[Cialug] Lightweight linux for video on imac g4

[Don Ellis]

An upgrade to 10.5 could be worthwhile. I have a client who's running
10.5 on an iMac like yours, and it's far superior to 10.4, much more
fun.

Probably need to find a friend to lend you a disk or search on eBay.
Very hard to copy, since it's double layer, and some systems won't
read double-layer copies (YMMV).

Also, a RAM upgrade is usually very worthwhile, and might make it run
smoother/faster.

--Don Ellis


On Thu, Mar 31, 2011 at 7:05 PM, Mathew Phillips
<mathewrphillips at gmail.com> wrote:
> Actually that's what i ended up doing. I have a 10.4 disc that installed
> fine on it. Can't even really use the most updated browser I could get on
> it. But it does play plain jane dvds without a problem.
>
> On Thu, Mar 31, 2011 at 2:09 PM, Bryan Baker <ka_klick at mac.com> wrote:
>>
>> Um, if you just want to watch DVDs on it, why not just put a supported
>> version of OSX on it?
>> 1ghz g4 iMac should do 10.5.x - I have an 800mhz one that's running it OK,
>> though it's not officially acceptable on that machine.
>> Heresy I know, but for the task, you're better off w/ an OS that has
>> already worked for the task (and you won't have to break any laws to play a
>> DVD in OSX).
>>
>>
>> Changing out the default stick would be tricky - those models had 1 stick
>> you had to rip the world apart to get to and one "user accessible" stick
>> that was a Small Outline (SO) DIMM. My guess is that it may have 256k sticks
>> in both slots. If you do decide to go for it be VERY careful of the thermal
>> paste - they didn't leave any room in that dome, so there's a lot of heat
>> buildup if you don't get that put back together right.
>>
>> On Mar 28, 2011, at 6:42 PM, Mathew Phillips wrote:
>> > I recently acquired an imac g4.
>> >
>> > 1 ghz ppc
>> > 512 mb RAM
>> > dvd drive
>> > 17" screen
>> >
>> > It's not really powerful enough to run the newer versions of Ubuntu. I
>> > installed 10.10 on it this morning and I'm getting 80-90% cpu usage just for
>> > xorg with no apps running. I'm thinking about trying to find a 1gig stick of
>> > ram to boost that a little. But with a 17" monitor it would be great for
>> > turning into a dvd player or tv tuner with a usb card. What distro would you
>> > guys recommend that's lightweight enough to play dvd's and stream tv without
>> > hogging up all the cpu on the OS itself?
>> > I realize it might be a lost cause but I'm not electrical engineering
>> > material so I don't think id feel comfortable trying to rip out the monitor
>> > and use it by itself (or even if its possible).
>> >
>> > Matt