Debian Sid Installation Guide (PowerPC)

[dr.zeissler]

OK, Debian 10 PPC was my next try.

I recognized the failure on boot for the rage128 ...firmware not loaded or something... I could not take a picture of that message. But that indicates me that getting 3D hw-acc will possible be problematic on Debian10 PPC too.

Now I see the partition map. What do you think about this?

Is N12 (1MB) the yaboot partion that would be bootet at start and let me choose between "linux, OS9, OSX" ?
How am I supposed to do this on Debian10 which should have no "yaboot" but "grub" instead.

On PC I always use xfdisk partitioner and bootmanager. On PC I always place grub at the start on the first linux partition so that the bootloader (xfdik) starts grub and grub boots linux. How could this be done on Debian 10PPC with grub?

This is very high risk...perhaps I should make a copy of the software already installed on the machine if something goes wrong and debian kills my actual setup.

 

[dr.zeissler]

my idea is letting this 1MB partition as it is, clear Nr.13/14 (swapp, and "7") and place grub on the beginnen on Nr.14...
in theory yaboot should boot grub and grub boots linux....

 

[repairedCheese]

my idea is letting this 1MB partition as it is, clear Nr.13/14 (swapp, and "7") and place grub on the beginnen on Nr.14...
in theory yaboot should boot grub and grub boots linux....

You'd have to have a way to pass GRUB's existence to Yaboot, and I don't actually know if there's a way to do that.

But I'm genuinely wondering, what are you trying to get out of Linux, anyway? There's more to Linux than just making sure 3d support works and I'm curious if there's anything you're trying to run in particular.

 

[dr.zeissler]

some early 2d and 3d stuff...nothing fancy, no internet no productivity...simply retro-gaming.

 

[dr.zeissler]

But I'm genuinely wondering, what are you trying to get out of Linux, anyway? There's more to Linux than just making sure 3d support works and I'm curious if there's anything you're trying to run in particular.

There are some nice linux (freeware) games that are ppc but were not ported to the mac like tecnoballZ. I have tried this on this mac via morphos but they did not fix the r128pro-adc-studio-display, so the screen goes blank after starting from the desktop. They will probably never fix this due to the problem that non of the devs has such a machine with this (normal) setup. They drive other gfx-cards and other monitors. I already contacted the dev that is responsible for the r128-mos-driver, but as I said, he has not my hardware-setup, so he can't generate my error. (screen goes blank while booting and only comes back when halting the options key to set the monitor in alternative mode...mos-desktop works until I start a program...then the screen goes and stays blank and monitor LED blinks.)

 

[dr.zeissler]

Ok, Nautilus error is gone, so I stay on YDL3 and checkout :
- Why they promoted working R128pro 3D Acceleration but it does not work
- How to get other rpm's installed.. "mc" is a must have but not included, there should be a PPC version of it.

Doc

 

[dr.zeissler]

PowerPC LinuxPPC: Yellow Dog Linux for PowerPC Computers

Yellow Dog Linux is Terra Soft Solution's Linux distribution for PowerPC computers. With over 1000 packages, YDL is a proven home/office workstation, server, code development, and high performance computing (HPC) node --and inexpensive, friendly introduction for those new to Linux.

web.archive.org

PowerPC LinuxPPC: Yellow Dog Linux for PowerPC Computers

Yellow Dog Linux is Terra Soft Solution's Linux distribution for PowerPC computers. With over 1000 packages, YDL is a proven home/office workstation, server, code development, and high performance computing (HPC) node --and inexpensive, friendly introduction for those new to Linux.

web.archive.org

PowerPC LinuxPPC: Yellow Dog Linux for PowerPC Computers

Yellow Dog Linux is Terra Soft Solution's Linux distribution for PowerPC computers. With over 1000 packages, YDL is a proven home/office workstation, server, code development, and high performance computing (HPC) node --and inexpensive, friendly introduction for those new to Linux.

web.archive.org

Power Mac G4 Cube
2X-AGP ATI Rage 128 Pro
Maximum number of colors: thousands
2D acceleration: Yes
3D acceleration: Yes
Dual head: No

 

[dr.zeissler]

What!! If I ever get this thing running 100% I will check this out. Crazy

Elite Bastards - Picture Window

web.archive.org

Review: Yellow Dog Linux 3.0.1 – OSnews

www.osnews.com

 

[Tratkazir_the_1st]

Can grub start OS9/OSX as well as yaboot does?

AFAIK GRUB can boot linux only & from drive where it (Linux) is installed. (This is result from my experiments on Quad when it worked.)

 

[dr.zeissler]

Thx, if I think the constellation is correct then it should work if the 1MB yaboot is still the first thing the mac starts, yaboot should start grub and when grub is at the start of the linux partition it should work. Since my YDL3 is working again (don't know what the nautilus error fixed) I am looking for the solution for the 3d acc-driver for my R128pro. There must be a way because it was advertised to work, so it must work.

There was a manual for YDL3 perhaps it's described there. I did not have found it yet.

 

[dextructor]

if the 1MB yaboot is still the first thing the mac starts,

That's not necessarily relevant, because if you follow the latest section (chapter 6) of the MorphOS Dual Boot Guide that setup what the OpenFirmware will boot, independently if it is the first or the last partition, you can change what it will boot until you reset the PRAM on your system (then you will have to use the commands again to setup, but that's fairly easy/quick to do).

I don't know if booting Yaboot to chainboot GRUB to only then start an Linux will work, but that's an idea that if works, please share with us the proper procedures to have an documentation.

 

[MacMaverick855]

How important are the repositories added to /etc/apt/sources.list? May sound stupid but Every attempt at putting Debian, Debian Mint, Debian Remix, etc and adding the repositories just blows up the whole thing. I reboot to a screen where I try to enter root or my user name and am presented with no opportunity to enter a password and a subsequent login error. There has to be a way to install the “base system”, return to the login, get into the system and then start building the GUI, desktop and windows manager etc without trying to use the /etc/apt/sources.list…or, the repositories have to be useable. The last “snapshot” I got from @wicknix looked promising but the results were the same. And yes, I entered [trusted=yes] in front of all the repositories.

Keep in mind my dvd reader is having issues reading disks, won’t boot from a USB stick.

MM855

 

[wicknix]

I haven't used Debian in ages as i've had Void installed for a few years now. The sources.lst is very important. Without its contents you wouldn't be able to install anything. With that said, have you tried the latest debian11.iso? Last i heard everything was fixed, including grub. Otherwise try the debian based Fienix distro as it uses yaboot by default and is based on debian10/11. I had gotten it working on a G5 not long ago when i tested it.

Here's the installer video:

 

[MacMaverick855]

This particular MDD G4, Radeon GPU, 2GB RAM, 1.25Ghz processor, already has Lubuntu 16.04 on one hard drive and I’m trying to get another Linux distro on it on a separate 80 GB ATA hard drive. I have tried unsuccessfully to boot from USB (it may be impossible with this model), the DVD RW isn’t reading some of the DVDs I’ve burned, except for the Debian ones, I’ve actually tried to load Fienix, in fact I was hoping to load Debian and add either Fienix or Mint but every effort to load Debian has flamed out after adding the repos and updating.

I think I may have the Debian 11 latest so I might try that route again. Grub and I don’t get along but it may be worth another try.

Thanks for the response!
MM855

 

[pc297]

I haven't used Debian in ages as i've had Void installed for a few years now. The sources.lst is very important. Without its contents you wouldn't be able to install anything. With that said, have you tried the latest debian11.iso? Last i heard everything was fixed, including grub. Otherwise try the debian based Fienix distro as it uses yaboot by default and is based on debian10/11. I had gotten it working on a G5 not long ago when i tested it.

Here's the installer video:

They don't seem to have fixed the firefox ARGB bug though as the last ppc version is still 86 as of today (esr 78)

They are both not available via apt anymore as libc6 2.36 from the newer versions supposedly break firefox<91 (actually so far for me it still works), one way to keep it is to edit /var/lib/dpkg/status and remove firefox and firefox-esr from the "Breaks:" list in libc6, still works fine and apt won't complain anymore about broken deps

EDIT: Why bother with firefox? Flawless youtube and co playback, not affected by the ARGB bug

EDIT2: firefof-esr 78 is available with OpenSUSE (not sure about the latest versions though) on which they DID fix the ARGB but, but transplanting it to Debian (via rpm to deb via alien) doesn't fix it (the ARGB bug is still there) - must be some other ff dep that has the ARGB bug in Debian and co (my money is on Skia). Sadly on OpenSUSE it won't play videos just like ff 58 from PowerProgress and co...

How do I get apt-get to ignore some dependencies?

How do I make apt-get ignore some dependencies? For example, I wanted to install mailx so I can use it to send email from cron scripts/report-generating tools. However, installing mailx also installs

serverfault.com

 

[pc297]

There also has been some effort to port Chromium to ppc64le AND ppc64 (with the ARGB bug fixed, indeed in Skia):

Porting/Chromium/BE - RCS Wiki

wiki.raptorcs.com

Porting/Chromium (New) - RCS Wiki

wiki.raptorcs.com

Did anyone try to build it?

 

[dextructor]

last ppc version is still 86 as of today (esr 78)

At least in VoidPPC in the PPC64 builds (because 32 bit's had some issues with rust if I'm not wrong that it's required to build) the latest version to this date it's "102.3.0_1" (ESR). Isn't that fast on my iMac G5 iSight, but works fine if I need to browse some modern sites with some patience to load.

I preferred much more the ArticFox from @wicknix because the speed it's monstrous and only a few sites that I daily browse has some quirks rendering, but lucky for us he made many versions of Firefox available and other browsers.

has been some effort to port Chromium to ppc64le AND ppc64

I don't own a Talos II for being able to install this sweet more modern and package available Linux distro's but if I base my knowledge in what's on the Void-Stats for PPC and in what the lead developer-maintainer @q66 said the latest Chromium to this date (107.0.5304.87_1) works without any problems in ppc64le (including MUSL) builds. So with fixing it for the Big Endian it's a matter of technical room, time and developers being available to do it.

But this post it's about Debian, and since Void it's working fine on my machines I'll stop talking about it in this post.

Back to the regular schedule now.

 

[MacMaverick855]

So, because my MDD PPC32 G4 has been refusing to boot DVDs, CDs and USBs. I decided to get creative. The first thing I did was, having found a 1 GB ATA drive, I decided to see if I could “burn” an iso onto it using “dd”. The Mac Terminal app let me perform the task so I rebooted, held down the Option(alt) key on startup and it booted into the Debian MintPPC Remix installer. I started walking through the process and got a message that the device needed access to the CD. So, I inserted the CD and away I went. I used this method to install the OS on an 80GB ATA drive. Unfortunately, after having installed and rebooting into the new system, editing /etc/apt/sources.list and updating I was never able to reboot and login again.

Attempts to boot the MDD from a USB has been precarious at best. Sometimes the USB drive would show up when holding down Option(alt) key on startup. However, clicking on the USB drive would result in the startup disk screen returning instead of starting up. (A similar response to failing to startup from a DVD/CD) So I attempted to boot the USB from Open Firmware. I have a feeling that the USB ports on the MDD aren’t powerful enough to allow the computer to use as a startup disk. I once read that it might help to use a powered USB hub. I don’t have one of those, but what I DO have is a powered hard drive read/writing device that reads newer SATA drives and connects via USB connection. I inserted a 250GB SATA drive into the device, used “dd” to put the Fienix 5.1 iso on it, and rebooted the MDD using the Option/alt key. I was excited to see it show up on the Start up disk list. It showed as a USB disk. I clicked on it and hit “enter” and the MDD booted into the Fienix installer!!!! I think I messed up by not using the boot install32 command. I ran out of time to trouble shoot it but this is further than I’ve ever gotten trying to load the Fienix 5.1 system on this device. Will keep you posted!

MacMaverick855

 

[wicknix]

Yep. Looks like it loaded the 64bit kernel (Elf64 kernel loaded...). Try install32 and you should be good to go.

Cheers

 

[Tratkazir_the_1st]

Try install32 and you should be good to go.

Better to use Expert mode install if available with any deb-based distros. Trust my personal experience with this. (More options at least a t partitioning & some other places which I don't remember because using only expert install ).

 

[MacMaverick855]

Thanks @wicknix, things were going pretty well with “install32” but the “finishing the installation” is hung up at 17% running preseed. I know the MDD is still connected to the internet but there doesn’t seem to be a way for me to interface with the installation at this point. I’m going to wait a bit to see if it continues installling.

I have not seen if I can go to another ttyl. May try that before starting over.

MM855

 

[MacMaverick855]

Better to use Expert mode install if available with any deb-based distros. Trust my personal experience with this. (More options at least a t partitioning & some other places which I don't remember because using only expert install ).

May try that as well if restarting the install is required. Currently stuck at 17% “finishing installation”.

 

[MacMaverick855]

Yep. Looks like it loaded the 64bit kernel (Elf64 kernel loaded...). Try install32 and you should be good to go.

Cheers

System loaded, booted to black screen; Radeon card (details on which one to follow). Researching yaboot parameters to use at boot. I can boot into single mode and log in as root. Not sure where to go from there...yet.

 

[MacMaverick855]

@wicknix, the Radeon card installed in this MDD G4 PPC32, as identified in Lubuntu 16.04 LTS (which boots up on the same MDD computer with NO boot parameters) is:

Advanced Micro Devices, [AMD/ATI] RV100 [Radeon 7000 / Radeon VE]

This is where you say "What the heck!!!???"
I have way too many Mac computers, I thought this was a Radeon ATY128.
Time for more (specific) research.

MM855

 

[Tratkazir_the_1st]

hung up at 17% running preseed.

You can see what's actually in progress on terminal 4, in any Debian-like installer. Switch to it with ALT-F4, back to installer - ALT-F1. (last time I was installing Devaun on PC - it stopped at some package installation phase because there was 1 file, already present on disk. Worked around with chroot, file removal, killing dpkg & returning ro installer which restarted that phase).