ppc January 2006

ppc@lists.fedoraproject.org

15 participants
10 discussions

Re: Newbie with Fedora Core 4 PPC on Power Mac G5.
by Brian Durant 03 Feb '06

03 Feb '06

On 28. jan 2006, at 19.24, Brian D. Carlstrom wrote: > Brian Durant writes: >> 3) The fans on the G5 are revving excessively. I assume this is a >> problem with the "windfarm" module? > > Have you done a "yum update" to get the latest software and rebooted > with the newly installed kernel? For me the original FC4 did not > support > my PowerMac7,3 but the updated one did. However, I don't think this > will > work in your case, but updating to an updates-testing kernel might, > if I > recall my earlier email, the 2.6.15 kernel available there had the > PowerMac9,1 code. once you update everything else, you can try a "yum > --enable-depot=updates-testing kernel*" or something like that to get > the newer kernel. Be careful not to install a ppc (versus ppc64) > kernel > or you won't be able to boot. Sorry, I keep changing things around, but I am really getting frustrated about not being able to get anything to work with any of the distros. They all are acting worse than beta ware on my machine. In my opinion, none of them should have been released before the issues were sorted out. It doesn't make a good impression for total newbies. Fortunately, I have had some experience with Linux, so I know sometimes you need patience, but I still try to follow the ath of least resistance and deal with the distro that is least bad :-) Since my posting,I have gone back to YDL 4.0.1 as it seems to work best on my machine of all of the distros I have tried. Even though I have a thing for .deb based distros, I am basically a pragmatist at heart and since YDL works best for me, that is where I will concentrate my effort on getting things sorted out. Maybe I can be convinced to love an .rpm based system as well. Who knows? Time will tell. Hopefully since it has Fedora Core as its base, this won't be considered off topic for the list. Except for installing Danish language support, my YDL install is a default desktop install. Here are some pretty fundamental issues that I can't seem to get around: 1) I can start a root session, but YDL doesn't recognize the root password when I try to do a command like: $ su tail -f /var/log/messages [ENTER] $ sudo tail -f /var/log/messages [ENTER] $ root tail -f /var/log/messages [ENTER] (This is when I am in a normal user session) 2) "yum check-update" returns something about some file missing in / var/.... >> 1) At the log in, the cursor blinks in the "username" field, but >> neither my Apple wireless keyboard nor my Apple USB keyboard seem to >> work. The mouse (Apple Mighty Mouse) seems to freeze also. I end up >> having to do a hard shutdown by pressing the poser button. > > I have only used the regular wired mouse and keyboards. In addition to > the ones that Apple shipped with the machine, on one machine we have a > Microsoft wired optical mouse and that works fine. We general use the > USB connector on the back of the monitor but we have also used the > front > and back USB connectors without problem. > >> 2) Yaboot can't boot into OS X. > > There has been a new yaboot since the initial release as well, > though I > have no idea if its related to this problem you are having. I've never > created a dual boot configuration so I'm not helpful there. Also, make > sure you run /sbin/ybwin whenever you change your /etc/yaboot.conf so > that it will take effect. Are there settings in yaboot.conf for dual > boot support? > > $ yum provides /sbin/ybin > Searching Packages: > Setting up repositories > Reading repository metadata in from local files > > > yaboot.ppc 1.3.12-9 > base > Matched from: > /sbin/ybin > > > yaboot.ppc 1.3.12-10 > updates-released > Matched from: > /sbin/ybin > > > yaboot.ppc 1.3.12-10 > installed > Matched from: > /sbin/ybin > $ > > Finally, YDL 4.1 is supposed to be out relatively soon...:) Yes, I have been thinking about that as well, but to tell you the truth, I would like to get a boxed version shipped. I would like to have a manual in my hand to refer to when I am puzzling over a solution. I like to relax in a sofa and study the matter before I go back to my desk :-) I'll have to see if Terrasoft can handle a shipment to Denmark. They have a partner in Germany, but as I don't read German... For now, I am going to concentrate on getting 4.0.1 to work and then see where I go from there :-) Cheers, Brian

5 20

Re: Newbie with Power Mac G5.
by Brian Durant 03 Feb '06

03 Feb '06

On 22. jan 2006, at 0.49, Brian D. Carlstrom wrote: > Brian Durant writes: >> If the above works more or less as described, would there be any >> problems with the OpenFirmware and yaboot if I installed Linux with >> the OS X drive unplugged, just in case - up in space? > > with linux on drive "b" with the "a" drive unplugged? the only > concern I > would have is that it might make the /etc/fstab mount tab assuming > that > since its the only drive that its the "a" drive. Then again, it should > know what drive it is from the controller. I don't think you'll break > anything, and at worst I can imagine that you could just boot and fix > the /etc/fstab after the fact. > > -bri Hmm. Interesting, but short lived experience. I booted into the Fedora Core 4 PPC install CD, verified the disk and went to the start of the install procedure. When I got to choosing the keyboard, I got the following error message: "The partition's data region doesn't occupy the entire partition." Then: "Attempt to read sectors 16-18 outside of partition on /dev/sdb" Then: "The partition's data region doesn't occupy the entire partition." Then: "Attempt to read sectors 16-18 outside of partition on /dev/sdc" I kept pressing "ignore" and then finally got to the partitioning issue. The only choice that looked safe was to try a manual partition as you are not allowed to choose which drive to automatically partition (!!!!???). I started to add partitions to "sdb" which is the drive I want to install Linux on, but then all of a sudden the kernel bonked out and the system did an emergency exit. I tried once again on a reboot. This time, all of the places where choices are made "back", "next" or "select" something were all flashing in rotation. I got as far as the partition dialog, again with the same errors, but I didn't dare to go any further, as it was unclear as to what drives were going to get partitioned :-( (I should mention that this is the same in YDL.) Very unfortunate interface on this issue. Cheers, Brian

3 2

Re: Newbie with Power Mac G5.
by Brian Durant 23 Jan '06

23 Jan '06

On 21. jan 2006, at 20.29, Brian D. Carlstrom wrote: > > Brian Durant writes: >> I am new to the list and to Linux. I am trying to find a distro that >> my G5 doesn't have a revving fan problem with. Here is info on my >> hardware: > > I started out with YDL 4.0 on my PowerMac G5 Dual Processor 2.0GHz > machine and there were no problems with the fans. > > Later I got some 2.5GHz models and 4.0 and 4.0.1 and the fans were > blaring because of a simple check needed for PowerMac7,2 versus > PowerMac7,3. I swtiched to FC4 at this point and that fixed my fan > problems...sort of. At this point I have some 2.7GHz machines that are > prematurely panicing about overheating, There is a fix for this in > 2.6.15 for which there is a FC4 updates testing kernel. However, as I > just reported to the fedora-test-list, for some reason the driver > doesn't seem to be initialized I'm back to full blaring fans on those > machines for a while. > > One problem I had with FC4 is that I couldn't get it to clean > install on > the new machines because of a disk druid problem or something like > that. > So I actually installed YDL all the way through the first reboot, > then I > turned around and installed FC4. if I tried to reboot just after the > partion part and not after actual package installation it didn't > work, I > think it wasn't flushing the right stuff to disk until the end. I just > did minimial packge installs to get through it quick. > > Now, you have a different model that I have not tried. searching > through > my collection of recent FC4 updates and updates-testing kernels > (which I > happen to have around because of my own 2.7 GHz problem > investigation) I > see that the new windfarm driver is specifically for the PowerMac9,1: > > mchammer:~/kernel $ grep 9,1 */*/drivers/macintosh/*.* > 1823/linux-2.6.15/drivers/macintosh/windfarm_pm91.c: * PowerMac9,1 > 1823/linux-2.6.15/drivers/macintosh/windfarm_pm91.c: if > (machine_is_compatible("PowerMac9,1")) > 1823/linux-2.6.15/drivers/macintosh/ > windfarm_pm91.c:MODULE_DESCRIPTION("Thermal control logic for > PowerMac9,1"); > 1823/linux-2.6.15/drivers/macintosh/windfarm_smu_sensors.c: /* > Try to use quadratic transforms on PowerMac8,1 and 9,1 for now, > 1823/linux-2.6.15/drivers/macintosh/ > windfarm_smu_sensors.c: machine_is_compatible > ("PowerMac9,1")) && > > However, this is the same updates-testing kernel that didn't work for > me, even though it has the patched therm_pm72.c driver I needed for my > PowerMac7,2 and PowerMac7,3 machines. But it seems like trying FC4 and > then doing a "yum --enablerepo=updates-testing update kernel*" > might get > you somewhere close. > > Benjamin Herrenschmidt <benh(a)kernel.crashing.org> is the author for > most > of the thermal support for the PowerMacs. I never see him on the > fedora > lists. He can be found on linuxppc64-dev and also on debian-powerpc > > On my web page (http://carlstrom.com/winunix.html) I have links to the > various linux/ppc mailing lists such as linuxppc64-dev, fedora-ppc, > debian-powerpc, and yellowdog-devel if you want to look around the > archives for PowerMac9,1 stories. > > As far as YDL goes, there is a 4.1 release now available for $$$ and > perhaps the ISO's will be out soon. there was a 4.0.91 beta that > people > seemed happy with as far as PowerMac support went. For me, the package > selection of FC4 is so much better than YDL that I don't want to go > back. > > Good luck, > > -bri > > >> >> Hardware Overview: >> >> Machine Name: Power Mac G5 >> Machine Model: PowerMac9,1 >> CPU Type: PowerPC G5 (3.0) >> Number Of CPUs: 1 >> CPU Speed: 1.8 GHz >> L2 Cache (per CPU): 512 KB >> Memory: 1 GB >> Bus Speed: 600 MHz >> Boot ROM Version: 5.2.2f2 >> >> I have tried YDL 4.0.1, but at least during the prep stage, after >> boot and before the actual install took place, I experienced the >> problem. This, plus the fact that I couldn't figure out which of my 2 >> internal SATA drives YDL would be installed on. made me bail. Wow, this is the first really informative response that I have gotten as per this issue on any PPC Linux list!!!! Please tell me, if I try to install Fedora Core 4 and do manual partitioning for "sdb" SATA internal drive #2 on my G5 can I decide which drive to install Fedora on? I just want to make sure that I don't have to bail because I think Fedora is going to erase and install on my OS X install drive "sda". >> I am in >> the process of downloading the Fedora Core 4 PPC CD's, so I was >> wondering if anyone on the list has experienced these problems. Cheers, Brian

3 4

Re: Newbie with Power Mac G5.
by Brian Durant 22 Jan '06

22 Jan '06

On 22. jan 2006, at 0.49, Brian D. Carlstrom wrote: > Brian Durant writes: >> If the above works more or less as described, would there be any >> problems with the OpenFirmware and yaboot if I installed Linux with >> the OS X drive unplugged, just in case - up in space? > > with linux on drive "b" with the "a" drive unplugged? the only > concern I > would have is that it might make the /etc/fstab mount tab assuming > that > since its the only drive that its the "a" drive. Then again, it should > know what drive it is from the controller. I don't think you'll break > anything, and at worst I can imagine that you could just boot and fix > the /etc/fstab after the fact. > > -bri OK, copy that. I am at this moment writing from my G5 with the Macintosh HD in the bottom bay (sdb in Linux): Capacity: 152.67 GB Model: Maxtor 6Y160M0 Revision: YAR51HW0 Serial Number: Y47HLC5E Removable Media: No Detachable Drive: No BSD Name: disk0 Protocol: ata Unit Number: 0 Socket Type: Serial-ATA Bay Name: "B (lower)" OS9 Drivers: No S.M.A.R.T. status: Verified Volumes: Macintosh HD: Capacity: 152.54 GB Available: 112.89 GB Writable: Yes File System: Journaled HFS+ BSD Name: disk0s3 Mount Point: / You have to press control-O at the start chimes to get a graphical interface in OpenFirware and then you can chose which drive to boot from. I don't know yet if this change "sticks", but I have also gone into the system prefs and chosen the OS X folder under "startup disk", just to be on the safe side. I'll try to install Fedora Core 4 PPC with both drives plugged in, in a little while. Hopefully I'll reply that everything is OK ;-) BTW, the drive switch went OK without a hitch, but it is a little fiddly until you learn the system. The drive for the "op" bay has to go in first. You place the back pins in a track with a roller coaster shape that goes from down to up and push, until you can lift the front of the drive and slide it into the top track. The "bottom" drive goes straight in. No sign of "slave" or "master" pins being used with SATA on my G5 :-) Cheers, Brian

1 0

Re: Newbie with Power Mac G5.
by Brian D. Carlstrom 21 Jan '06

21 Jan '06

Brian Durant writes: > Here is an interesting posting that I just received. I don't know if > this can be applied to vanilla Fedora Core PPC, as it looks like it > is a YDL specific kernel upgrade, but I still thought it might have > some relevance: This is web page was about the support for the very first of the new PowerMac G5 machines. With this fix I got fan support for our 2.0GHz G5, back when we ran YDL because I thought their Mac focus would mean better support for such things. note these were kernels from around 2.6.8 and 2.6.9. However, this was specifically PowerMac7,2 and for PowerMac7,3 I had to move to FC4 unless I wanted to pay for YDL 4.0.91 beta. For a while I built my own kernel but I didn't want to keep doing that, applying a simple patch to add 7,3 support that I got from a benh post somewhere. As far as your 9,1 system, 2.6.15 was the first place the support was officially integrated. It is likely that YDL 4.1 might have it when it comes out, even if its a backport to an older kernel. I'm going to grab the 4.1 YDL kernels when they are available and try them out. I'm also going to try and rebuild the FC4 test 2.6.15 kernels to see if I can get them working properly. YDL's business was originally focused on Macintosh but with the move to Apple to Intel, they have moved to PowerPC boxes from other vendors such IBM and others, as well as moving to a focus on scientific cluster computing, including layering on top of other peoples x86 linux solations. So I'm not counting on them for a lot of future support for the final generation Apple hardware. YDL 4.x was Fedora Core based, so its not that different that YDL. FC even uses the "yum" package updater originally from YDL. The good news is that Linus Torvalds uses one of the dual proc G5's so you can count on powerpc working well for the near future :) -bri

1 0

Newbie with Power Mac G5.
by Brian Durant 21 Jan '06

21 Jan '06

Hi, I am new to the list and to Linux. I am trying to find a distro that my G5 doesn't have a revving fan problem with. Here is info on my hardware: Hardware Overview: Machine Name: Power Mac G5 Machine Model: PowerMac9,1 CPU Type: PowerPC G5 (3.0) Number Of CPUs: 1 CPU Speed: 1.8 GHz L2 Cache (per CPU): 512 KB Memory: 1 GB Bus Speed: 600 MHz Boot ROM Version: 5.2.2f2 I have tried YDL 4.0.1, but at least during the prep stage, after boot and before the actual install took place, I experienced the problem. This, plus the fact that I couldn't figure out which of my 2 internal SATA drives YDL would be installed on. made me bail. I am in the process of downloading the Fedora Core 4 PPC CD's, so I was wondering if anyone on the list has experienced these problems. Cheers, Brian

1 0

Macromedia Flash+Fedora core 4+Mac mini
by Deepak Seshadri 16 Jan '06

16 Jan '06

Hello everybody, After weeks of struggling with Mac Mini + FC4 + ATI RAdeon 9200 + Dell 2005 FPW, I got the display to work with 1400x1050 resolution. Now, I have ran into another problem - No FLASH plug-in available for Linux & PPC architecture. Could someone please point me to any link or resource that mentions how I can get flash to work with firefox in PPC? I tried looking for this already but the closest solution I came across was to use the LIVNA repo in YUM. That didn't work for me. Any help is appreciated guys, Regards, Deepak

5 4

OOo crashed on PPC G4
by Leopoldo Olmos 07 Jan '06

07 Jan '06

Open Office has crashed on a PPC G4. The following error message was received: Video Driver is probably radeon DESKTOP_SESSION is set to default libgcj version is libgcj-4.0.2-8.fc4 OpenOffice.org core rpm version is openoffice.org-core-2.0.1-143.2.1 0xf517b98: /usr/lib/openoffice.org2.0/program/libuno_sal.so.3 + 0x27b98 0xf518440: /usr/lib/openoffice.org2.0/program/libuno_sal.so.3 + 0x28440 0x7f86c9e8: ???????? 0x1dd5884: /usr/lib/openoffice.org2.0/program/libsvx680lp.so + 0x355884 0x1dd6844: /usr/lib/openoffice.org2.0/program/libsvx680lp.so + 0x356844 0x1dd8198: /usr/lib/openoffice.org2.0/program/libsvx680lp.so + 0x358198 0x1dd8614: /usr/lib/openoffice.org2.0/program/libsvx680lp.so + 0x358614 0x34e4a80: /usr/lib/openoffice.org2.0/program/libsw680lp.so + 0x474a80 0x33f7018: /usr/lib/openoffice.org2.0/program/libsw680lp.so + 0x387018 0x33f73bc: /usr/lib/openoffice.org2.0/program/libsw680lp.so + 0x3873bc 0x33f7c64: /usr/lib/openoffice.org2.0/program/libsw680lp.so + 0x387c64 0x32a2548: /usr/lib/openoffice.org2.0/program/libsw680lp.so + 0x232548 (ViewShell::LayoutIdle() + 0xd4) 0x3521768: /usr/lib/openoffice.org2.0/program/libsw680lp.so + 0x4b1768 0x495834: /usr/lib/openoffice.org2.0/program/libvcl680lp.so + 0x95834 (Timer::Timeout() + 0x34) 0x495e6c: /usr/lib/openoffice.org2.0/program/libvcl680lp.so + 0x95e6c 0xe7512ec: /usr/lib/openoffice.org2.0/program/libvclplug_gen680lp.so + 0x522ec (SalData::Timeout() const + 0x48) 0xe7bcc50: /usr/lib/openoffice.org2.0/program/libvclplug_gtk680lp.so + 0x21c50 0x3080b284: /usr/lib/libglib-2.0.so.0 + 0x33284 0x30808a94: /usr/lib/libglib-2.0.so.0 + 0x30a94 (g_main_context_dispatch + 0x280) 0x3080cd6c: /usr/lib/libglib-2.0.so.0 + 0x34d6c 0x3080d458: /usr/lib/libglib-2.0.so.0 + 0x35458 (g_main_context_iteration + 0x84) 0xe7bca74: /usr/lib/openoffice.org2.0/program/libvclplug_gtk680lp.so + 0x21a74 0xe759a74: /usr/lib/openoffice.org2.0/program/libvclplug_gen680lp.so + 0x5aa74 (X11SalInstance::Yield(unsigned char) + 0x40) 0x48d77c: /usr/lib/openoffice.org2.0/program/libvcl680lp.so + 0x8d77c (Application::Yield() + 0x78) 0x48d854: /usr/lib/openoffice.org2.0/program/libvcl680lp.so + 0x8d854 (Application::Execute() + 0x70) 0x302823c: /usr/lib/openoffice.org2.0/program/libsoffice.so + 0x2823c (desktop::Desktop::Main() + 0x1028) 0x495220: /usr/lib/openoffice.org2.0/program/libvcl680lp.so + 0x95220 0x4952e4: /usr/lib/openoffice.org2.0/program/libvcl680lp.so + 0x952e4 (SVMain() + 0x34) 0x301e210: /usr/lib/openoffice.org2.0/program/libsoffice.so + 0x1e210 (sal_main + 0x5c) 0x301e2a0: /usr/lib/openoffice.org2.0/program/libsoffice.so + 0x1e2a0 (main + 0x30) 0xfe8b7cc: /lib/libc.so.6 + 0x1b7cc 0xfe8b964: /lib/libc.so.6 + 0x1b964 (__libc_start_main + 0xb4) Some help would be greatly appreciated Leopoldo Olmos

2 1

Test kernel with Broadcom BCM43xx wireless support.
by David Woodhouse 06 Jan '06

06 Jan '06

I've built a test kernel with bcm43xx wireless support, from http://bcm43xx.berlios.de/ It's a rawhide kernel but it installs and runs on FC4 with --nodeps http://david.woodhou.se/kernel-2.6.14-1.1805_FC5.bcm43xx.ppc.rpm http://david.woodhou.se/kernel-devel-2.6.14-1.1805_FC5.bcm43xx.ppc.rpm It seems to work, with WEP, if I set the ESSID manually -- but only for Legacy IP; not yet for IPv6 because there are multicast problems so it doesn't see the router advertisement. And suspend/resume is known not to work. But it's getting there, and it's already at the point where it might be useful to some people, and could certainly do with some more testing. You need to fetch and use the 'fwcutter' tool to get the firmware into a form which the kernel driver will be able to use -- see the README at http://svn.berlios.de/wsvn/bcm43xx/trunk/fwcutter/README?op=file&rev=0&sc=0 and download from ftp://ftp.berlios.de/pub/bcm43xx/snapshots/fwcutter/ -- dwmw2

5 20

openafs on G4 w/core 4
by Peter M. Metcalf 05 Jan '06

05 Jan '06

Hello, New to this project. I have Fedora 4 loaded on a G4 platform. Working great except I cannot get openafs to build for ppc platform. Anybody have luck with this? Pete

2 1

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

ppc January 2006