Debian Sid Remix (ppc32/ppc64)

[MacMaverick855]

I am going to reinstall Debian/Mint Remix on my Mac G5. An extreme note of apology is due wicknix as I DID NOT read the instructions provided with this distro. I went back to the page I downloaded the iso from and saw a note indicating I should read the Install.txt before installing the OS. I did not.

I have now. I will re-attempt to install the software per the install.txt. There are some familiar (swamprock) type instructions in the text giving me new confidence that this install will work.

I had used swamprock's Debian 10 net install CD and MacRumors instructions to install Debian 10 and actually got further with Debian than I ever had before. I actually got to a screen that showed a pretty "debian 11" background overlaid with the boot choices of Debian/GNULinux and Advanced options. This lead me to an area where I could add additional repos etc etc but the resulting reboot left me with a blank screen and (sometimes) a flashing cursor but nothing else.

Reading the instructions provided with the Deb Remix I found familiar instructions on boosting the basic install and some newer instructions giving me hope that this install may work for my G5. I will keep you all posted.

Remixes have yet to fail me and I'm pumped!!!
MacMav

 

[mortlocli]

I am going to reinstall Debian/Mint Remix on my Mac G5. An extreme note of apology is due wicknix as I DID NOT read the instructions provided with this distro. I went back to the page I downloaded the iso from and saw a note indicating I should read the Install.txt before installing the OS. I did not.

I have now. I will re-attempt to install the software per the install.txt. There are some familiar (swamprock) type instructions in the text giving me new confidence that this install will work.

I had used swamprock's Debian 10 net install CD and MacRumors instructions to install Debian 10 and actually got further with Debian than I ever had before. I actually got to a screen that showed a pretty "debian 11" background overlaid with the boot choices of Debian/GNULinux and Advanced options. This lead me to an area where I could add additional repos etc etc but the resulting reboot left me with a blank screen and (sometimes) a flashing cursor but nothing else.

Reading the instructions provided with the Deb Remix I found familiar instructions on boosting the basic install and some newer instructions giving me hope that this install may work for my G5. I will keep you all posted.

Remixes have yet to fail me and I'm pumped!!!
MacMav

Its funny how we like to read the instructions after all else fails... Im guilty of that (several times)..and probably will be again..

 

[MacMaverick855]

Sad part about it is, in my excitement with finding the instructions, I forgot that this particular install takes me to a black screen and I can’t login as root, or anybody else.

MM855

 

[MacMaverick855]

So, Great and powerful wicknix, I put a different monitor on the G5 and followed the install instructions because I was able to see what was going on. The G5 is currently loading software and I'm waiting for it to finish. I'm hoping I can reconnect the Apple Cinema display and have it work but I'm going to wait until it's up and running. Thank you for the recommendation to test the DVI port.

As always, I will keep you updated,
MM855

 

[MacMaverick855]

It's gorgeous...but.

The installed packages don’t have a wireless network set up included. I’ll need to research which one would be best. Also I tried to connect the Apple Cinema Display, along with the DVI monitor and a message came up on the DVI monitor stating “this display will not work in this mode”. So I disconnected the ACD. I need to find a way to get it working. It looks great and I have a lot to learn about the workings of Debian.

MM855

 

[wicknix]

The 2 most popular networking utilities would be network-manager along with network-manager-gnome (the applet), or wicd-gtk. Cant help with the ACD though. Don't own any to test with. Maybe it's as simple as installing something like lxrandr and playing with some of the available modes. Worth a shot i suppose.

Cheers

 

[MacMaverick855]

Well, that was easy. Wifi up and running, the dual monitor thing is frustrating.

I ran xrandr -q from the terminal and it shows the DVI monitor and it's possible resolutions, and it shows VGA-0 is disconnected and S video 0 is disconnected. Not sure where the S video thing is coming from since the Mac G5 doesn't have an S video out.

As much as I hate plugging in devices on a running computer, I plugged the Apple Cinema Display (ACD) after the G5 was up and running and ran the xrandr -q again, and it showed VGA-0 with a resolution of 1980x1520 (something like that). I ran an xrandr command to add the monitor and it actually showed up in the Monitor Settings with the Max resolution but it also jacked up the DVI monitors resolution so I bailed out of that and put everything back to normal.

While the DVI monitor was displaying at the larger resolution, I had to right click to get back to the Monitor Setting preference screen and a weird thing occurred. The drop down menues were much more pristine with a charcoal background instead on the plain-jane white pull downs. I'm not sure why that happened but I wouldn't mind getting those back.

More research is required to get the ACD up, by itself or in dual mode. Every attempt to launch Debian 10 with just the ACD attached resulted in a dead/black/blank screen with no responce in my attempts to get to a terminal.

Or I could go buy the "mother of all DVI monitors" and attach it, but, as always, the ACD should work.

Thanks for the help with the wireless thing, it's working fabulously!!!

MacMav

 

[MacMaverick855]

I think I figured out that the GPU card in my G5 supports only one monitor at a time and for some reason only the DVI port works with this install. Is there a way, using the DVI Monitor to install, update, upgrade a package that would "activate" the Apple Cinema Display port. I can have both monitors plugged in and (oddly) when the ACD is plugged in along with the DVI monitor, xrandr -q sees a VGA-0 with 1680x1050 resolution but no way to "make it active" or wake it up. The DVI monitor is listed as DVI-0 which I think might be confusing the system. I'm not sure what to think of the fact that both monitors are listed in xrandr -q, that xrandr shows the ACD's max resolution correctly but the monitor is dead.

Thoughts anyone?

MM855

 

[Tratkazir_the_1st]

Videocard problem? Got some else to test?

 

[MacMaverick855]

The card is fine, Lubuntu 16.04 and others displayed just fine on the 20” Apple Cinema Display, for some reason, it’s not working in Debian. I need to figure out if there is an install package or other software fix or adjustment needed in Debian t get it to work.

 

[Tratkazir_the_1st]

1 more dumb question. Firmware packages? If I remember correctly, for debian it is useful to install firmware-linux, firmware-linux-ffree, firmware-linux-nonfree, firmware-amd-graphics, m.b. some else.

 

[MacMaverick855]

The Debian install included instructions on doing just that, I’ll have to look at the “firmware-amd-graphics“ again. I tried to find that last package and came up empty but will try again. You’re not the only one who mentioned “firmware-amd-graphics”. Must be something to it.

Thanks,
MM855

 

[MacMaverick855]

I'm baaaaack! Debian has been kicking my B-hind, well not Debian but Debian trying to get a visible desktop response from an Nvidia GeForce4 GPU. I will use some of the tips from above, and yes I printed out the instructions. The installs all seem to be going fine, the grub bootloader comes up fine, but then I end up at a black screen. I am currently downloading the above file and will see if it differs from the one I downloaded a few days ago. (Still not a fan of Grub)
Mac Mav

 

[MacMaverick855]

So what’s the fix to get NVidia cards to work? At first I thought it might be an Apple Cinema Display issue so I attached a DVI monitor to the Nvidia GeForce4 card but when it booted it went through the majority of the text/loading screen then “went linear”. The text was slashed and dashed across the screen and the boot stopped. 867Mhz G4 1 Gig RAM. I can’t (ok, don’t want to) believe there isn’t some way to get this to work. I can get to a terminal screen at boot by entering “Linux nomodest” but internet searches for commands to load NVidia drivers from Terminal provide some hope but when I execute the commands the result is nil.

I’ll do some more searching. I really don’t want to give up on this G4 using the Apple Display.

MM855

 

[Tratkazir_the_1st]

What's in /var/log/X.0.log (or how it is named, don't remember filename)?

 

[MacMaverick855]

Where and how do I “look” at the log you mentioned? If I’m able to get to a command line, what do I enter to review the log. I’m still pretty wet behind the ears when it ones to terminal use.

 

[MacMaverick855]

So I tried to install Mint over Debian SID (having never reached a workable desktop, logging in with Linux nomodeset) using the above Mint over Debian
links and received numerous errors failing to load the files (Failed to fetch...Temporary failure resolving...) from the apt.sources.list. Do I need to add [trusted=yes] to all of the entries in the sources list?

the apt-key add reported nothing exported
apt install showed two upgrades and that's it

This is on the G4, 867MHz, 1GigRam NVidia GeForce4 GPU

...asking for a friend
MacMav

 

[Tratkazir_the_1st]

Temporary failure resolving

...means installer can't reach repo with packages. /var/log is where most logs resides. Try ls -lah /var/log, for example (yes, it is all done in terminal, because you don't have working X11 & some desktop environment \ window manager).

 

[MacMaverick855]

In reviewing the /var/log/Xorg.0.log, and paraphrasing, the nvidia driver can not be found, the nouveau driver is listed as existing. In order to get to the Desktop of the LIVE Lubuntu 16 Remix I enter the following at the boot prompt (found on another web search):

live video=offbff nouvea.modeset=0 single

(The screen freezes at the Open Firmware screen, which is expected)
When I think the boot process has completed, about 5-10 minutes to be safe, I enter the following, blindly because the screen is frozen:

modprobe nvidiafb

If the boot process has completed, the screen will flicker, and a terminal, command line screen will appear showing the above entry

I then enter

start lightdm (works for Lubuntu 12.04 Remix, NOT Lubuntu 16.04 Remix I have to hit Ctl-D to get to the desktop )

and I get a desktop loaded and can proceed to test and/or install the distro.

The current problem is that not all of the windows open to show their contents. I can use a terminal, look at and use some of the apps but when I go to use the installer, all I get is the header bar and a window you can see the desktop wall paper through. If you knew where all the buttons and input windows (name, password, location) the installer calls for you could try and do it blind but I think I'll pass trying that.

I've tried some updates, upgrades, installs from the terminal but 90% of them come back will "unable to access, find, load etc"

Until I can figure out what to do to SEE the installer (Ubiquity) windows, I can't install Lubuntu, 16.04 Remix

When trying to install Debian Remix, The above boot commands take me to a black screen.

MacMav

 

[Tratkazir_the_1st]

nvidia driver

Nvidia proprietary driver just don't exist for architectures other than x86\amd64 (m.b. some kind of ARM). Only nouveau. Which Mac are you using for Debian installation? (Can't find details.)

 

[MacMaverick855]

Debian Remix install was attempted on the same 867Mhz 1 G RAM G4, different hard drive. The real issue is why the installer windows don’t show content when things like system profiler, FireFox etc appear normal. Doesn’t make sense that some apps appear fine but the installer, software installer and Synaptic Package Manager windows don’t appear. It’s got to be something with the window manager that’s not working correctly.

I keep forgetting to mention the GPU is an Nvidia GeForce4 MX 420

 

[mansley12]

Question, I am using the sid remix with great success. However on some desktops environments, including LXDE, I get red artifacts on the screen. It is bright red and can take over an entire panel. I am assuming it has something to do with my radeon 9700 rendering. Have you seen this? For example, I cannot use gdm3/gnome because the login manager is bright red and I cannot see text and icons properly. LXDE and lightdm are the only combination I can get to work with the least amount of problems.

Thanks,

Mark

 

[MacMaverick855]

I haven’t gotten to the point of seeing a desktop with my G4 using an Nvidia GeForce4. I’ve got Radeon 9600 cards in my other G4 and G5 and they have never exhibited this behaviour. I’m pretty sure neither is running a gnome desktop.

 

[mansley12]

Here is an example of what I am seeing

 

[wicknix]

My guess would be issues with hardware acceleration. It's semi broken on ppc. I don't know what boot parameters you are using, but try running it with software 2d/3d rendering. Just pass: radeon.agpmode=-1 video=1600x1200-16 to the kernel at boot and see if that helps.

Cheers