Blue and White Gnome Blues

Hi folks. I am a beginner but am enjoying the challenge of learning and experimenting with ubuntu installations on older macs.

I have a Blue and White G3 tower that I wish to make a LAMP server out of. I have gotten 8.10 installed several times. I can SSH in to the server, everything seems cool.

My problem is I am a visual guy. I work with GUI's better than command lines. I install gnome on the G3 and when I reboot, the video just dies. The monitor is getting no signal at all. This has happened after 3 tries. I would try xubuntu, but IIRC it does not come with the remote client installed.

I want to put this network storage and utility machine in a corner and access it remotely. What's the best way to get the GUI on this box? Thanks.

Nice! I'm assuming you are installing the "server" version, which leaves you at just the commandline. This is actually good, since you'll be running the server-tuned kernel, but you want to put some X on it. The "server" images make setting up a LAMP environment easy with a simple checkbox during install.

You may have picked them up from here:

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ports/releases/

Some might suggest falling back to 8.04 for the possibility of longer updates with the LTS version (although with ppc, there are no guarantees anyway)

Although these docs target low-memory users on Intel, they are GREAT docs for doing exactly what you want to do with your server for ppc:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/LowMemorySystems

In your case, you are already running the server so you are half-way home. All you need to do now is add the X components, and a window manager. Everyone has their favorite, and mine lately is IceWM. For server use, I see no need for a login manager such as xdm or gdm, but you can add those if you want to. They are all just an apt-get away.

However, you may still be facing some common /etc/X11/xorg.conf issues, which you'll have to manually edit.

For the B&W, you'll need to know what your external monitors vertical and horizontal frequencies are, and it's native resolution if using an lcd. Here is a recent response to another b&w user that might help:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1010570

and be sure to see the wikis since you'll probably have to edit in your video driver as well:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=427714

Hope this helps. If things get too frustrating, I can also recommend Debian 4.0r5 as a server with a gui if it comes to that. Grab the XFCE4 Cd-1 for powerpc and during install you'll also see the options for a server. Doing what you want to do is very easy with Debian, and any reconfiguring of the X server for your monitor is also easy since it uses the older classical X server configurations.

http://www.debian.org/distrib/

Wow, sorry if this was info-overload. :)

This sounds great in principle, but does the xorg file get created or used before the install of gnome? If I lose video access immediately after install of gnome, I don't know how I would get to the file to edit it.

There are a few ways to get to the file.

Try going to a virtual terminal with ctrl-alt-f2. Then login, and do

sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf

ctrl-o to write, ctrl-x to exit. In some cases, the screen is so locked up this might not work.

Although you can't get to a gui now, some can at a funky resolution temorarily - they can

gksudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

assuming they are running ubuntu.

The other way is to edit the file with vi after going in with "rescue" mode, aka "Linux single", which you start at the second-stage boot: prompt.

Thanks for the assist. I finally got a GUI working by searching the links you provided. It was low-res, but enough for me to see there was really no purpose for it in my usage.