8.04 ibook G3 600mhz no video driver problem.

[nsegative]

Hey guys today I installed ubuntu 8.04 powerpc edition on my G3 600 mhz 640mb ram. It's running well (wireless and sound work flawlessly), but video is completely broken. Any time ubuntu starts loading or inside the reoslution is 860x640 and can not be changed. Furthermore this causes a loop so at the bottom instead of blackness like on the side the top of the main screen is repeated. I've been trying to find drivers for the rage mobility M3 but have had no luck. xorg.conf doesn't even identify a video driver. Here's what it says:

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Generic Keyboard"
Driver "kbd"
Option "XkbRules" "xorg"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Configured Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Synaptics Touchpad"
Driver "synaptics"
Option "SendCoreEvents" "true"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "Protocol" "auto-dev"
Option "HorizEdgeScroll" "0"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Configured Video Device"
BusID "PCI:0:16:0"
Option "UseFBDev" "true"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Configured Monitor"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Monitor "Configured Monitor"
Device "Configured Video Device"
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Default Layout"
Screen "Default Screen"
InputDevice "Synaptics Touchpad"
EndSection

I already had to format once today after installing some kind of driver and causing the screen size to be completely reduced to a quater. Thanks guys.

[stream303]

Aha, another Radeon card?

Give this a shot:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=798974

If you have an Ati Rage card, perhaps disabling glx and dri by adding a module section to the end of xorg.conf might help. You might also have to force it to recognize an ati card as well:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PowerPCKnownIssues#head-cae29299476585f042f0185bea1d51b9372722c8

I'd do
lspci
to find out, or find which one you are using here:

http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/ibook/index-ibook.html

[nsegative]

Those steps seem to be bypass the problem and allow the use of the resolution but no actual rendering. From some old posts I've read gpu rendering is possible, but all the steps I've tried are extremely outdated and do not co-related to todays file. Also lspci names the video as "ati rage mobility M3 8mb". Thanks :)

[mchladek]

After taking a look here (http://everything2.com/node/859254), try entering this in the second stage boot prompt:

nosplash video=aty128fb:vmode:10

If that works, you can change your yaboot.conf to append that.

You may also want to add the following to your xorg.conf file under "Configured Video Device":

Driver "r128"

Hopefully those two things will correctly load the Rage drivers.

[nsegative]

video=aty128fb:vmode:10 on 2nd boot prompt gives me "unable to open file, invalid device".

Adding driver "r128" didn't seem to do anything, and still the only resolution available is 860x640

[stream303]

As a diagnostic, could you try installing Feisty 7.04 "alternate" and see how that goes? It uses the older x-server which might prove to be useful. From that, we can get hints as to what you may need in Hardy's xorg.conf file. It might be a faster way to diagnose Hardy and save some hair. :)

If it works, you could always stick with Feisty for awhile, enable the backports etc, or try Gutsy even. The key here is to get a working xorg.conf that we can use in Hardy should you want to tough it out.

Perhaps to save time and bandwidth, try one of the "mini-iso" installs, which are very small and ensure that you have the very latest updates right during install:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/MinimalCD

[stream303]

Aha! Could dropping the default bit depth down to 16 cure the problem? I was looking for something else and saw this blast from the past that seems to allow for rendering with an ATI Rage card as long as you drop your bit depth?

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=3723

[fyodor]

I've just installed 8.04 on an iBook G3 600Mhz with 384MB of RAM.

Everything worked well until the GUI fired up. I experienced the same problem. Basically the screen is displays in a 800x600 block and repeats horizontally and vertically across the remaining screen area.

In my case the problem was fixed by editing xorg.conf. I followed the directions in the thread called ibook G3 dualUSB resolution problem (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=231279).

Section "Device"
Driver "ati" # added
BusID "PCI:0:16:0"
Option "UseFBDev" "true"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Generic Monitor"
Option "DPMS"
HorizSync 28-51 # added
VertRefresh 43-60 # added
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Monitor "Generic Monitor"

# added following lines

DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1024x768"
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1024x768"
EndSubSection
EndSection


I couldn't restart the X server without rebooting because control - alt - backspace didn't work on my keyboard so I rebooted the machine with "sudo shutdown -r now"

[whysea]

In the last message, there is a "EndSubSection" missing.

Once this is fixed, fine, after logging in everything works, but before my screen melts, litterally. Any idea?
Thanks
(Dual USB Ibook 500Mhz 512Mb)
Besides, there is a small black square on the top left..

[darkmatter21]

I had the screen melting problem too on my 500Mhz iBook. I was able to fix it by editing the usplash.conf file.

Here's what I found
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=920570

After fixing the ubuntu loading screen, the black square in the upper left went away too.

Sadly, I haven't been able to figure out the tap click suspend problem I detailed in that thread...