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So I just successfully installed Ubuntu 12.04 LTS on my retired PowerMac G5. Everything is working great, but I would like to run this computer headless and use either SSH or VNC to control it.

It appears that Ubuntu or Yaboot refuses to boot without a monitor being connected to the graphics card.

I found: How to remove the graphical user interface? but that only applies to GRUB, which I assume cannot be used on a PowerPC computer.

I'm assuming I need to change something in yaboot.conf, but I can't find an clear advice.

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JonMcL
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2 Answers2

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I came across this issue as well, and I've spent nearly 2 hours online searching for solutions. You were on the right track, yaboot is the right place to look at. However, there are some more to do before we get rid of that useless monitor.

I found an email conversation, which resolves our problem. I am not too sure if you've resolved yours, but for the benefit of others, I will repost the solution and link here. (Just because Google thinks there is a solution here...)

Link: http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.linux.ports.ppc.embedded/34058

In case the link expires, here is the copy-and-paste:

Credit goes to: Romain Goyet wrote on 24 Mar 2010 11:32

Hi there,

  Here's a summary about "how to boot a PowerMac G5 without a screen
attached". As many people have noticed, default yaboot install won't
boot unless a screen is attached.

  Actually, the workaround is really simple. Thing is, that's the
"ofboot.b" script that messes things up. This script is a "bridge",
that actually either starts yaboot or let you boot off of a CD. I
don't know what's the point, since OpenFirmware already lets you boot
off of the CD by pressing C on boot…

  So basically, to boot headless, all you have to do is to tell
OpenFirmware to boot straight off the yaboot binary, and to skip the
ofboot.b
Just boot into OpenFirmware (Command-Option-O-F), and type :
setenv boot-device hd:2,yaboot (where 2 is the number of the partition
containing yaboot)
boot

And here you go, you can unplug that useless monitor 

References :
http://saintaardvarkthecarpeted.com/blog/archive/2005/02/THE_WINE_OF_BOOT.html
http://grub.enbug.org/TestingOnPowerPC

By the way, as of writing this, grub2 on PPC from debian gives a "out
of memory" issue. Known bug.
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Maxim Mai
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-1

You can use grub on PowerPC, instructions are in the PowerPC FAQ wiki (I'm not going to type them out here). Though you can use the "text" parameter with yaboot. To test, boot with:

Linux text

To make it permanent amend your yaboot.conf, replacing "quiet splash" with "text", or adding it on the end "quiet splash text". Don't forget to run ybin after changes!

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pipagreenwood
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  • It wasn't me who gave you the -1. I don't know what that's about :). I will give this a try as soon as I have patience to hook up monitor again. I didn't know I need to run ybin after making changes to yaboot.conf. Is that true? Any guidance on what options I might need to use on ybin? – JonMcL Mar 12 '13 at 21:20
  • Well I did figure out ybin (sudo ybin -v). I didn't realize that the changes to yaboot.conf needed to be committed via ybin. This successfully let me configure things to boot "nosplash text". But only with monitor connected. When I disconnect the monitor, Ubuntu still doesn't start up. I feel that it's getting stuck at the initial prompt (openfirmware?) or the yaboot prompt and just waiting for keyboard input. If I have monitor connected, both prompts timeout and move on without keyboard input. – JonMcL Mar 12 '13 at 21:45