The PowerPC Debian Wiki

[bedouin]

I only ask because I've only ever seen that error in the ppc64 environment, and not in the powerpc realm. In any case, we can make sure with uname -srp.

I used this image:

debian-10.0-powerpc-NETINST-1.iso

But chose the install-powerpc64 option on boot.

Here is the output of uname -srp:

Linux 4.19.0-5-powerpc64 unknown​

Launch VLC from console again, then run cat /var/log/syslog and see what it says at the bottom portion, at the end area. Usually, something should stick out.

I ran tail -f /var/log/syslog in one console tab and then launched VLC in another. There was no output to syslog when VLC crashed. The last few lines are unrelated to VLC.

Aug 31 04:24:30 computername systemd[1]: Stopped udev Kernel Device Manager.
Aug 31 04:24:30 computername systemd[1]: Starting udev Kernel Device Manager...
Aug 31 04:24:30 computername systemd[1]: systemd-logind.service: Main process exited, code=killed, status=6/ABRT
Aug 31 04:24:30 computername systemd[1]: systemd-logind.service: Failed with result 'watchdog'.
Aug 31 04:24:30 computername systemd[1]: systemd-logind.service: Service has no hold-off time (RestartSec=0), scheduling restart.
Aug 31 04:24:30 computername systemd[1]: systemd-logind.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 76.
Aug 31 04:24:30 computername systemd[1]: Stopped Login Service.
Aug 31 04:24:30 computername systemd[1]: Starting Login Service...
Aug 31 04:24:30 computername systemd[1]: Started udev Kernel Device Manager.
Aug 31 04:24:30 computername systemd[1]: Started Login Service.​

 

[0403979]

@0403979 : Try booting from yaboot with these: Linux nosplash radeon.modeset=1 radeon.agpmode=-1 video=offbff
If that works, (this worked on my macmini-g4) once booted, sudo nano /etc/yaboot.conf and add those to the "append" line (replacing the original line). Then run sudo ybin -v and reboot. Those settings will be saved and will stick for future boots.

Cheers

EDIT: Here's a screenshot for better reference
View attachment 854652

This doesn’t work. Same issue with the (sometimes obstructed) broken animation that fades to black.

 

[z970]

This doesn’t work. Same issue with the (sometimes obstructed) broken animation that fades to black.
View attachment 855502

Try a different distro.

 

[bedouin]

Any ideas about how I might solve the VLC issue? Every player is behaving the same way, so it seems to be bigger than just VLC.

Aside from that issue, things are working nearly 100% at this point.

 

[wicknix]

@bedouin : Pure PPC64 is very buggy and crash prone. I'd suggest reinstall using the bullet-proof 32-bit option.

Cheers

 

[z970]

@bedouin : Pure PPC64 is very buggy and crash prone. I'd suggest reinstall using the bullet-proof 32-bit option.

Cheers

He's using the powerpc option.

Though install-powerpc64 is an Ubuntu option, not a Debian one...

Anyway, that just decides the flavor of kernel. It won't cause instability.

 

[bedouin]

Though install-powerpc64 is an Ubuntu option, not a Debian one...

I couldn't remember what the option was for Debian, so I assumed it was the same as the Ubuntu one mentioned in the FAQ. I'm definitely running Debian though I've been using it since 2005 when I switched away from Redhat (goodbye RPM hell).

Is there any reason the July 7th snapshot is specified in the FAQ as opposed to the newest one?

By the way, this is a Quad G5 with a GeForce 6600. Maybe the problem has to do with the graphics drivers?

 

[z970]

I couldn't remember what the option was for Debian, so I assumed it was the same as the Ubuntu one mentioned in the FAQ. I'm definitely running Debian though I've been using it since 2005 when I switched away from Redhat (goodbye RPM hell).

Is there any reason the July 7th snapshot is specified in the FAQ as opposed to the newest one?

By the way, this is a Quad G5 with a GeForce 6600. Maybe the problem has to do with the graphics drivers?

Debian uses install for 64 bit and install32 for 32 bit.

If it were newer it would be Debian 11 Sid, and not Debian 10 Buster. We didn't get a stable, supported release, so the July 7th snapshot is an "innovation" of mine so we could at least have a stable snapshot w/o updates and instability.

Hey, at least it's more secure than 8.11.

If you want to be safe, just reinstall and use only the snapshot repo in your sources.list. Nothing else.

 

[bedouin]

If you want to be safe, just reinstall and use only the snapshot repo in your sources.list. Nothing else.

I never added anything else. A reinstall isn’t going to happen at this point. I needed to create a backup server and that side of things is finished.

Getting the desktop-related things working well is just a bonus, but it irks me to have this one piece of the puzzle missing.

Are there any good how-tos on setting up QEMU with KVM in Debian PPC?

 

[z970]

I never added anything else. A reinstall isn’t going to happen at this point. I needed to create a backup server and that side of things is finished.

Getting the desktop-related things working well is just a bonus, but it irks me to have this one piece of the puzzle missing.

Are there any good how-tos on setting up QEMU with KVM in Debian PPC?

Not to my immediate knowledge.

You could be the one to pioneer and teach others this area.

To be absolutely certain, could you post your sources.list?

Otherwise, I'm stumped as to why VLC is being difficult. Aside from ppc64, this has never happened on any of my installs, and probably not on most other people here's too.

 

[bedouin]

#

# deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 10.0 _Sid_ - Unofficial powerpc NETINST 20180516-18:14]/ sid main

#deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 10.0 _Sid_ - Unofficial powerpc NETINST 20180516-18:14]/ sid main

# Line commented out by installer because it failed to verify:
#deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security sid/updates main
# Line commented out by installer because it failed to verify:
#deb-src http://security.debian.org/debian-security sid/updates main

deb http://snapshot.debian.org/archive/debian-ports/20190707T221412Z/ sid main

 

[z970]

#

# deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 10.0 _Sid_ - Unofficial powerpc NETINST 20180516-18:14]/ sid main

#deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 10.0 _Sid_ - Unofficial powerpc NETINST 20180516-18:14]/ sid main

# Line commented out by installer because it failed to verify:
#deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security sid/updates main
# Line commented out by installer because it failed to verify:
#deb-src http://security.debian.org/debian-security sid/updates main

deb http://snapshot.debian.org/archive/debian-ports/20190707T221412Z/ sid main

Yeah, I got nothing. From my view, there's no reason it shouldn't be working without issue...

Perhaps try CLI-based players?

 

[swamprock]

#

# deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 10.0 _Sid_ - Unofficial powerpc NETINST 20180516-18:14]/ sid main

#deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 10.0 _Sid_ - Unofficial powerpc NETINST 20180516-18:14]/ sid main

# Line commented out by installer because it failed to verify:
#deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security sid/updates main
# Line commented out by installer because it failed to verify:
#deb-src http://security.debian.org/debian-security sid/updates main

deb http://snapshot.debian.org/archive/debian-ports/20190707T221412Z/ sid main

Is this PPC32? If so, add the deb-multimedia.org repo (you'll have to use sid) and try to install VLC again:

Add to sources.list: deb https://www.deb-multimedia.org sid main

Then:
wget http://www.deb-multimedia.org/pool/main/d/deb-multimedia-keyring/deb-multimedia-keyring_2016.8.1_all.deb
sudo dpkg -i deb-multimedia-keyring_2016.8.1_all.deb

Unfortunately, PPC64 doesn't work with deb-multimedia, AFAIK...

 

[bedouin]

Perhaps try CLI-based players?

Like mplayer? This is what I get when I try to play an MP4 with it, which makes me believe this problem is deeper than just VLC.

mplayer: error while loading shared libraries: R_PPC_REL24 relocation at 0x006d0e64 for symbol `htonl' out of range

Unfortunately, PPC64 doesn't work with deb-multimedia, AFAIK...

I used the powerpc (not ppc64) installer, but selected the 64-bit install when I was prompted. I'm not sure if that disqualifies me from using the Debian Multimedia repo or not.

By the way, I purged VLC and anything I suspected was related to it today and then reinstalled with no luck.

 

[bedouin]

A couple more questions...

I can't seem to get my FW800 drive to show up. lshw can see that I have firewire, but the drive itself doesn't appear. Maybe there are some modules I'm missing?

I've switched to Artic Fox for the most part, but I do use Firefox sometimes when I need synced bookmarks. Unfortunately, the Firefox ESR crashes whenever I right click on a page. Can this be fixed?

 

[z970]

I can't seem to get my FW800 drive to show up. lshw can see that I have firewire, but the drive itself doesn't appear. Maybe there are some modules I'm missing?

Likely. Unfortunately I wouldn't know of any, especially as I am away from my PPCs for the time being and cannot check for myself.

Look through ls /sys/module and see if there might be anything containing 'firewire' or 'fw' that you can add to /etc/modules to automatically load at boot. That might yield something.

I've switched to Artic Fox for the most part, but I do use Firefox sometimes when I need synced bookmarks. Unfortunately, the Firefox ESR crashes whenever I right click on a page. Can this be fixed?

Again, not to my knowledge.

Maybe scout around about:config and look for relevant items to the context menu? Otherwise, you might be able to get by just by using its menu bar (File, Edit, View, etc.).

 

[bedouin]

It seems I need firewire-ohci, firewire-core, and firewire-sbp2 — all of which are loaded (the latter I had to add manually). Still no luck.

 

[sparty411]

Has anyone here successfully installed Void Linux? I can’t for the life of me figure out to partition my drive correctly. Partitioning is done manually.

 

[galgot]

Hi,
Does someone have a working sources.list for Debian Jessie ?
Apparently PPC is not included in Jessie-LTS :/ And the Sources.list I use just doesn't work.
Its for updating a Jessie install I haven't fired up for some time...

 

[z970]

Hi,
Does someone have a working sources.list for Debian Jessie ?
Apparently PPC is not included in Jessie-LTS :/ And the Sources.list I use just doesn't work.
Its for updating a Jessie install I haven't fired up for some time...

What sources.list are you using?

The archive repository listed in the install guide should be working fine.

 

[galgot]

What sources.list are you using?

The archive repository listed in the install guide should be working fine.

I use these:

deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ jessie main contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ jessie main contrib non-free

deb http://security.debian.org/ jessie/updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ jessie/updates main contrib non-free

deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ jessie-updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ jessie-updates main contrib non-free

deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ jessie-backports main contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ jessie-backports main contrib non-free

These would work for a Jessie install ? :

# Sources
deb http://ftp.ports.debian.org/debian-ports/ unstable main
deb http://ftp.ports.debian.org/debian-ports/ unreleased main
deb http://incoming.ports.debian.org/buildd/ unstable main

# Non-Free (add this if you have an ATI GPU)
deb [arch=all] http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ unstable main contrib non-free

 

[z970]

I use these:

deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ jessie main contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ jessie main contrib non-free

deb http://security.debian.org/ jessie/updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ jessie/updates main contrib non-free

deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ jessie-updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ jessie-updates main contrib non-free

deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ jessie-backports main contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ jessie-backports main contrib non-free

Yeah, those repos are out of service for the ppc arch. You will need to use the archive repositories listed in the install guide.

These would work for a Jessie install ? :

# Sources
deb http://ftp.ports.debian.org/debian-ports/ unstable main
deb http://ftp.ports.debian.org/debian-ports/ unreleased main
deb http://incoming.ports.debian.org/buildd/ unstable main

# Non-Free (add this if you have an ATI GPU)
deb [arch=all] http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ unstable main contrib non-free

No, using those will just update you to Debian 11 Sid.

Use these:

deb http://archive.debian.org/debian/ jessie main contrib non-free
deb http://archive.debian.org/debian/ jessie-backports main contrib non-free

 

[sparty411]

Is it not necessary to specify “non-free” on archived versions, in order to gain access to non free firmware packages?

 

[z970]

Is it not necessary to specify “non-free” on archived versions, in order to gain access to non free firmware packages?

Presumably, it would be.

Fixed (for this case).

 

[galgot]

Thanks z970mp,
but this what I get when trying these :

Ign http://archive.debian.org jessie InRelease
Hit http://archive.debian.org jessie-backports InRelease
Get:1 http://archive.debian.org jessie Release.gpg [2,420 B]
Get:2 http://archive.debian.org jessie Release [148 kB]
E: Release file for http://archive.debian.org/debian/dists/jessie-backports/InRelease is expired (invalid since 220d 14h 4min 3s). Updates for this repository will not be applied.

Maybe its normal ? dunno...