Help save my venerable G4 iMac!

Support & Help Requests
#1

My wonderful old 2003 G4 iMac wasn't very useful under OS X any more, but the "sunflower" design is too cool to abandon, so I took the leap to Ubuntu Mate. No problems getting the system installed from the iso file, but I can't get it configured for sound and wifi.

I'm not very good with Linux, but I follow precise instructions well...I did find prior posts on these subjects (none in the past couple of years, interestingly) but don't know enough to apply what I found.

Sound: I found alsamixer and am able to unmute the Master, but still no sound. In case it matters, the Headphone and Speakers indicators have a small box with "00" in them, but no bar indicating level like the Master.

Wifi: I think I have a Broadcom wifi device. A bootup message flashes by about needing a driver, but too fast for me to copy down (and I've no idea where such messages are logged or how to access them). I've found instructions for resolving this online, but none were written at a level I was capable of following.

#2

First, can you connect your iMac to the Internet without setting up the wifi using the ethernet interface? Second, do you have the external speakers? The internal speaker is useless.

djb

#3

Yes, I can connect via Ethernet, and yes, I have external speakers connected (the clear spherical ones that connect only to this generation of iMac).

#4

If your Wifi is:

0000:10:12.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller [14e4:4320] (rev 03)

then all you need is

sudo apt install b43-fwcutter

Reboot and you should be able to configure your wifi.

=====

Sound:

cat /proc/asound/cards

will show your sound devices. It should show “Snapper”.

Normally, the sound levels come up all the way down so you will have to open Sound Preferences from indicator-sound (Select “Sound Settings” in the volume control icon on one of your panels)

I prefer to load two more apps for sound control: qasmixer (for alsa settings)and pavucontrol (for pulse audio settings).

djb

#5

My command line limitations include not knowing how to interpret your initial “if your wifi is…” statement because I don’t know how to find out. Typing “wifi” in the terminal returns “wifi = none (no device)” even though I’ve used the wifi card to join our home network under Mac OS.

Figuring I can’t wreck non-existent wifi, I entered the sudo command and rebooted as you advise. Upon disconnecting Ethernet the up-down arrow symbol is replaced by a quarter-circle symbol, but right clicking on it doesn’t list wifi networks, but you did advise I’d have to “configure” it.

The dialog box offers a VPN connections choice, a “checked” Enable Networking" choice, and an “Edit Connections…” so I tried that last one, created a new Wifi connection with the SSID of my network and entered my password under the security tab (WPA & WPA2 Personal Security) and saved that. This is new to me; I left lots of other fields blank (BSSID, Device, Cloned MAC address) or as they were (Mode=Client, MTU=automatic), none of which mean anything to me…please advise if I should have set any of these differently…

Still no wifi.

As for sound, the results of that cat command are not as you predicted:

  • [SoundByLayout ]: AppleOnbdAudio - SoundByLayout
    SoundByLayout

Now sure what the “indicator-sound” is; that’s not a choice I see in the “Sound Preferences” (not quite “Sound Settings” but it’s what I get when I left-click on the sound icon so I assume it’s what you mean). I do see a list of alert sounds from which to choose…

[While I was in Sound Preferences I noted that in tabs named “Hardware” “Input” and “Output” there’s one device listed: “KeyLargo/Intrepid Mac I/O” in case that’s of use…]

#6

Sorry about that…

What model is you Mac? You can find out by

cat /proc/cpuinfo

There should be a line that says “model : PowerMac something”

===

To find out what your wifi adapter is

lspci

Mine is a Broadcom BCM4306.

djb

#7

djb–

cat /proc/cpuinfo produces the following:

processor : 0
cpu : 7455, altivec supported
clock : 1249.999995MHz
revision : 3.3 (pvr 8001 0303)
bogomips : 83.20

total bogomips : 83.20
timebase : 41600661
platform : PowerMac
model : PowerMac6,3
machine : PowerMac6,3
motherboard : PowerMac6,3 MacRISC3 Power Macintosh
detected as : 287 (Flat panel iMac)
pmac flags : 00000010
L2 cache : 256K unified
pmac-generation : NewWorld
Memory : 2048 MB

lspci produces the following:

0000:10:0b.0 Host bridge: Apple Inc. UniNorth 2 PCI
0000:10:12.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 03)
0000:10:17.0 Unassigned class [ff00]: Apple Inc. KeyLargo/Intrepid Mac I/O
0000:10:18.0 USB controller: Apple Inc. KeyLargo/Intrepid USB
0000:10:19.0 USB controller: Apple Inc. KeyLargo/Intrepid USB
0000:10:1a.0 USB controller: Apple Inc. KeyLargo/Intrepid USB
0000:10:1b.0 USB controller: NEC Corporation OHCI USB Controller (rev 43)
0000:10:1b.1 USB controller: NEC Corporation OHCI USB Controller (rev 43)
0000:10:1b.2 USB controller: NEC Corporation uPD72010x USB 2.0 Controller (rev 04)
0001:20:0b.0 Host bridge: Apple Inc. UniNorth 2 Internal PCI
0001:20:0d.0 Unassigned class [ff00]: Apple Inc. UniNorth/Intrepid ATA/100
0001:20:0e.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Apple Inc. UniNorth 2 FireWire (rev 81)
0001:20:0f.0 Ethernet controller: Apple Inc. UniNorth 2 GMAC (Sun GEM) (rev 80)
7f08:00:0b.0 Host bridge: Apple Inc. UniNorth 2 AGP
7f08:00:10.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation NV34M [GeForce FX Go5200] (rev a1)

–Kim

#8

What does

/sbin/ifconfig -a

show ? You should see your ethernet, a local Loopback, and a wireless LAN interface.

djb

#9

This is what I get:

enP1p32s15f0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:0a:95:cb:9b:74
inet addr:10.0.0.18 Bcast:10.0.0.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::78f1:b41b:d62:3a45/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:82796 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:31825 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:112182108 (112.1 MB) TX bytes:2940386 (2.9 MB)

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:65536 Metric:1
RX packets:1619 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:1619 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1
RX bytes:143791 (143.7 KB) TX bytes:143791 (143.7 KB)

#10

OK No wireless at all.

Did b43-fwcutter install OK? Post the output of

cat /var/log/dpkg.log | grep b43
#11

2019-01-18 00:17:55 install b43-fwcutter:powerpc 1:019-2
2019-01-18 00:17:55 status half-installed b43-fwcutter:powerpc 1:019-2
2019-01-18 00:17:55 status unpacked b43-fwcutter:powerpc 1:019-2
2019-01-18 00:17:55 status unpacked b43-fwcutter:powerpc 1:019-2
2019-01-18 00:18:01 configure b43-fwcutter:powerpc 1:019-2
2019-01-18 00:18:01 status unpacked b43-fwcutter:powerpc 1:019-2
2019-01-18 00:18:01 status half-configured b43-fwcutter:powerpc 1:019-2
2019-01-18 00:18:02 status installed b43-fwcutter:powerpc 1:019-2

#12

OK Post output of

dmesg | grep b43
#13

I forgot a step:(

sudo apt install firmware-b43-installer

djb

#14

Hey, there’s that warning message to go to a wireless.kernel.org website that flies by too quickly to even transcribe:

3.841550] b43-pci-bridge 0000:10:12.0: enabling device (0004 -> 0006)

[ 27.714556] b43-phy0: Broadcom 4306 WLAN found (core revision 5)
[ 27.722779] b43-phy0: Found PHY: Analog 2, Type 2 (G), Revision 2
[ 27.722814] b43-phy0: Found Radio: Manuf 0x17F, ID 0x2050, Revision 2, Version 0
[ 28.177492] b43 ssb0:0: Direct firmware load for b43/ucode5.fw failed with error -2
[ 28.177593] b43 ssb0:0: Direct firmware load for b43/ucode5.fw failed with error -2
[ 28.247535] b43 ssb0:0: Direct firmware load for b43-open/ucode5.fw failed with error -2
[ 28.247627] b43 ssb0:0: Direct firmware load for b43-open/ucode5.fw failed with error -2
[ 28.247640] b43-phy0 ERROR: Firmware file “b43/ucode5.fw” not found
[ 28.247688] b43-phy0 ERROR: Firmware file “b43-open/ucode5.fw” not found
[ 28.247713] b43-phy0 ERROR: You must go to http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#devicefirmware and download the correct firmware for this driver version. Please carefully read all instructions on this website.

#15

Yes I forgot the step to install the firmware. See above.

#16

I’ve been to the (redirected) website. It’s not written for people who don’t speak code as a primary language…

#17

…but that resolves the wifi issue!

Now about sound…

#18

Working on sound…

#19

Post output of

lsmod | grep snd

I don’t know whether the PowerMac 6,3 model uses the Snapper or AppleOnboardAudio and I don’t believe that the Linux kernel knows which one to load. The AppleOnboardAudio would need to be blacklisted if the kernel is guessing wrong.

#20

snd_aoa_fabric_layout 10315 2
snd_aoa_codec_tas 10709 2
snd_aoa 16260 2 snd_aoa_fabric_layout,snd_aoa_codec_tas
snd_aoa_i2sbus 19213 1
snd_powermac 65953 0
snd_aoa_soundbus 4666 2 snd_aoa_i2sbus,snd_aoa_fabric_layout
snd_seq_midi 6349 0
snd_pcm 97723 2 snd_aoa_i2sbus,snd_powermac
snd_seq_midi_event 6991 1 snd_seq_midi
snd_rawmidi 24975 1 snd_seq_midi
snd_seq 62149 2 snd_seq_midi_event,snd_seq_midi
snd_seq_device 5032 3 snd_seq,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_midi
snd_timer 23184 2 snd_pcm,snd_seq
snd 71253 14 snd_aoa_i2sbus,snd_timer,snd_aoa,snd_pcm,snd_seq,snd_rawmidi,snd_aoa_fabric_layout,snd_seq_device,snd_powermac,snd_aoa_codec_tas
soundcore 7247 1 snd