Testers needed for PowerPC 12.04

[Farinet]

I've installed Lubuntu 12.04 powerpc and i'm paying around with. One thing, very annoying, is there is something wrong with the control of the fan. For what i see, the CPU is always running on maximum speed (1333 MHZ) never going down - even when i'm not doing anything. And, i think, consequently the fan after a while begins to work without any interruption

I've in parallel a setup with Debian "sid" powerpc and LXDE: there the cpu speed is varying between 816 and 1333 MHZ and the fan is only running once in a while.

Now, unfortunately i forgot, where and how i could setup/allow the cpu speed change and where is the config file for the fan (therm_adt74x i think).

Thanks in advance for any advice!

PS. Oh, i've installed pbbuttonsd & powerprefs, but there i don't see the requested options (?)

[FG Trooper]

I don't know what is the problem with low color graphic but i will need to remake a live usb. My dvd drive is broken... It seem i cannot found anything about low color on ati because this seem to be a more common error on nvidia. It seem Ati graphic card on Apple hardware is rare on PowerPC G4 like my PowerBook. I will download the alternate or the net install and give it an another try. My friend who is a colector like me have a Imac G3, those who have save apple in 1998. I will test it on both. I have a old Mac LC II who i hope to found a distro for m68k arch...

Thank guy and i will report my test. ^_^

[Farinet]

I don't know what is the problem with low color graphic but i will need to remake a live usb. My dvd drive is broken... It seem i cannot found anything about low color on ati because this seem to be a more common error on nvidia. It seem Ati graphic card on Apple hardware is rare on PowerPC G4 like my PowerBook. I will download the alternate or the net install and give it an another try. My friend who is a colector like me have a Imac G3, those who have save apple in 1998. I will test it on both. I have a old Mac LC II who i hope to found a distro for m68k arch...

Thank guy and i will report my test. ^_^

I have a PB G4 17" with Ati Radeon graphic card. And that for one, works out of the box with 12.04 for me, safe the problem that the logout screen is messed up although the logout/shutdown/reboot passes through.

PS. Check maybe the mintppc.org forums, i remember there were some excellent advices how to tweak graphic cards.

[rsavage]

PS. Check maybe the mintppc.org forums, i remember there were some excellent advices how to tweak graphic cards.

No.

Much of what is written on forums is incorrect or dated.

Fairnet, please direct people to the Ubuntu documentation. There is a large section on how to configure graphics, much of it based around the ATI rage 128 because that is troublesome. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PowerPCFAQ#Configure_graphics

[svtguy88]

Hmmm...I thought ATI graphics were pretty much sorted out. I'll intstall onto my Powerbook tomorrow or tuesday (has an ATI card) and I'll let you guys know what I get.

I"m confused as to why low-color mode happens. My Nvidia was stuck in it until recently, when reinstalling via a newer CD fixed my problem, but I still have no idea what had cuased it.

[FG Trooper]

So, i test the alternate installer. The installer crash at the end but i finish it. Don't have everything installed. I will need to restart the installer...

[Farinet]

Another problem on Lubuntu 12.04 ppc. I did an upgrade (proposed by the Update manager, which included a new kernel (from 3.2.0-16 to 3.2.0-17). Now, by chance, i discovered, that i'm still running on kernel 3.2.0-16 although the newer one is there.

Checking a little bit the involved files i think i found, *WHY* actually i'm still on the older kernel. But not, what's the reason for that misfunction.

My lubuntu-disk (an external firewire hd) is partitioned as follows:

sdc1: 32kb (Apple openrom) sdc2: bootstrap, sdc3: "/" (ext4), sdc4:
swap, sdc5 (8kb): extra

Now, on the top level of sdc3 i see there are 3 symlinks:

vmlinux (points to /boot/vmlinux-3.2.0-17-powerpc)
initrd.img (points to /boot/initrd.img-3.2.0-17-powerpc)
initrd.img.old (points to /boot/initrd.img-3.2.0-16-powerpc)

In the /boot directory there are all the 3.2.0-17 and 3.2.0-16 files
but also 2 symlinks (vmlinux and initrd.img which points to the
3.2.0-16 files).

Then i checked the /etc/yaboot.conf file. It looks like this (i didn't
touch it at all!):

--------------
## yaboot.conf generated by the Ubuntu installer
##
## run: "man yaboot.conf" for details. Do not make changes until you have!!
## see also: /usr/share/doc/yaboot/examples for example configurations.
##
## For a dual-boot menu, add one or more of:
## bsd=/dev/hdaX, macos=/dev/hdaY, macosx=/dev/hdaZ

boot="/dev/disk/by-id/ieee1394-0001a300000586c7:000428:0000-part2"
device=/pci@f4000000/firewire@e/node@0001a300000586c7/sbp-2/@0
partition=3
root="UUID=7393551e-1a0f-4461-8d87-82f4c75d8203"
timeout=50
install=/usr/lib/yaboot/yaboot
magicboot=/usr/lib/yaboot/ofboot
enablecdboot

image=/boot/vmlinux
label=Linux
read-only
initrd=/boot/initrd.img
append="quiet splash"

image=/boot/vmlinux.old
label=old
read-only
initrd=/boot/initrd.img.old
append="quiet splash"
--------------

So, it looks to me that, the update manager did something wrong: It
should have put the 3 files i now find on the top level into the /boot
directory and to rename the already existing symlinks to *.old. The
yaboot.conf file, which as far as i understand, commands the boot
procedure, doesn't look to the "/" directory but into /boot . . . Or
am i getting something wrong here?
. . .
Now, my question should/could i do this by hand - for the moment? Or
will i have to edit the yaboot.conf file?

But, in any case, in a funtional system it should work without bricolage, IMHO. And i think, guessing in the dark, the error lies somewhere between the installer which installs yaboot and the corrispondent yaboot.conf file and the update manager which seem to refer to different standard places (?).

[svtguy88]

I can't comment on why this is happening, but you correct in thinking that you can manually rename the files to match yaboot.conf. Alternatively, you could edit your yaboot.conf to point to /vmlinux. Either will work.

Yaboot will boot whatever image you give point it to (be it /boot/vmlinux or /vmlinux, or /boot/vmlinux.old, or whatever really). As long as yaboot finds the image that yaboot.conf points to, it should all work fine.

[Farinet]

I can't comment on why this is happening, but you correct in thinking that you can manually rename the files to match yaboot.conf. Alternatively, you could edit your yaboot.conf to point to /vmlinux. Either will work.

Yaboot will boot whatever image you give point it to (be it /boot/vmlinux or /vmlinux, or /boot/vmlinux.old, or whatever really). As long as yaboot finds the image that yaboot.conf points to, it should all work fine.

Thanks for answering and thanks for the good news! And oh, the symlinks on the topmost level of the root partition i can delete . . . (?)

Just another question: when/if i edit the yaboot.conf *THEN* after editing i'd have to to some ybin (to parallel it to the yaboot.conf, which is on the bootstrap partition correct. And there, frankly, i'm not so skilled especially when it comes to deal not anymore with /dev/.... but with the disk id's like in my case i'm afraid i'd have to do.

PS. I chose the first option, but booting failed. Looking closer, i see there is something wrong with the `vmlinux-3.2.0-17-powerpc`- while the older version is a program, the newer one is "unknown filetype". This remains even the same after a complete reinstallation of the 3.2.0-17-powerpc kernel. Could that be in some way corrected or is that a bug of the kernel package itself?

[Farinet]

I figured the problem out, it was multiple and i think something went
wrong with the kernel 3.2.0-17-powerpc package or the installation script (?)

1) The /boot/vmlinux-3.2.0-17-powerpc had in origin the wrong rights. It was:
Owner: root
Group: root
Rights
Owner: Read & Write
Group: None | But should be: Read only
Others: None | But should be: Read only

2) The /boot/vmlinux symlink pointing to the /boot/vmlinux-3.2.0-17-powerpc
instead of pointing to `vmlinux-3.2.0-17-powerpc` pointed to
`boot/vmlinux-3.2.0-17-powerpc`

3) The symlinks vmlinux, initrd.img and initrd.img.old were put to the
topmost level of the root partition ("/") instead of /boot

I corrected all that by hand and now, the system is booting flawlessly
into the 3.2.0-17 kernel.

I think that error is somewhat systematic since after a purge of
3.2.0-17-powerpc and a reinstallation (by apt-get) it was exactly the
same.