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Is MintPPC still best option for G4 Powerbook?

RickNel

Well-known member
I'm giving MintPPC a try on my G4 TiBook, but I notice there has been no release since November 2011.

Is there a better alternative?

Rick

 

RickNel

Well-known member
There's a snag with MintPPC that may be common to many or all PPC Linux distros - the wireless network utility can not negotiate WEP security via Airport.

Obviously, a Powerbook is not much use without wireless network access. I don't want to have to use a WiFi dongle if I can avoid it. I have to attach various vintage devices that can only use WEP to my local WLAN, so I have to use WEP security.

The blockage seems to be with the way Airport interprets a "hex" password - you can't enter anything but ASCII into the password forms. Most systems will parse the ASCII representation of a hex password correctly, but airport seems to read the entered characters at their ASCII binary values. In Tiger, for example, you have to tell the utility whether the password is ASCII or HEX. Debian-based utilities don't give that choice.

Any known work-around to this? I searched quite a few forums without any success.

Rick

 

PowerPup

Well-known member
@RickNel: Have you tried the "0x" trick? I've had to do this under Mac OS 9 and 10.4. So maybe it's a hardware thing?

While I do not have any Macs at home running Linux, I did help my library set up their Mac Mini G4 with Lubuntu 12.04LTS as a web server and Circulation System. It's been running 24/7 for about a year now with no issues.

 

RickNel

Well-known member
Yes, I have tried the "0x" prefix, also the "$" and "&H" prefixes. They don't work.

I think the problem is Debian/Mint being a bit clever in the wrong way. The one entry box is used for 40bit security passwords in either Hex or ASCII formats. It counts the numbers of characters entered. The "Save" option becomes available only when you hit 5 characters (which would be ASCII representations of the binary value) or 10 characters (which would be the ASCII alphanumeric hexadecimal code, eg 7f0587d65c...). So no prefix characters can be entered.

I tried to get around this by modifying the password to ensure it could be entered in 5 characters. Didn't work.

Since any PPCLinux is essentially a vintage project, I am surprised that nobody seems to have sorted out this problem of compatibility with Mac firmware . I'm not sure where the hex translation to binary takes place in the native Mac stack - it could be in Open Firmware or in the airport card firmware. But since WEP code entry works OK in Tiger, logic suggests it is in the OS or the specific network utility.

Rick

 

RickNel

Well-known member
BTW the WICD alternative network manager is definitely a better interface - however it does not overcome this specific issue of WEP code rejection.

 

theos911

Well-known member
MintPPC 11's base is still Wheezy and Wheezy is the current Debian stable release. The only "old" packages are really those that make it look and feel like Linux Mint rather than straight Debian. Upstream keeps all the important stuff up to date (well, as much as Debian keeps anything "up to date") and secure.

 
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