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Debian Sid Installation Guide (PowerPC)

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The first post of this thread is a WikiPost and can be edited by anyone with the appropiate permissions. Your edits will be public.
Ok, so I’ve read some material about Kernel-centric video drivers and X.org video drivers. What I’ve read makes it sound like they don’t play well together. My understanding (and I could be completely wrong) is the Kernel provides a device dependent driver (Kernel Mode Setting KMS) and X.org (or Wayland I guess) provides a Device Independent driver. I think this means that when X is loaded it can create conflicts with the Kernels video driver.

Hence the use of boot parameters. Now I just need to understand what they do or can do. In discussing Radeon cards, I’ve seen a recommended boot parameter:

Linux radeon.modeset=1 radeon.agpmode=-1 video=offb:eek:ff

So what do these commands do?


As far as my Fienix install goes, I know X has loaded both an amdgpu and radeon driver. In order to get away from a black screen I am going to have to figure out how to get the Kernel (5.14.0-3) and the Xorg drivers to cooperate or to hand off control from one or the other.

More research on my part is needed.

Thanks for all the assistance from everyone on the MacPPC, Linux forums.

MacMaverick855
 
So, I decided to reinstall Fienix 5.1 on my MDD G4. Upon reboot, I tabbed to see what boot options were available. I was surprised to see “Fienix-Linux” and “Fienix-old” as choices along with “Linux” and “old”. Would this be because I didn’t erase the HD before reinstalling Fienix again? Regardless, all options boot to blank screen.

I’m in a Catch-22 right now. Unless I boot to “single” I can’t get to a CLI. I don’t get Internet access in single. When I boot to a blank screen, internet is active but I can’t access a CLI. I will research starting internet from “single” or “maintenance” mode via CLI. In the meantime I’m still looking for the magic boot parameter to get the radeon 7000, RV100 card to produce a GUI.
 
I was able to get the network up after starting up Fienix in “single” mode. Unfortunately, running firmware-linux -nonfree or the fienix-GPU- bandage indicated the packages weren’t found. The instructions from the Fienix blog indicated these would help in establishing a GUI. Any. Recommendations would be welcome.
 
Has anyone gotten graphics working using with the GeForce 6600 and Debian SID 11.0 PPC64? I'm running a dual-core late 2005 G5. The system boots fine into text mode, and I am able to SSH into the system. But I haven't been able to get the graphics drivers to work, and only get a blank screen. I think running a true 64-bit OS on the G5 would really be a neat thing to see.
 
Cant say i tried with Debian64, but my dual core 2.3ghz g5 runs 64 bit Void Linux without issue. Graphics just worked out of the box with the 6600. Come to think of it i also installed Feinix Soar (Debian based) on it as well, but its like Ubuntu in that it uses a 64 bit kernel, but uses a 32 bit rootfs.

Cheers
 
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bkmoore773 said:
Has anyone gotten graphics working using with the GeForce 6600 and Debian SID 11.0 PPC64? I'm running a dual-core late 2005 G5. The system boots fine into text mode, and I am able to SSH into the system. But I haven't been able to get the graphics drivers to work, and only get a blank screen. I think running a true 64-bit OS on the G5 would really be a neat thing to see.
Click to expand...
Under Ubuntu 14-16 I had to use the following append with the 7800 GS and GTX otherwise I couldn't reach the desktop:

Code: 
video=offb:off video=nouveaufb:off video=offb:off nouveau.modeset=1 radeon.modeset=0 nouveau.config=NvMSI=0 pci=realloc

This however did not work in Sid until the latest release in March (so I absolutely had to use a Radeon HD card), but after the update I did however reach the desktop but with garbled colours. Strangely enough it works out of the box under OpenSUSE, albeit more slowly than with a Radeon HD card under gnome
 
wicknix said:
Cant say i tried with Debian64, but my dual core 2.3ghz g5 runs 64 bit Void Linux without issue. Graphics just worked out of the box with the 6600. Come to think of it i also installed Feinix Soar (Debian based) on it as well, but its like Ubuntu in that it uses a 64 bit kernel, but uses a 32 bit rootfs.

Cheers
Click to expand...
I somehow can't get the 7800 GTX (neither GS, or Radeon HD for that matter) to initialise properly using Void live, I have tried several appends to no avail... But good to know that at least nouveau works fine with the 6600 (PCIe presumably if your G5 is a DC?) under Void
 
Tratkazir_the_1st said:
???
They don't support PowerMacs now or you got some manual partitioning\installation method?
Sorry for Offtop here...
Click to expand...
Yes manual partitioning, manual boot partition (instead of the PReP partition) and only on GUID-supported models (e.g. DC/Quad G5, afaik very last iMac G5 - the iSight version, and possibly PB G4 DSLD/HR and mac mini G4 silend upgrade), pretty snappy, see below

forums.macrumors.com

Booting a GUID disk on PowerPC Macs

Booting from gpt allows OpenSuse Tumbleweed to be installed on PM G5s. The way to go about it using an empty drive in the top bay: 1) Format your empty drive using the GUID partition scheme 2) Install OpenSuse Tumbleweed ppc64, let the installer use the entire drive, it should result in...
forums.macrumors.com forums.macrumors.com

SDB:Install openSUSE on an Apple PPC computer - openSUSE Wiki

en.opensuse.org en.opensuse.org
 
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Hi all, i post again here, since it seems to be the place for sid related issues

I'm trying to install debian sid on a powermac G5. Some days an installation try went straight forward, letting me installing the base system and then proceed with the rest from command line

now i have to reinstall it and i'm not able to get it anymore
i downloaded the ppc64 installer from here (the ppc flavor failed to boot) from here

http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/ports/current/

it boots correctly

i proceeded with following steps:
  • installed OSX Leopard and partitioned sda with sda1, sda2, sda3 (Leopard partitions) and an unused sda4 partition
  • booted the debian installer and deleted the sda4 partition
  • rebooted the debian installer and proceeded with guided partition on empty space of sda
  • the partitions created by guided partitioning are sdb4 (Hfs, /boot/grub) sda5 (ext4, /) sd5 (swap)
  • i proceeded with a minimal installation since i cannot connect to a mirror
  • the installation went straight till the bootloader installation wich fails
at this point i made different tries to find a workaround, even going on CTRL+ALT+F2 console, remounting the boot partition and retry installing grub, both via the installer and from terminal with no success
Code: 
$ chroot /target
$ mount -t hfs /dev/sda4 /boot/grub
$ mount -t sysfs none sys
$ grub-install /dev/sda4

from terminal grub reports the error

Code: 
sda4 is not a PReP partition

wich is quite strange since as far as i recall the G5 does not require a prep partition

if some of you can help i'll be grateful

if some of you can suggest a correct url for a mirror to use i'll be grateful also
 
Tratkazir_the_1st said:
@azazel616
Do you have only 1 drive in your PowerMac?My last experiments in DebSid installation confirmed nearly straightforward installation, even with GPT-patitioned drive. You'll need only 1 hfs partition & mount point (/boot/grub) for it.
Click to expand...

actually i have 2 ssd, i'm installing both oses on sda keeping sdb for data, on sda there's the 3 partions for osx as described and the boot one is an hfs+ partition
the debian installer created another boot partition in sda4 as hfs to mount in /boot/grub and others for root and swap as described above

with my g4 and powepc installer things went quite straight also but this G5 can't boot powerpc flavor and ppc64 seems unable to install grub
 
Well, if Debian is anything like Adelie, after entering grub-install and receiving the "PReP partition" error, just go ahead and ignore it (got the same thing installing Adelie) and go to the next step which (I think) is grub-macbless. The instructions I had for manually installing grub said G5 users could ignore the PReP error. Also, the partition you are "blessing" should be the hfs formatted partition.

Hope this helps
MacMaverick855
(and before anybody asks, YES, I'm still fighting with Adelie!!! I'm winning battles, but haven't won the war...yet)
 
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MacMaverick855 said:
Well, if Debian is anything like Adelie, after entering grub-install and receiving the "PReP partition" error, just go ahead and ignore it (got the same thing installing Adelie) and go to the next step which (I think) is grub-macbless. The instructions I had for manually installing grub said G5 users could ignore the PReP error. Also, the partition you are "blessing" should be the hfs formatted partition.

Hope this helps
MacMaverick855
(and before anybody asks, YES, I'm still fighting with Adelie!!! I'm winning battles, but haven't won the war...yet)
Click to expand...

no, it's not, i mean, grub does not install at all on the HFS "blessed" partition, i believe the bless have to be done manually as dextructor pointed me in this thread
I'll try today.

anyway, i'm using a 250Gb ssd for main osses (Leopard+Linux) and have a secon 500Gb ssd for data. Since the second ssd is way too large for my data to keep on the machine, i'll keep 100gb for experimenting additional ppc64 distros, and the first will be exactly Adelie, wich at my first try i failed to install due to the need of launch the horizon-gui as root. If i'm able to get some time i'll try both within today (GMT+1) and let you know (or ask for more help), if there's already a thread on installing Adelie, please, point me to it

just curious if the G4 "slackintosh" mentioned in your signature is running some flavour of slackware, if so, an there's a thread for the distor, again i'll be glad you'll point me to it, since i also have a G4-400 running os9 wich needs a more recent OS alongside to be used actually.
 
azazel616 said:
just curious if the G4 "slackintosh" mentioned in your signature is running some flavour of slackware
Click to expand...
That link has most (if not all) non OSX systems compatible with our PowerPC machines, including Slackintosh (that it's discontinued even more that Ubuntu). The more current port of Slackware for non x86 machines it's BonSlack. So please when someone already said, or put a link it's to easy the search of information. :)
 
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dextructor said:
That link has most (if not all) non OSX systems compatible with our PowerPC machines, including Slackintosh (that it's discontinued even more that Ubuntu). The more current port of Slackware for non x86 machines it's BonSlack. So please when someone already said, or put a link it's to easy the search of information. :)
Click to expand...
The MacRumors forums on Adelie Linux and the “RC2 and Below are Broken” both contain information on manually installing Adelie. As of right now, the horizon GUI installer doesn’t work, even if you follow Action Retro’s YouTube video on installing Adelie on a Lampshade Mac. This DID work, once, I actually did it, but because of some issues I decided to wipe the drive and start over. The repository mirrors became unusable via the horizon-us and so the Action Retro instructions no longer work. It fails at the “Installing Software” step because of the repository mirror issues.

I have successfully installed Adelie on a G5 ppc64 “cheese grater” Mac. Again, with issues. The color is off (purplish pink), Had to load some additional software (alsa) to get sound, and I can’t get the OS to see usb or CDroms.

I believe the majority of my issues are due to not establishing a User correctly. The “useradd” command is archaic (my opinion). I truly believe that if I can add a user with ALL of the rights of root, I would be able to do so much more. It’s like any changes I make in root don’t transfer to my username.

The best example of this is, in system settings. If I go into add a user, set the clock, and others, I am presented with a message that I am not allowed to change this configuration. I can’t even add another user in the account manager!!!

I am currently drafting what I hope to be the correct steps needed to manually install Adelie on a ppc64 Mac G5. IO am “borrowing” information from the Adelie Forums and its members, the Adelie wiki and some sites discussing the useradd command. Once I get an installation that allows me the ability to do things I want; play music CDs, read files off of a usb, fix the color issue etc. I will figure out how to get this information to people who want it.

One more thing: The only success I’ve had in getting Adelie to boot on my G5 is making sure, the kernel is 5.4. If easy-kernel loads the 5.14 or 5.15 kernel, my G5 boots to a black screen where I can see the mouse cursor but nothing else. My G5 uses a Radeon 9600 GPU.

A lot to take in, and the Adelie IRC Chat guys say I should wait for RC3, however, if RC3 repositories only load 5.14, or 5.15 or newer kernels, RC3 won’t work for me.

I’ll keep you posted and I apologize to the Debian gang for bogarting this forum. This is more applicable to the Adelie for ppc and RC2 is Broken forums.

MacMaverick855
 
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ok time for an update:

  • i was able to get a minimal installation of Adelie manually on the G5, with grub booting even if not showing in the boot selector. I installed some GUIs also overcoming an incredible mistake i made (making me feel again as a newbie) with the help of the IRC channel.
  • Obviously the boot of leopard is broken, but i'm still able to boot it from OF with boot hd:2,\\:tbxi
  • i installed Fienix, quite straight but the ethernet didn't work until fixed and the Mate DE is still not working with noveau driver errors reported (i belive its a legacy of debian 8 ppc64 but i can't say that certainly)
  • i installed debian sid without bootloader
  • i installed os-prober and updated grub installation from adelie and got the three distros booting, proceeding to configure sid as i needed, installing plasma also (still not tested)
  • i'm sharing a FAT32 partition between linuxes and leopard for shared data
  • leaving a partition to test gentoo also
planned steps:

  • getting more ram
  • fixing fienix
  • install gentoo
  • tune and fix adelie (lot of things still lost like sound)
  • tune debian
thanks to you all for contributing to my (still partial) success
 
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azazel616 said:
i installed os-prober and updated grub installation from adelie and got the three distros booting
Click to expand...
This never worked in my installations. Even if os-prober detects other systems, trying to start them from GRUB menu fails with errors, like GRUB can't find drive or partition... (But my setup is a bit more complicated, I'm trying to move all drives to SAS controller, which makes aliases like CD1, hd1 & others useless :D ).
 
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Tratkazir_the_1st said:
This never worked in my installations. Even if os-prober detects other systems, trying to start them from GRUB menu fails with errors, like GRUB can't find drive or partition... (But my setup is a bit more complicated, I'm trying to move all drives to SAS controller, which makes aliases like CD1, hd1 & others useless :D ).
Click to expand...
still unable to chainload anyway:)
 
Has anyone been able to successfully install Debian Sid or 10 or 11 on a PowerBook G4 A1010 867 mhz? I’ve tried everything. I’m starting to think it’s just not possible on this model. :(
 
swamprock said:
My bad... I did use /sda2. I think that the original partitioning scheme on the drive, before I defined my linux partitions, was what caused all of the problems.

Yep... the ability to format the NewWorld partition is there.

I'm currently reinstalling, after zeroing the entire drive. I've had no issues with partitions so far, and the install is proceeding with no more incidents, so we'll see what happens.

EDIT: aaaand it worked. Looks like the drive was just weird.
Click to expand...
I've got 12 bookworm (mostly) running in Rescue Mode on a 12" AlBook 867mhz, but can't past yaboot when I try booting Debian from my hard drive. Is there another solution to this besides zeroing out the entire drive and reinstalling? (Sorry if I overlooked it somewhere!)
 
Lilendianppcnes said:
I've got 12 bookworm (mostly) running in Rescue Mode on a 12" AlBook 867mhz, but can't past yaboot when I try booting Debian from my hard drive. Is there another solution to this besides zeroing out the entire drive and reinstalling? (Sorry if I overlooked it somewhere!)
Click to expand...
I have the same issue - and I am a long-time Debian / Ubuntu user, going back years! I have a write-up extension of the 2018 directions starting this Thread. However, I would like it to "work" before posting, though I may put it on gist.github.com.

Frustrating! Both during the installation and doing a "rescue", I can "apt install" and do various things, but the Rescue mode - post install - is not viable for a working Debian SID, on a G4 1.25 DP, bah. Yaboot must work, ha ha! Any ideas? I will post more soon....

EDIT: "Better to use Expert mode install if available with any deb-based distros." I second this, heartily. The install went very well, for the latest macppc SID .iso, and Expert mode give a lot of flexibility in the install process.

EDIT: I booted the latest Debian powerpc "ports" (Dec 2022?) ISO, dd'ed to a good USB thumb-drive. I can install or "Rescue" from that USB installer, over and over without issue. Now, to make "yaboot" actually boot the Debian install...
 
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