3D On PowerPC Linux

[pipetogrep]

Hi all,

Is 3D possible anymore with modern Linux or did that die in the 3.X kernel era? Every time I try to run glxgears or anything else that uses 3D my PowerPC machines freeze. Both run ATI cards. On is a Radeon 9800 Pro and the other is an iBook with an ATI Mobility Radeon 9200.

Thanks!

 

[3922434]

The drivers available are on life support and anything available now adays is just to get basic frame buffer support and the ability to change resolution.

 

[sailorMH]

3D should work. It depends on your linux distribution

If you still use Debian 8 ( or Ubuntu 16 or similar, which was last officially supporting PPC Big Endian ), there is problem with PPC BigEndian Mesa drivers ( ver 10.3.2-1 ). To run 3D you should use mesa software rasterizer, or use this workaround:
- copy r300.dri.so from Debian 7.11 installation (with Mesa 8.0.5-4) to /usr/lib/powerpc-linux-gnu/dri

Tested with r300 driver, Debian 8 on Pegasos 2 computer with G4 CPU ( 7447 ) and Radeon 9800 Pro.
I am not tested r200 driver, you can try it analogically.

You can use also current Debian Sid - 3D works here OOTB for Radeon cards. I tested G5 installation, all works. G4 installations are also reported as working, but I am not test them. Only thing is, that Debian Sid is "unstable" version, for developing new stable distros. It behaves like rolling distro.

 

[3922434]

3D should work. It depends on your linux distribution

If you still use Debian 8 ( or Ubuntu 16 or similar, which was last officially supporting PPC Big Endian ), there is problem with PPC BigEndian Mesa drivers ( ver 10.3.2-1 ). To run 3D you should use mesa software rasterizer, or use this workaround:
- copy r300.dri.so from Debian 7.11 installation (with Mesa 8.0.5-4) to /usr/lib/powerpc-linux-gnu/dri

Tested with r300 driver, Debian 8 on Pegasos 2 computer with G4 CPU ( 7447 ) and Radeon 9800 Pro.
I am not tested r200 driver, you can try it analogically.

You can use also current Debian Sid - 3D works here OOTB for Radeon cards. I tested G5 installation, all works. G4 installations are also reported as working, but I am not test them. Only thing is, that Debian Sid is "unstable" version, for developing new stable distros. It behaves like rolling distro.

Unless you have a special fix I know plenty of people that no longer have graphics support for Radeon 9200 and other ati/nvidia based cards…the fix for these system was to downgrade xorg which longer works in Debian 10 and 11…like I said you will get basic 2d and very limited 3d support…..you want to go into the install with the understanding that if you proceed your going to get end up with basic graphics support….