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pochopsp

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 6, 2016
430
310
Napoli, city of sun and pizza!
As promised, here's a "short" video of the "Universal operative system" in its version 7 running on my MDD with 3D HW acceleration from video card:


EDIT: Due to enthusiasm I missed some important information:

I have the stock Ati Radeon 9000pro which shipped with my MDD, and Debian is the most compatible system I have found to be working with this video card, BUT, I had to do some workarounds to make it work properly on Wheezy:

  1. The version which enables 3D acceleration from my video card (and maybe many others) is Debian 6 "Squeeze", so I started from it in the version "debian-6.0.10-powerpc-xfce+lxde-CD-1.iso" from this link: http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/archive/6.0.10/powerpc/iso-cd/
  2. After the system finished installation I had to edit the sources.list to get software from Debian archive since Squeeze is not supported anymore. So I installed the following packages (I don't remember if they were already installed or not):
    Code:
    libgl1-mesa-dri
    
    
    libgl1-mesa-glx
    
    
    libglu1-mesa

    They install in version 7.7.1-6 from the Squeeze repository. I installed mesa-utils too but that is optional, I suggest you to download it anyway, it will install in version 7.7.1-6 too.
  3. Then I installed the package "firmware-linux-nonfree", it contains my Radeon video card drivers.
  4. Then I created a file called preferences in this path: "/etc/apt/preferences in which I put this text:
    Code:
    Package: libgl1-mesa-dri
    
    Pin: version 7.7.1*
    
    Pin-Priority: -1
    
    
    Package: libgl1-mesa-glx
    
    Pin: version 7.7.1*
    
    Pin-Priority: -1
    
    
    Package: libglu1-mesa
    
    Pin: version 7.7.1*
    
    Pin-Priority: -1
    
    
    Package: mesa-utils
    
    Pin: version 7.7.1*
    
    Pin-Priority: -1
    
    
    Package: xserver-xorg
    
    Pin: version 1:7.5*
    
    Pin-Priority: -1
    
    
    Package: xserver-xorg-core
    
    Pin: version 2:1.7.7*
    
    Pin-Priority: -1
    
    
    Package: xserver-xorg-input-evdev
    
    Pin: version 1:2.3.2*
    
    Pin-Priority: -1
    
    
    Package: xserver-xorg-input-synaptics
    
    Pin: version 1.2.2*
    
    Pin-Priority: -1
    
    
    Package: xserver-xorg-input-wacom
    
    Pin: version 0.10.5*
    
    Pin-Priority: -1
    
    
    Package: xserver-xorg-video-ati
    
    Pin: version 1:6.13.1*
    
    Pin-Priority: -1
    
    
    Package: xserver-xorg-video-chips
    
    Pin: version 1:1.2.3*
    
    Pin-Priority: -1
    
    
    Package: xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
    
    Pin: version 1:0.4.2*
    
    Pin-Priority: -1
    
    
    Package: xserver-xorg-video-mach64
    
    Pin: version 6.8.2*
    
    Pin-Priority: -1
    
    
    Package: xserver-xorg-video-mga
    
    Pin: version 1:1.4.11*
    
    Pin-Priority: -1
    
    
    Package: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau
    
    Pin: version 1:0.0.15**
    
    Pin-Priority: -1
    
    
    Package: xserver-xorg-video-r128
    
    Pin: version 6.8.1*
    
    Pin-Priority: -1
    
    
    Package: xserver-xorg-video-radeon
    
    Pin: version 1:6.13.1*
    
    Pin-Priority: -1
    
    
    Package: xserver-xorg-video-s3
    
    Pin: version 1:0.6.3*
    
    Pin-Priority: -1
    
    
    Package: xserver-xorg-video-s3virge
    
    Pin: version 1:1.10.4*
    
    Pin-Priority: -1
    
    
    Package: xserver-xorg-video-savage
    
    Pin: version 1:2.3.1*
    
    Pin-Priority: -1
    
    
    Package: xserver-xorg-video-sis
    
    Pin: version 1:0.10.3*
    
    Pin-Priority: -1
    
    
    Package: xserver-xorg-video-sisusb
    
    Pin: version 1:0.9.3*
    
    Pin-Priority: -1
    
    
    Package: xserver-xorg-video-tdfx
    
    Pin: version 1:1.4.3*
    
    Pin-Priority: -1
    
    
    Package: xserver-xorg-video-trident
    
    Pin: version 1:1.3.3*
    
    Pin-Priority: -1

    With the preferences file you will keep these packages version, and this is FUNDAMENTAL, because libgl1-mesa-dri and so on in version 8 will not enable 3D acceleration (at least for my video card)
  5. Finally, last step is to delete Squeeze repositories from sources.list, insert the wheezy ones, type the commands "apt-get update" and "apt-get dist upgrade", then wait while the system upgrade to Debian 7 "Wheezy".

Maybe this method works with Debian 8 too but I didn't test it.

To answer @Lastic 's questions:
Yes, newest Firefox is available on Debian PowerPC, but on version 8 "Jessie", on Debian 7 you'll be stuck with Iceweasel/Firefox 31, and maybe yes, on the newest Firefox Netflix could work. I cannot test it as I have not a Netflix account.

--All this was possible thanks to the help of debianizzati.org (an Italian site for Debian users)

--Many other useful information about Debian PowerPC can be found on ppcluddite
 
Last edited:
It was already fast when I hadn't hw acceleration from video card, but I guess it's even snappier now that I have it. Did you manage to get your video card working properly?

Maybe PC towers are just faster than laptops
 
I've been fighting with Ubuntu Mate 16.04 and 16.10 for the past days.

Is Firefox 49 or higher available on Debian PPC ? And more important does it play Netflix when switching the UserAgent to Intel/Firefox 52 ?
 
Nice :) Quake looked great. I have an almost identically spec'd MDD. Sounds like a good weekend project. ;)
 
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