PowerMac G5 does not boot after installing Ubuntu Server 14.04.03 LTS

[Heero_Yuy_X]

Hello,

We recently did inventory on our office and found a G5 PowerMac lying around, PowerPC Dual 2GHZ with 6GB, I thought we might be able to use it as a test server for some of our web developers.

I installed Ubuntu Server 14.04.03 LTS PPC on it using the CD/DVD drive, it installs fine, no hiccups whatsoever and I let it use the entire drive. The installer finishes normally and restarts (Ejecting the CD) when it boots in again yaboot goes through the first and second stages of bootstrapping, the font changes and I can see Ubuntu is starting to boot, however it hangs up after these messages:

[  1.545148] i2c i2c-3: i2c-powermac: modalias faliure on /u3@0,f8000000/i2c@f8001000/cereal@1c0
[  1.619845] /build/linux-lts-vivid-HJaZWY/linux-lts-vivid-3.19.0/drivers/rtc/hctosys.c: unable to open rtc device (rtc0)
[  9.640701] shpchp 0001:00:01.0: Cannot reserve MMIO region
[  9.640892] shpchp 0001:00:01.0: Cannot reserve MMIO region

A bit of googling revealed that the first error was just the sound card not being recognized, which I don't mind. The second error was probably the system clock not loading properly. The last two errors are non-critical kernel errors.

After that the cursor doesn't blink and gets stuck and nothing happens, I can't enter anything at all.

I don't know if these errors are the cause of the system hanging up or is there something else going on, it seems no one has had this error before on a PowerMac G5 so Google is not helpful. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks

[gsahli]

Don't have a G5, but have a G4 with 14.04.x installed...
Sound card - everyone seems to have sound card probs.

I suggest you try a different ubuntu distro (not server), and add server stuff individually.
I'm using lubuntu.
I've had both graphics and sound probs on every distro tried. My G4 is using a basic framebuffer driver for graphics/X.
The MMIO region message seems to have something to do with RAM. Have you tried booting from some live CD or OS X to see if memory is a problem?

[Heero_Yuy_X]

Hi thanks for getting back to me!

Yea from my research it seems to be not just sound problems but GPU problems as well. It's definitely not a RAM issue since OS X was running fine and had no problems whatsoever. I just wanted to install Linux for more flexibility.

What I ended up doing was going to the source and just installing Debian Jessie 8.0. This worked out fine the system installed properly, however I still faced a GPU problem where at the TTY login the screen would black out, I SSH'd into it and I could see everything was running smoothly system-wise except the GPU. To fix the GPU I had to change my xorg.conf file in /etc/X11/xorg.conf to this:

##imac-ppc-slot-loader-400-450-xorg.conf#################

#see natgab


#   1. /etc/X11/xorg.conf (xorg X Window System server configuration file) #
#   2. This file was generated by dexconf, the Debian X Configuration tool, using
#   3. values from the debconf database. #
#   4. Edit this file with caution, and see the /etc/X11/xorg.conf manual page.
#   5. (Type "man /etc/X11/xorg.conf" at the shell prompt.) #
#   6. This file is automatically updated on xserver-xorg package upgrades only
#   7. if it has not been modified since the last upgrade of the xserver-xorg
#   8. package.
#   9. If you have edited this file but would like it to be automatically updated
#  10. again, run the following command:
#  11. sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg


Section "Files"
FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/misc"
FontPath "/usr/share/X11/cyrillic"
FontPath "/usr/share/X11/100dpi/:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/share/X11/75dpi/:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/Type1"
FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/CID"
FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/100dpi"
FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/75dpi" # paths to defoma fonts
FontPath "/var/lib//defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TruType"
FontPath "/var/lib//defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/CID"
EndSection


Section "Module"
Load "GLcore"
Load "i2c"
Load "bitmap"
Load "ddc"
Load "dri"
Load "extmod"
Load "freetype"
Load "glx"
Load "int10"
Load "type1"
Load "vbe"
EndSection


Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Generic Keyboard"
Driver "kbd"
Option "XkbRules" "xorg"
Option "XkbModel" "pc104"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection


Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Configured Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "CorePointer"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "Protocol" "ImPS/2"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection


Section "Device"
Identifier "ATI Technologies, Inc. Rage 128 PR/PRO (AGP TMDS)"
Driver "ati"
Option "UseFBDev" "true"
EndSection


Section "Monitor"
Identifier "iMac"
Option "DPMS"
HorizSync 60-60
VertRefresh 75-117
EndSection


Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Device "ATI Technologies, Inc. Rage 128 PR/PRO (AGP TMDS)"
Monitor "iMac"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 1
Modes "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 4
Modes "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 8
Modes "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 15
Modes "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
EndSection


Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Default Layout"
Screen "Default Screen"
InputDevice "Generic Keyboard"
InputDevice "Configured Mouse"
EndSection


Section "DRI"
Mode 0666
EndSection
###############end#####################

Everything worked fine after that and I had a fully operational Linux.

I realize this technically isn't a solution but apparently it's as close as one can get with Ubuntu Server on a PowerMac G5, Ubuntu is built off Debian anyway and we had no problem getting all our Web Dev stuff set up for testing exactly the same as we did on our live Ubuntu Servers.

Thanks for your help!

Edit: When you're installing Debian, make sure to select to install the OpenSSH package, without it you will not be able to get into the system as the GPU will black out before you can log in.