User:Tonyr/Journal/Aug07

02Aug07

Netinstall
The mini.iso file in the netboot file collection is a bootable CD image that will orchestrate an Ubuntu install using a remote repository. The most reasonable (and recommended) repository is the one in the Unitesd States (there are repos all over the world). It may be hat there are closer repositories than the standard one, us.archive.ubuntu.org. There may be one at OSU. There should eventually be a local repo at FreeGeek. That would be nice, but in the mean time downloading packages is speeded up anyway because the files are cached by the newly implemented Transparent Proxy.

I am still hopeful that the netboot/netinstall process can be implemented with the (modified) boot files being supplied by a local tftp server, but I'm no sure what, if anything, is being done to allow Macs boot and start the netinstall transparently, that is, not have to use OF to specify the tftp server explicitly from OF.

03Aug07

Shortcomings

• There is no PPC implementation of Automatix, the Ubuntu Customization application that allows users to easily add applications, third party and otherwise, that are not installed by default. The Automatix team dropped PPC platform support at the same time that Ubuntu moved PPC development from the release branch to the ports branch. FG Mac TechSupport will have to be prepared to offer alternatives to Automatix.
• Adobe does not provide a Flash player or plugin for the PPC platform, so web pages requiring a Flash plugin will not work. A noteable example is Youtube, but there are many others. There is an opensource alternative, Gnash, available in the repositories, but it is currently version 0.7.2. Version 0.8 is reported to support Youtube videos better, although Jeff Robinson told me that support is not complete. Version 0.8 is only available by downloading it from a GNU mirror.

07Aug07

G4 PCI
To quote Kyle and Stan (and others), I've learned something here today. Dan worked on a G4 last week that Ubuntu reported as a B&W G3, except for the fact that it had a G4 (7400) processor. The device assignments were like the G3 (hard drive is hdc, CD is hda), and the video card was in a PCI slot (no AGP slot at all). I mistakenly thought that this was some kind of home baked upgraded mutant. I was wrong. There were actually two versions of the G4 PCI released, a 350MHz and a 400MHz, and the logic board for these is essentially a B&W G3 logic board. These models were not manufactured for very long, and were shortly replaced with the AGP logic board models (named 'Sawtooth').

So what to do with these models in MacBuild? I told Dan to dismantle the one he was working on since I thought it was a mutant. I still think it's a mutant. I kind of get the impression that ultimately Apple thought it was a mutant, too. There aren't just a whole lot of them out there. It wouldn't be any great loss to simply recycle them, which is what I would recommend.