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The PowerPC Debian Wiki

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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.
swamprock

swamprock

macrumors 65816
Aug 2, 2015
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Michigan
z970mp said:
@swamprock, how did you get that graphical boot screen in Sid working on your iBook? That would be a great addition to the Wiki and countless already installed systems.

And quick question, are your PowerBook's backlit keys still misbehaving in Sid, or was some kind of fix found?

Thanks. :)
Click to expand...

sudo apt install plymouth plymouth-themes
/usr/sbin/plymouth-set-default-theme --list
/usr/sbin/plymouth-set-default-theme THEME_NAME
sudo nano /etc/yaboot.conf
append="quiet splash" (after any other appended commands, like radeon.agpmode=-1)
Save and exit nano, then sudo ybin -v
Reboot

Seems to only work with Radeon cards, though, due to nvidia firmware weirdness in Debian 10+. There may be some themes that don't work, so keep trying.

And yeah... I still get stuttering in Debian 10 with i2s_bus enabled in modules.
 
Z

z970

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Original poster
Jun 2, 2017
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swamprock said:
And yeah... I still get stuttering in Debian 10 with i2s_bus enabled in modules.
Click to expand...

I've recently noticed that my DLSD's keyboard brightness is perfectly adjustable as long as Fn is being held down whenever pressing the KB backlight keys, though I wanted to know if any other solutions were found first.

This is with no i2s_bus in /etc/modules, also.
 
juancarlosonetti

juancarlosonetti

macrumors member
May 5, 2019
61
72
Spain
z970mp said:
@sheich0608, this might pique your interest...

Alright, so I got the proposed fix of slotting kernel 3.2 into Debian 8.11 on my iBook G4 done. Haven't tried with 14.04 or anything else yet. But once tested, it goes into and comes out of sleep flawlessly. However, there is one problem...

After it boots up, LightDM does not start (just a cursor), so the desktop needs to be activated with 'startx' from a separate session.

View attachment 846411

As seen here, all the colors are off / distorted, almost as if the graphics are in some sort of reduced-bit mode.

Not terribly sure at the moment what the conflict between 3.2 and whatever else this happens to be is, but this ain't over.

If anyone else wants to give it a shot on any other systems / distributions, here's the kernel; just install it like any other .deb. Guide below.
Click to expand...

I have been thinking about this for a while, and the only significant change between Wheezy and Jessie that I can think of is the addition of systemd. It turns out that systemd controls suspension on Debian now. Maybe this is what is making suspension buggy?
 
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Z

z970

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B

bjar

macrumors regular
Feb 20, 2013
232
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Sugar land, tx
z970mp said:
Once network-manager is in, that err can be taken care of with 'sudo rm /etc/network/interfaces'.

Every distribution offered besides 16.04 will fit on a CD. However, if you still have your Raspberry Pi at hand, you could try flashing to a spare USB and boot from there.

All that said, I believe the only problems we've seen here is that 16.04 for whatever reason does not like your MDD's GPU, and that 16.04 for whatever reason cannot connect to the repositories.

Maybe see how 16.04 fares with your Quicksilver, and try Debian 10 on your MDD?



Totally unrelated at this time of year, but that quote just reminded me of a funny story I've got saved on my system. Might lighten the mood. :)
Click to expand...
So I tried 14.04 on the quicksilver. It installed fine, but when I boot it goes to a black screen. This is immediately after installation. I haven’t even gotten as far as trying to install lightdm. Note it does this same thing with Debian. I have a GeForce 2 MX graphics card. Could that be it? Is there a list of cards that work? Based on what I have been reading Radeon is probably the way to go, is that correct? Thanks!
 
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z970

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Jun 2, 2017
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bjar said:
So I tried 14.04 on the quicksilver. It installed fine, but when I boot it goes to a black screen. This is immediately after installation. I haven’t even gotten as far as trying to install lightdm. Note it does this same thing with Debian. I have a GeForce 2 MX graphics card. Could that be it? Is there a list of cards that work? Based on what I have been reading Radeon is probably the way to go, is that correct? Thanks!
Click to expand...

Which Debian did you try?

With Linux, Radeon cards are almost always preferable due to the availability of the non-free drivers, which is a great graphical performance booster Nvidia cards don't have.

Until you can get one, this sounds like the kind of machine better off with Ubuntu 12.04 / Debian 7. See what happens with either of those.
 
B

bjar

macrumors regular
Feb 20, 2013
232
105
Sugar land, tx
z970mp said:
Which Debian did you try?

With Linux, Radeon cards are almost always preferable due to the availability of the non-free drivers, which is a great graphical performance booster Nvidia cards don't have.

Until you can get one, this sounds like the kind of machine better off with Ubuntu 12.04 / Debian 7. See what happens with either of those.
Click to expand...
Debian 10. I will try 12.04 and also start looking for a Radeon card. I also have a G5 late 2005 dual 2ghz with a gtx 9800 in it. Is there a disto you recommend for that or should I search for a Radeon card for that too? Thank you for all of your help!!!
 
Z

z970

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bjar said:
Debian 10. I will try 12.04 and also start looking for a Radeon card. I also have a G5 late 2005 dual 2ghz with a gtx 9800 in it. Is there a disto you recommend for that or should I search for a Radeon card for that too? Thank you for all of your help!!!
Click to expand...

Your G5 / GTX 9800 should be fine in Ubuntu 16.04 / Debian 10.

No problem, buddy. :)
 
B

bjar

macrumors regular
Feb 20, 2013
232
105
Sugar land, tx
z970mp said:
Your G5 / GTX 9800 should be fine in Ubuntu 16.04 / Debian 10.

No problem, buddy. :)
Click to expand...
Installed 12.04 on quicksilver. Same thing goes straight to black screen on first boot after install. I guess I will wait for a Radeon gpu to pop up on eBay for cheap. Will try 16.04 on the g5. And for my fw800 with the 9600 gpu I think I may just try morphOS. I’ll stick to tiger and OS9 on the quicksilver.
 
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z970

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Jun 2, 2017
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Stupid question, but have you tried hooking another display up to the Quicksilver? That can deduce that it's definitely a GPU problem and not a monitor issue.

Hey, nobody said that this was one-size-fits-all... ;)
 
B

bjar

macrumors regular
Feb 20, 2013
232
105
Sugar land, tx
z970mp said:
Stupid question, but have you tried hooking another display up to the Quicksilver? That can deduce that it's definitely a GPU problem and not a monitor issue.

Hey, nobody said that this was one-size-fits-all... ;)
Click to expand...
That GeForce 2 MX is only ADC/VGA. I only have one ADC monitor and no VGA monitors. So nope. It’s not super important a get this working. But once I start on a project I kind of have to finish. So either the quicksilver, fw800, or G5 must run Linux or I will go crazy. I know it’s not one size fits all, I’m just not as smart as you guys when it comes to Linux. I’ll update later when I have one of them working :).
 
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z970

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I'd like to announce to everyone that something big is coming . . .

Something very big. :apple:
 
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juancarlosonetti

juancarlosonetti

macrumors member
May 5, 2019
61
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Spain
I have finally been able to make radeon graphics work on Debian Sid on my iBook Snow. I almost can't believe it. I have been having a blinking black screen for months with the radeon driver until today.

I have both 2D and 3D acceleration working. Suspension also works perfectly :D

The only thing that needed to be done was to install the Wheezy xorg packages, do some dpkg ****ery to avoid package conflicts, and compile the 4.4 kernel, which will be supported until 2022. Goodbye to the framebuffer driver!

I will make a guide in 24/48 hours. The problem I'm having now is that I can't build the newest 4.4 kernel update on my machine, and I am also struggling to stop the old packages from upgrading. Marking them with the "apt-mark hold" command does not work, maybe because they have been installed from the wheezy repo. Please stay tuned.
 
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sparty411

sparty411

macrumors 6502a
Nov 13, 2018
553
501
juancarlosonetti said:
I have finally been able to make radeon graphics work on Debian Sid on my iBook Snow. I almost can't believe it. I have been having a blinking black screen for months with the radeon driver until today.

I have both 2D and 3D acceleration working. Suspension also works perfectly :D

The only thing that needed to be done was to install the Wheezy xorg packages, do some dpkg ****ery to avoid package conflicts, and compile the 4.4 kernel, which will be supported until 2022. Goodbye to the framebuffer driver!

I will make a guide in 24/48 hours. Please stay tuned.
Click to expand...
Holy cow! I’ve been looking for a solution to this problem FOREVER! Wheezy runs SO damn well on my iBook G3. Very exciting news!
 
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juancarlosonetti

juancarlosonetti

macrumors member
May 5, 2019
61
72
Spain
sparty411 said:
Holy cow! I’ve been looking for a solution to this problem FOREVER! Wheezy runs SO damn well on my iBook G3. Very exciting news!
Click to expand...
Yes indeed, this problem was so annoying that I was thinking about creating a distro from scratch, but I decided to persist and, to be honest, it was relatively easy to "repair".

BTW, I think we already know each other from a Bangladeshi Kite testing forum :D
 
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