iMac G4 minimal install cli 11.04 leads to white screen

[linuxopjemac]

rsavage: We better bundle our strengths instead of fighting... I think we make a good team, sorry about the language in the past.

[BrianWeinberg]

I did not put 'video=ofonly' in there, that is the default. I only added 'nouveau.modeset=0'. Just as a test, I tried removing 'video=ofonly', but that just brought back the white screen. I had entered the 'nouveau.modeset=0' on both yaboot.conf entries before I posted before. I have replaced the lines as posted before, and ran 'sudo ybin -v'. By the way, funny line that runs when processing "Blessing /dev/sda2 with Holy Penguin Pee..." I almost missed that

After rebooting, I successfully get a login screen and can proceed to a gui. That seems to have worked. I will let you know how I fare with gnash, etc., and see what I can do to compile iMac G4 instructions. Woohoo!

[rsavage]

Hi Brian, I've finally got around to replying to you! It's great you've got it all working. It's been epic! I do think it might be worth persevering a bit more with nouveau if you have some spare time to test things. It should give you better performance and maybe necessary for lightspark. When you enable nouveau (don't have nouveau.modeset=0 and have "nouveau" in xorg.conf) then try and see if you get any error messages in syslog/dmesg logs on boot. You may have to disable some other framebuffers from loading or force a mode or something to get it working. Just a few more ideas.....

[linuxopjemac]

Just to let you know that nouveau works out of the box in recent 3.1 kernels...I have nouveau working well on an iMac G5 with an NVIDIA Geforce card in it.

[rsavage]

Nouveau has been working for a long time in Ubuntu (since 10.04 for some models). I believe it is now just the particular graphics card in Brian's iMac that is problematic.

[metzen01]

Linux nouveau.modeset=0


Thank you for this command. I'm currently running 12.04 live on my ppc G4. I'm currently going through the install and will try implementing this when I'm done with the installation.

[rsavage]

Great! Let us know how you get on with 12.04 and if you get nouveau working properly. If you need help compiling the nv driver then give us a shout!

[metzen01]

Great! Let us know how you get on with 12.04 and if you get nouveau working properly. If you need help compiling the nv driver then give us a shout!

Thanks rsavage I finally have Lubuntu Xubuntu and Ubuntu running on this G4 Quicksilver

What I followed:

1.) Installed following Rsavages guide here http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php...35&postcount=1 up to Section 2.2

2.) Ran the nouveau compile instructions from posting 27

3.) Made a Xorg.conf file. I had to adjust my resolution to my screen size for my Mag Innovision LCD but its working. command Xorg :1 -configure


Section "Device"
Identifier "Configured Video Device"
BusID "PCI:0:16:0"
Driver "nv"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Mag Innovision"
Option "DPMS"
HorizSync 31-80
VertRefresh 60-75
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Monitor "MAG"
Device "Configured Video Device"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 15
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 8
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 4
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 1
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Default Layout"
Screen "Default Screen"
EndSection

Section "DRI"
Mode 0666
EndSection

Placed in /etc/X11

Notice my resolution settings go up to 1024x768. My screen can go higher but for some reason I would always get a failed X screen and would drop me back to a terminal login window without X starting.

Sudo rebooted and did the ybin -v command to place nouveau boot settings into boot strap.

I'm pretty happy and hope that your guide helps others like myself out.

[gregounours]

Hi all,
This thread gets Linux working on iMac g4 but does not solve the underlying problem of nouveau failing to work properly on those machine. Using nv is just a workaround not a long term fix. We need to figure out why nouveau does not work properly.
Nouveau works on pc with nvidia card of the same vintage and the problem exist on all iMac g4 from 700 MHz to 1.25ghz even though they have different card (nv 17 to nv34). The problem is therefore in the Hardware detection and or setup.

When I try to configure on my imacg4 1.25 with nv34 card I get the following error: "number of created screens does not match number of detected devices."

The iMac G4 has a DVI port that can only be used to duplicate the built-in screen. Maybe somehow this creates a mix up between the screen and the DVI output. an Xorg.conf file does get created though

There is Gentoo wiki page that mentions phantom outputs creating problem with nouveau:
http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/Nouveau# ... tor_issues
That may be something similar to what is happening on iMac G4.

Also I have found a bug report that suggest this may be the issue:
https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=21273
There is mention of a patch.

Another discussion of nouveau failing on iMac G4 can be found here:
https://www.libreoffice.org/bugzilla/sh ... e&id=21273
There is also mention a patch.

Also found some detailed specs of an iLamp here: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ILamp

Suggestion to fixing this long term problem welcome

PS: I have started a similar discussion on the mintppc11 forum here: http://www.mintppc.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=782

[rsavage]

When I try to configure on my imacg4 1.25 with nv34 card I get the following error: "number of created screens does not match number of detected devices."

That's nothing. See the Ubuntu PowerPC FAQ https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PowerPCFAQ#H...g.conf_file.3F . You can disable phantom outputs outside of an xorg.conf using yaboot parameters too. It's explained in the FAQ.

I think Conal installed 12.04 on his iLamp using nouveau http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php...23&postcount=4 .