Apple Mac G4 iBook external display and Kubuntu?

[starscream]

I'm new to the forums so... hi there!

I am experiencing a really annoying problem.

Basically, I use ubuntu and kubuntu to recover pc hard disks whenever I have a dead machine. I have an Apple iBook 12" G4 where the backlight in the screen has died. I can barely read the screen properly but can faintly see an image, impossible to work from or recover data from.

I would normally remove the hard drive in this situation but I have recently removed the hard drive from a dead ibook and it took the best part of a day and it is extremely difficult to put back together.

So I want to boot the laptop in Kubuntu and recover the data that way. The laptop boots fine but the external monitor has a weird distorted display, as soon in the picture attached. I can fainly see the kbunutu menu on the laptop screen so I know it booted ok just it isnt using the external monitor properly so I cant begin to use kubunu till I have a legible display on the external monitor.

Has anyone see this before? Is there another live linux distro that works with ibook external monitors?

Please help, I really don't want to take this apart as I fear I cant reassemble it correct and the laptop works fine with an external monitor.

Cheers

John

[img width=400 height=300]http://www.dunnill.com/IMAG0002.jpg[/img]

[javierrivera]

Re: Apple Mac G4 iBook external display and Kubuntu?

1)
I usually find that knoppix have better hardware support than kubuntu as a liveCd. On the other hand it's not as easy to use and quite intimidating to a linux newbie.

2)
If you press CTRL+ALT+F1, do you get a console?
Do you see the boot messages?
Can you choose the "safe graphics mode" at start?.

Javier.