Ubuntu Linux (Hoary) on an iBook

Being a chronicle of experimenting with Ubuntu Linux on an iBook.

Whys and wherefores

You're probably wondering why install Linux on an older 12-inch iBook, which comes with a perfectly good unixy OS like Mac OS X? A few reasons:

• First off, to see if I could get it to work.
• To try repurposing older hardware into a more usable state. Linux is famously able to run on "obsolete" computers, and run better than the latest-greatest, and for a great price: $0. :)

The following is a brief diary of a few days of futzing, which will give you a sense of the issues you might run into. Not everyone has been so lucky, as you'll see with a googling, but it seems quite doable. It isn't meant to be an exhaustive guide on the topic, just what I ran into.

It also does not meet up with the chutzpah of the Extreme Ubuntu Install Challenge, but it'll have to do. ;)

I ordered up some LiveCD/Install disks from Ubuntu, which you can have sent to you for free, for PPC, x86, or both.

2005-08-22 20:43:11

Installed Ubuntu (Hoary) on a fairly modern iBook, with little difficulty apart from networking. The installer was pretty straightforward, no surprises apart from that the Airport at work is using an encryption scheme that I don't think I'll be able to utilize with this particular 802.11b card. At home, I think I'll just need to add it to the MAC access list and see. If not, I may just have to get online elsewhere for the time being.

So far, things are okay -- obviously it's a bit difficult to get anything proper done sans network, but at least I can poke around the filesystem and get a sense of what's where -- although there are unixy similarities, the BSD/Mac OS X directory scheme is definitely different. I have to say I loved logging into my /home/robert folder and finding nothing but a Desktop directory (not counting dotfiles). Bliss! Luckily I'm already used to bash.

Some things I'll be working on first:

• Airport, obviously
• Possibly remapping the Apple key to another Control key
• ssh
• iBook wake from sleep (i.e. it won't -- apparently a known issue)
• Hiding the top and bottom menubar "panels" -- which was a right-click thing when I was experimenting with GNOME recently, but isn't working at the moment.

Next time around, I wouldn't mind looking into starting with a more stripped-down system, since there is quite a bit of cruft installed with the basic Ubuntu install.

I am very pleased with the responsiveness of the UI so far -- despite this being a lower-end system (by today's standards), it doesn't feel sluggish on much of anything so far, except maybe on application launches. Other things are not instantaneous. My expectations were pretty reasonable, I think, so I am happy. Naturally, I wouldn't be using this for a bunch of high-end video work ;) but it is perfect for my current mostly text- and terminal-based needs.

2005-08-22 23:40:31

Sort of figured out the menu-hiding issue, though still not with right-click. I tracked down the hide button option in the Configuration Editor, so now I can at least mostly get the menubars out of the way.

Mouse sensitivity I'm still playing with quite a bit, trying to get it set right -- or rather trackpad sensitivity. Accidental input is really easy. I guess I'm used to the OS X Ignore Accidental Input option.

2005-08-23 17:54:55

Good news and bad news. The good news is that I was able to get onto the wireless network at home after adding the iBook's MAC address to the filter. The bad news is that in order for the iBook to connect, I had to disable the WPA-PSK security I was using, since it is not supported in this distro yet. Lovely. Well, I loaded a webpage in Firefox, then promptly disconnected and re-enabled security. I'll have to use compatible open WAPs for now. Bummer.

2005-08-23 19:58:21

Looks like I'll be able to hook up with the office Exchange server using Evolution, or at least in theory. This presumes I'll be able to get on the network there. :)

The Control key is working as it should, except for the right-click part of things. I have to see if I can maybe use Command for the right-click instead, while I'm using just the laptop and not a separate mouse.

Another topic to find out about is a stumbler kind of wireless detector program.

It occurs to me that this "portable" of a system (i.e. lightweight and smaller screen size) is usable on a daily basis. I absolutely love the form factor. I had thought earlier today that in addition to the usb keyboard/mouse I use at work already with my PowerBook, I could grab one of the flatscreens from the server area as well -- at least if the vram on the iBook could drive it okay.

Would I stick with Linux on an iBook or smaller PowerBook? Maybe, although I have the urge to try Darwin out as well.

2005-08-23 20:13:10

So the F12 key is right-click and F11 is middle-click? WTF?!

Did a little research on ubuntuforums.org -- the button emulation is set in /etc/sysctl.conf ...

# Emulate the middle mouse button with F11 and the right with F12
dev/mac_hid/mouse_button_emulation = 1
dev/mac_hid/mouse_button2_keycode = 87
dev/mac_hid/mouse_button3_keycode = 88

Changing that 88 to 100 will let you use fn-alt for right-click. Whoo. :P Good to know.

2005-08-23 20:37:05

So anyhoo, there are some things I like about the experience, other things not so much. I dig the GNOME environment, mostly. A lot of the awkwardness is of course from needing to relearn some muscle memory on keyboarding, but overall it's been very enlightening.

I thought what I might do is wipe the iBook again and install Darwin along with GNOME. Unfortunately, turns out Airport configuration is not supported on Darwin. (Source: Darwin installer readme "Airport wireless cards are detected, but cannot be configured.") Grrr.

2005-08-27 00:35:18

So I may just stick with Ubuntu for the time being. Or I might throw a stripped-down OS X on. What will make the decision will be networking -- if I can get the iBook online at work, then we will be good to go with Ubuntu, since I'd be using a multi-button mouse, along with the extended keyboard, and (possibly) a large monitor.

There is the sleep issue, with the crash-on-wake problem. I googled up possible workarounds, but haven't had a chance to test them out yet.

But for all that, the extra portability of the iBook in conjunction with the modern OS and non-sluggish GUI (on old hardware) is a killer combination.

BTW, I wrote this diary in gedit. :)

2005-09-17 12:48:31

Conclusions

I was unable to get the iBook connected to the Airport network at work, which as far as I can determine is due to the encryption scheme they're using there. So, I was unfortunately forced to re-install Mac OS X 10.3 on the iBook and thus close the Ubuntu experimentation for now. Altogether, however, a very informative experience. I am not adverse to the idea of looking into a Linux-based laptop in the future, once some of the wireless issues are worked out.

From what I've read in various places, Linux laptop development has been something needing work for a long time. I wonder if due to the constant acceleration of laptop capabilities and technologies -- even more than the industry as a whole -- that Linux will continue to suffer. Hopefully not, perhaps especially as the OS becomes more and more mainstream.