There are two flavours of the powerpc kernel in Ubuntu, based on the CPU type:

Apple (and briefly a few other manufacturers — Power Computing, for example) made a series of Macintosh computers based on the PowerPC processor. For purposes of architecture support, they are categorized as NuBus (not supported by Ubuntu), OldWorld, and NewWorld.

OldWorld systems are most Power Macintoshes with a floppy drive and a PCI bus. Most 603, 603e, 604, and 604e based Power Macintoshes are OldWorld machines. Those pre-iMac PowerPC models from Apple use a four digit naming scheme, except for the beige colored G3 systems, which are also OldWorld.

The so called NewWorld PowerMacs are any PowerMacs in translucent colored plastic cases and later models. That includes all iMacs, iBooks, G4 systems, blue colored G3 systems, and most PowerBooks manufactured in and after 1999. The NewWorld PowerMacs are also known for using the “ROM in RAM” system for MacOS, and were manufactured from mid-1998 onwards.

Specifications for Apple hardware are available at AppleSpec, and, for older hardware, AppleSpec Legacy.

NuBus systems are not currently supported by Ubuntu/powerpc. The monolithic Linux/PPC kernel architecture does not have support for these machines; instead, one must use the MkLinux Mach microkernel, which Ubuntu does not yet support. These include the following:

A linux kernel for these machines and limited support is available at http://nubus-pmac.sourceforge.net/.

Macintosh computers using the 680x0 series of processors are not in the PowerPC family but are instead m68k machines. Those models start with “Mac II” series, go on to the “LC” family, then the Centris series, and culminate in the Quadras and Performas. These models usually have a Roman numeral or 3-digit model number such as Mac IIcx, LCIII or Quadra 950.

This model range started with the Mac II (Mac II, IIx, IIcx, IIci, IIsi, IIvi, IIvx, IIfx), then the LC (LC, LCII, III, III+, 475, 520, 550, 575, 580, 630), then the Mac TV, then the Centris (610, 650, 660AV), the Quadra (605, 610, 630, 650, 660AV, 700, 800, 840AV, 900, 950), and finally the Performa 200-640CD.

In laptops, it started with the Mac Portable, then the PowerBook 100-190cs and the PowerBook Duo 210-550c (excluding PowerBook 500 which is Nubus, please see the section above).

Wireless networking is in general supported as well and a growing number of wireless adapters are supported by the official Linux kernel, although many of them do require firmware to be loaded.

If firmware is needed, the installer will prompt you to load firmware. See Section 6.4, “Loading Missing Firmware” for detailed information on how to load firmware during the installation.

Wireless NICs that are not supported by the official Linux kernel can generally be made to work under Ubuntu, but are not supported during the installation.

If there is a problem with wireless and there is no other NIC you can use during the installation, it is still possible to install Ubuntu using a full CD-ROM or DVD image. Select the option to not configure a network and install using only the packages available from the CD/DVD. You can then install the driver and firmware you need after the installation is completed (after the reboot) and configure your network manually.

In some cases the driver you need may not be available as an Ubuntu package. You will then have to look if there is source code available in the internet and compile the driver yourself. How to do this is outside the scope of this manual.