Display drivers (nouveau / nv) for iMac G4 700/800

[moore.bryan]

I have no need for suspend, so it means nothing to me... I would like my iLamp to reliably start-up every time I hit the button, though. With neither rhyme nor reason, it just won't load at first; however, if I just keep forcing shut it down and restarting, eventually it works. Weird.

[este.el.paz]

With neither rhyme nor reason, it just won't load at first; however, if I just keep forcing shut it down and restarting, eventually it works. Weird.

@m.b:

Perhaps someone with some more technical knowledge will reply to this issue . . . I've mentioned the "nv" driver as being the better driver, although I did get the fb driver to work, somebody said that fb driver isn't available any more--I don't know if you've posted back on which driver you are using?

But, when you say "it just won't load at first" . . . what does that mean, specifically? Nothing happens when you push the power button? You get a black screen? You get to the splash window? Or, you get to the cli after the first boot window, and then you get to . . . "xx x x prominent . . . something" . . . and then it goes black and doesn't recover? More details might be more helpful.

Personally I experienced a lot of kp's in the last year on my iMac . . . and it took awhile to figure out that's what was happening, because I was moving back and forth between OSX & linux . . . so all kinds of problems were happening with the computer, trying to boot it, etc . . . spent a lot of time trying to figure out what might be the problem with the operating system . . . ran the apple hardware test . . . nothing showed up, except in the linux disk utility one sector was showing bad . . . . Finally took it in to a pro shop and it too them a long time to find out there was "bad RAM" . . . they replaced it and I got it back after a month . . . and, instant KP . . . took it back to them and they replaced the replacement and the kps are much better, if not almost non-existent . . . .

But, before the RAM was replaced, many problems trying to get linux to boot, trying to get an internet connection to . . . intermittent booting . . . . I noted much of that in that [PPC] Tester's wanted for 12.04 thread because I thought it was relating to getting it running on the iMac . . . so you might recognize something from what I posted there???

e.e.p.

[moore.bryan]

Perhaps someone with some more technical knowledge will reply to this issue . . . I've mentioned the "nv" driver as being the better driver, although I did get the fb driver to work, somebody said that fb driver isn't available any more--I don't know if you've posted back on which driver you are using?

I'm using the nv driver. Although there are those who've gotten nouveau to work with a similar set-up, mine seems particularly unique for some reason.

But, when you say "it just won't load at first" . . . what does that mean, specifically? Nothing happens when you push the power button? You get a black screen? You get to the splash window? Or, you get to the cli after the first boot window, and then you get to . . . "xx x x prominent . . . something" . . . and then it goes black and doesn't recover? More details might be more helpful.

During boot, after yum, I'll get some boot messages on the screen and it will just "hang" sometimes. Checking all boot, dmesg, and Xorg logs provide no insight. If I hard reboot once--sometimes two or three times--it seems to "unstick" the hang and I get to a CLI, at which I can login and start X.

... "bad RAM" . . . they replaced it and I got it back after a month . . . and, instant KP . . . took it back to them and they replaced the replacement and the kps are much better, if not almost non-existent . . . .

New(er) RAM, so I don't think that's the problem...

But, before the RAM was replaced, many problems trying to get linux to boot, trying to get an internet connection to . . . intermittent booting . . . . I noted much of that in that [PPC] Tester's wanted for 12.04 thread because I thought it was relating to getting it running on the iMac . . . so you might recognize something from what I posted there???

Yeah, I looked through the thread, but nothing stuck-out as the same--or even similar--to what I'm experiencing, though; thanks, any way!

[este.el.paz]

I'm using the nv driver. Although there are those who've gotten nouveau to work with a similar set-up, mine seems particularly unique for some reason.

During boot, after yum, I'll get some boot messages on the screen and it will just "hang" sometimes. Checking all boot, dmesg, and Xorg logs provide no insight. If I hard reboot once--sometimes two or three times--it seems to "unstick" the hang and I get to a CLI, at which I can login and start X.

New(er) RAM, so I don't think that's the problem...

Yeah, I looked through the thread, but nothing stuck-out as the same--or even similar--to what I'm experiencing, though; thanks, any way!

@Bryan:

Only other question I have is just like with Bosler whom I asked, "Do you have OSX installed on your computer?" . . . same question to you. Seems like the general PPC/Mac wisdom is to have OSX loaded on a partition to make certain firmware tasks easier . . . maybe not too important for firmware at this late date, but, for testing to see whether your issues are happening in both OSX or just linux . . . it might be helpful or instructive for diagnostic purposes . . . to distinguish software v hardware issues???

But, in terms of what you are describing with "nothing showing up in dmesg" etc, etc, and the various boot problems, that actually is very similar to what I experienced. Is that in and of itself traceable to RAM problems? Difficult to know, since for now my version of 12.04 is installed and the retro-compiled nv driver process I did while all this wackiness was going on with the iMac, my next install would probably be the next LTS version if it will be ported to PPC, rather than messing with getting a non-LTS version . . . . Meaning, I'm not going to experiment with 13.10 to see if I can crash my computer in the process . . . just sayin' : - )))

But, in getting back to RAM, not sure if you can rule that out, as I had a brand new RAM stick installed . . . professionally . . . and they "tested it" and ran it for whatever time, and literally within a couple hours of me getting it back . . . same problems with KP crashes, etc. Took it back and after testing it for a long while they found it to be "bad" already; got a second new stick under warranty and so far, so good . . . finally seems like the 12.04 error reports of "Your system has crashed now or in the past" seem to be . . . not happening . . . .

e.e.p.

[rsavage]

You might like to combine forces with this chap http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2203756

[stefanos3]

Hi Bryan,

Could you please let me know how you solved the 'black screen with non-blinking cursor' issue? I'm having exactly the same with debian wheezy, running the nv driver (backported from jessie), with nouveau blacklisted. I'm running an imac G4 800MHz (the 'lamp' model)

Thanks

[moore.bryan]

Sorry I didn't get around to checking this thread until now, stefanos3, are you still having an issue?

[digerati2]

I have an iMac G4 800MHz and am trying to install Ubuntu 14.04.1 alternate. As to be expected, I am having graphics card issues. When I boot normally, I get a screen that changes colors and eventually goes dark. When I boot with 'Linux nomodeset', I get a normal Ubuntu loading splash screen and then a black screen with a multi-color mouse pointer forever. When I boot with 'Linux nomodeset single', everything works very well from the command line.

I tried to download the nv.deb file mentioned by the OP, but the file is no longer available from ubuntuone. Does anybody know where I can obtain this driver?

Also, looking for some advice whether to recycle this old machine or if it will be a decent linux server. Any feedback regarding stability? I'm already very satisfied with the performance, but 10.4 is no longer a viable operating system so I'm hoping to turn this into a usable machine.

Thanks,
Brett

[este.el.paz]

I have an iMac G4 800MHz and am trying to install Ubuntu 14.04.1 alternate. As to be expected, I am having graphics card issues. When I boot normally, I get a screen that changes colors and eventually goes dark. When I boot with 'Linux nomodeset', I get a normal Ubuntu loading splash screen and then a black screen with a multi-color mouse pointer forever. When I boot with 'Linux nomodeset single', everything works very well from the command line.

I tried to download the nv.deb file mentioned by the OP, but the file is no longer available from ubuntuone. Does anybody know where I can obtain this driver?

Looking up the the list in this thread to "stefanos3" he mentions "backporting" the nv driver "from Jessie" . . . in terms of how to do that or which distro Jessie is part of . . . don't know.

Also, looking for some advice whether to recycle this old machine or if it will be a decent linux server. Any feedback regarding stability? I'm already very satisfied with the performance, but 10.4 is no longer a viable operating system so I'm hoping to turn this into a usable machine.

Thanks,
Brett

Brett:

I have 12.04 Xubuntu/Lubun on a partition of my iMac 800, personally I would say to try 12.04 . . . because it seems like PPC support in 14.04 is a diminishing reality . . . i.e., the nv driver being difficult to find . . . . I just upgraded my iBook G4 to 14.04 when software updater asked me if I wanted to upgrade . . . . Previously in 12.04 on the iBook the install was flawless . . . whenever that was 1.5 years ago??? The iMac was more difficult and I have no thought to try to bring it up to 14.04 . . . but, I don't know what I'm doing in linux . . . I just follow instructions from people that do. But, if you go back to the beginning of this thread, guys like STR8BS who were giving detailed help . . . are no longer spending time here . . . . So, if you read through the thread recently you can see that moore.bryan seems to have a "working" version of 14.04 on an iMac 800 . . . but, no "suspend" . . . and I believe that "sound" seems to have problems in PPC 14.04 . . . and then the "video" issues that you are experiencing. So, more and more problems are creeping in and/or are not being dealt with as they previously were . . . .

So, that was my subtle way of saying that right now on my iMac 10.4.11 with Ten4Fox for the browser is actually running the iMac better than 12.04 . . . mainly because I "need" suspend/sleep . . . watching videos is something that now both OS's have issues with . . . 6 - 8 months ago I was complaining to the Ten4Fox dev that "I can watch videos in 12.04 FireFox" . . . but . . . now, no . . . . So Ten4 has some suggestions for "Mactubes" or something and it sorta works. But, I recently punched the RAM on the iMac to a raging 1 GB and I use it mostly to do what I'm doing here . . . check emails and post of various linux or OSX related forums . . . for that the iMac is fine. For a server? don't see why not, Debian is the original server distro, so check into them . . . Ubuntu is known for its more user friendly desktop/GUI . . . . In terms of getting back to the iMac and installing 14.04, for sure you will need an xorg.conf file for the iMac . . . possibly from some thread here written by "rsavage" or "str8bs" . . . or from the "linux.be" web site . . . and then you will need a driver . . . at one point before I got the nv driver "retro-installed" str8bs gave me instructions for using the "fbdev"??? driver . . . which was fine, so if you could find that thread it might give you the details . . . . It's not the easiest install on the iMac . . . but it can be done--I'd say try 12.04 Xubuntu for starters . . . .

e.e.p.

[moore.bryan]

I'd agree, completely, with este.el.paz; having played with pretty much all releases on my iLamp, precise plays nicer than them all. I've been able to compile the nv driver from source on trusty and utopic, but it won't work and gives the same multicolor screen as the failed nouveau driver does. At one point, I was able to successfully use nvidiafb to get a usable desktop, but that seems to have just been dumb luck.

Like I wrote, I'd install precise and use that if I were you...