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este.el.paz
September 7th, 2012, 04:25 PM
Folks:

I'm re-posting his thread since the thread that contains a question similar to mine has been marked as solved. I just recently installed Xubuntu PPC on my iMac 800 G4 . . . got "sudo" back working last night, so I ran "sudo update/upgrade/dist-upgrade" . . . and the Console came back with one package to upgrade, but three "held back" . . . one of which was a new "linux-image" kernel. It was late so I "aborted" the mission, but a minute or so later "Software Update" flashed a notification that "7 upgrades are available" . . . which included the new kernel.

So, question one: Why the difference in packages between Terminal and GUI update manager? And question two: Do I want to install the new kernel right away because I had to go through a bit of process to "compile the nv driver" from an older Ubuntu repository. I've just gone through in the last year plus 5 installations of various Debian systems on this computer, the last, straight Wheezy dist-upgrade broke the display for the umpteenth time with a kernel upgrade that took away fbdev & nv . . . I'm wondering if my fresh install of nv will be erased with a kernel upgrade? Or, sticking with the Terminal's decision, "linux image" would be "held back" even with "dist-upgrade" . . . would that be the right decision to get me down the road with less effort figuring the the new kernel would wipe the nv compilation?

Many thanks,

e.e.p.

Epodx64
September 7th, 2012, 05:04 PM
I don't know if it would wipe out the nv installation but even if you did install the new kernel just don't get rid of the old kernel you can always boot into the old one (from grub) if the new one doesn't work so I'd say go ahead and try whats the worst that could happen? Speaking of PPC installs I have Debian 6.0 installed on a PowerMac G5 with a Nvidia Geforce 5200 FX card the only problem I ever had with it was a phantom tv-output

este.el.paz
September 7th, 2012, 06:56 PM
@Epod: Thanks for the reply, much appreciated . . . "what's the worst that could happen?" . . . true, it's only time that is being used; guess I'm a bit gun shy as I've got many hours and days flushed in this one already. But, still the question is still standing in terms of the Terminal sudo update showing the "linux-image" as "held back" . . . but Software Update making it "available" . . . . From my experience debian updates have not prevented things from breaking in the doing of it, just wondering if the *Buntu flavors are more careful with doing stuff . . . ????? But, got it on the "you could always boot into the old kernel" . . . thanks for the reminder, I'm still a relative noob in terms of using Linux, although I've now got quite a number of installations done between the iMac, an iBook, and a MBPro that took 5 installs to get LMDE set up right--that last system has been the most trouble free. But, yes, Debian 6 I did have loaded on the iBook for a few months until Wheezy came out, which is Deb 7, and 7 has been "interesting." But, even with Deb 6, I couldn't figure out or get help on how to get the display working on the iMac . . . until I got some hints on using "fbdev" as the driver, but then the latest kernel took that one out and I was back in the black as they say . . . . e.e.p.

Epodx64
September 8th, 2012, 09:36 AM
@Epod: Thanks for the reply, much appreciated . . . "what's the worst that could happen?" . . . true, it's only time that is being used; guess I'm a bit gun shy as I've got many hours and days flushed in this one already. But, still the question is still standing in terms of the Terminal sudo update showing the "linux-image" as "held back" . . . but Software Update making it "available" . . . . From my experience debian updates have not prevented things from breaking in the doing of it, just wondering if the *Buntu flavors are more careful with doing stuff . . . ????? But, got it on the "you could always boot into the old kernel" . . . thanks for the reminder, I'm still a relative noob in terms of using Linux, although I've now got quite a number of installations done between the iMac, an iBook, and a MBPro that took 5 installs to get LMDE set up right--that last system has been the most trouble free. But, yes, Debian 6 I did have loaded on the iBook for a few months until Wheezy came out, which is Deb 7, and 7 has been "interesting." But, even with Deb 6, I couldn't figure out or get help on how to get the display working on the iMac . . . until I got some hints on using "fbdev" as the driver, but then the latest kernel took that one out and I was back in the black as they say . . . . e.e.p.

Installing on an Apple PowerPC is quite a feat. I have Debian 6 installed on a PowerMac G5 DP for some reason ever single install I did on that machine it picked up some phantom t.v. output on the Nvidia card.

este.el.paz
September 8th, 2012, 04:09 PM
Installing on an Apple PowerPC is quite a feat. I have Debian 6 installed on a PowerMac G5 DP for some reason ever single install I did on that machine it picked up some phantom t.v. output on the Nvidia card.

@Epodx64:

It does seem that in either the G5 or G4 iMac Debian seems to "have trouble" with finding the display. A gentleman on the MintPPC forum, "str8bs" seemed to have come up with some workarounds and possibly got nouveau to work on the G5, but for me on the G4 I couldn't get nouveau to work in various incarnations of Debian . . . even with an xorg.conf file it seemed that eventually or not so eventually the system would . . . I guess "disintegrate" itself would be the best way to put it. So we'll see how the nv driver holds up . . . this time. Got LXDE installed last night, seems like it's flashier than the XFCE DE, but seems to max the cpu a lot according to the little cpu graph in the toolbar bottom right. Otherwise, cool. No "wake from suspend" . . . right?

e.e.p.

este.el.paz
September 10th, 2012, 01:23 AM
@Epodx64:

Otherwise, cool. No "wake from suspend" . . . right?

e.e.p.

@Epodx64, et al:

In the interest of the conversation, I did summon the courage to run "update/upgrade/dist-upgrade" in LXTerminal, and it again showed the kernel upgrades as "held back" and I went forward on the other upgrades and then it got to something like, "var/log?something, something is locked, are you root?" and I'm not sure what to do then, I think in Debian we enter "su" and give the root password, but that doesn't seem to work here. Anyway, I think I ran "sudo -i apt-get upgrade && apt-get dist-upgrade" and it ran that again, first saying kernel held back but then in the next few lines showing the new kernel as ready to be installed, so it must have something to do with being logged in as root that moves it into the queue??? Anyway, it downloaded 50 MB or so and installed the new kernel . . . I rebooted, and hoping that I wouldn't have to hassle the nv compilation process again, it thankfully booted back into the GUI !!!!!!!! So, the answer is, no, the new kernel did not wipe out the nv driver . . . . So far, so good, we'll see how far this Xu/Lu system will go on the iMac G4.

e.e.p.