
I can't: Place one finger above the touchpad, one below, click and move an icon or select text. Further details: Running Ubuntu 10.10 Maverkic 64bit
- I have a Macbook Pro 5.2
- I followed this guide: [URL]....1_5-2/Maverick
- Fully updated (sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade -y)
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Oct 30, 2010
I'm new to Linux, and I tried to use my iSight camera (especially for skype). It didn't look so complicated and I saw many posts about that so I decided to do it myself, but I can't get it to work.
I got the AppleUSBVideoSupport file, but when i type ift-extract AppleUSBVideoSUpport in the terminal (using Guake), it tells me : what does that mean ? DOes anybody have the same problem ?
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Jan 26, 2011
I have one machine in my house which doesn't run Linux, and that is a new iMac (a few months old). It has 4GB DDR3 Ram, an intel core i3 chip @ 3.06GHz, and a ATI Radeon HD 4670 graphics card.I want to dual boot Ubuntu (I have a disk with Maverick on it).But I have read the wiki and I dont really understand alot of it. Right at the beginning, it says:"This information will not work for iMac (11,1) users and recent versions of Ubuntu (e.g., Maverick). The presence of the bios-grub partition that the Ubuntu installer creates by default (e.g., sda3) causes a conflict that prevents syncing the GPT and MBR partition tables."Does this mean that I can't dual boot Maverick? What does it mean by 'iMac(11,1)'?
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Oct 13, 2010
I think my computer must be haunted, as I've so far failed at 3 different ways of installing Maverick on my 2007 aluminium imac! I've written off using a VM, and I'm currently stuck trying to make a dual boot setup.
So I've followed the guide at [URL].. and got as far as rebooting with the CD in, and selecting Ubuntu, but then when everything loads I'm left at the screen where I can select try or install, with no way of selecting either as my mouse (apple bluetooth mighty mouse) and keyboard (apple bluetooth wireless aluminium keyboard) don't seem to be connected. I've got past this point by hitting random keys after booting and selecting the CD - this takes me into a more basic looking menu where the keyboard does still work and I can select install, try etc.
So I can get as far as selecting try, and get a working Ubuntu desktop. However, when the desktop loads, my keyboard and mouse are again not working. By connecting a USB keyboard and mouse, I'm able to get my mouse to pair, using the bluetooth menu and going through the setup. However, I'm stuck trying to get my keyboard to pair.
Going into set up new device and searching initially shows up my keyboard, then it disappears. If I wait it randomly comes back and disappears again. If I click on next whilst it is available, I can get as far as putting in a pin, but when I press enter it says Failed..
Sorry for the rambling post - I basically have 2 questions: 1- Is it expected that bluetooth keyboards and mice won't work during the installation menus? Half my problem is that I don't know what should be working and when (should I have to boot into the trial installation and setup the keyboard and mouse, or should it be set up automatically?).
2- Has anyone else seen the same problem with the apple wireless keyboard failing to pair? I've searched the forums and google, and found lots of people with problems with bluetooth keyboards, but none which seem to match what I'm seeing. I don't know if there's any point in pressing on with the installation using the USB keyboard and mouse in the hope that things will work in the full install, or if they don't work in the trial install then thats my lot.
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