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PowerPC Challenge - COVID-19 2020

A'ight, so it seems that using a VNC server under Linux has proven difficult, so I'll spin up a W7 VM (I'm not too confortable with the command line, well to a certain degree), and use Tightvnc...

Fingers crossed that this won't turn into a Druaga1-esque moment (for the uninitiated, druaga1 is a YouTuber who does videos about computers, Macs beige box PCs among other stuff, and his videos often end up in hilarious mishaps, such as one time where he tried to install Linux on a Power Macintosh G5).

In the meantime, I'll probably try to secure a Mac Pro 1,1 (don't need a powerhouse for this experiment), this should be easier to set up than my épave d'ordinateur (=a PC that barely works) that works half of the time.

I sure didn't expect this challenge to be greater than I was expecting it to be.
 
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So I totaly forgot about this Powerbook which died when I tried to do the thermal paste upgrade

forums.macrumors.com

My PowerBook G4 12" Journal - Full tear down, SSD upgrade and CPU Fan.

So today I decided to do the re-assembly . I shouldn't have jinxed but I couldn't get the second screw/spring in for the heatsink assembly so I left it with only 1 spring/screw installed. Another screw which I couldn't get to fit was the longer one to install the EMI finger where the memory...
forums.macrumors.com forums.macrumors.com

Might be a good moment to open it up again and try to fix the heatsink issue.
 
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Lastic said:
So I totaly forgot about this Powerbook which died when I tried to do the thermal paste upgrade

forums.macrumors.com

My PowerBook G4 12" Journal - Full tear down, SSD upgrade and CPU Fan.

So today I decided to do the re-assembly . I shouldn't have jinxed but I couldn't get the second screw/spring in for the heatsink assembly so I left it with only 1 spring/screw installed. Another screw which I couldn't get to fit was the longer one to install the EMI finger where the memory...
forums.macrumors.com forums.macrumors.com

Might be a good moment to open it up again and try to fix the heatsink issue.
Click to expand...
If you choose to embark on this, I wish you the best of luck!
 
wicknix said:
Probably Debian (including mint and fienix) or Void for pure 64-bit. Ubuntu uses a 32-bit rootfs regardless of machine used. It just applies the appropriate 32-bit/64-bit kernel. Not that that's a bad thing, but it wont work for what you need.
Click to expand...

The Mint and Fienix userspaces are 32-bit as well, to the best of my knowledge. The latter of which still isn't even released yet.

As far as I'm aware, the only options @Lastic has is ppc64 Debian, which was graphically unstable for daily usage (at least in May 2019), or Void, which is more stable, but at the moment has its own quirks.
 
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Funny sidenote, install is still booting for Debian using qemu-system-ppc64 2.2.0 on my Powerbook G4, Void gave a Kernel panic.
I thought of cheating using my 10.13 MBp with qemu-system-ppc64 4.2.0 and it just crashes LOL.
 
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Today, I was doing my "reverse" challenge where I try to use an Intel PC. I installed alsa-utils and xbindkeys so that the PC can play audio, and I so that I can adjust the volume up, down and mute/unmute. I am pretty sure we've had this feature on PowerPC Macs for quite some time -- actually come to think of it we had this on 68000 Macs before the advent of the 16 bit SoundBlaster on Intel PCs.

Here is my .xbindkeysrc file:

Code: 
# Increase volume
"amixer -q set Master playback 6%+ unmute; aplay -q -f S16_LE -c1 -r 44100 -t raw ~/volume.raw"
   XF86AudioRaiseVolume
# Decrease volume
"amixer -q set Master playback 6%- unmute; aplay -q -f S16_LE -c1 -r 44100 -t raw ~/volume.raw"
   XF86AudioLowerVolume
# Mute/Unmute volume
"amixer -q set Master playback toggle"
   XF86AudioMute

I made an aiff to raw audio format converter on my PowerPC Mac, and it also transforms the raw audio from big endian to little endian. The audio volume on the PC works some of the time. Adjusting the audio values appears to work, but the feedback volume sound does not work very well, unless there is something else already playing audio in the background.
 
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so turns out qemu-system-ppc64 2.2.0 suffers from the usb-keyboard bug ...
I get onto the netinstall of Debian PPC64 where I have to select my language and the keyboard doesn't work ...

So another idea I had was to install a 32bit Linux on my G4 and run qemu-system-ppc64 there , to be continued after work.

If that fails I guess it means 64bit Linux install onto the G5 and see how we can advance there .
 
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A'ight, so this challenge got a unexpected turn for me (no the Apple didn't rot ;) and Sultana is far from being a rotten :apple: it's just a bit scuffed up), I won't be able to update much (and besides most of the work I do require Windows, there's no other way around this I'm afraid), so I'm still on the process of finding a suitable machine for VNC, my two "low power" Intels are out (they only have WiFi and VNC over wifi is unusable) and my HP Pavilion rig is too unstable for VNC (even trying to set a VM proven to be impossible without having a inevitable crash).

Seems like this is going to turn into a "Set a RDP or VNC server up for PowerPC challenge" for me... I hate it when unexpected turns like that :mad:


At least I can still run DOS games on a emulator on my G4... So that's at least something :p sorry no screenshots for now, I'll try to snap one ASAP.

EDIT: Note to myself: Find a Power Macintosh G5 "Quad".
 
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Amethyst1 said:
Can this be circumvented using a serial console? IIRC there's a -serial stdio option for QEMU.
Click to expand...

Probably but I gave up on using qemu-system-ppc64. it's just too slow to be usefull in this case.

I did however install Debian 10 next to my Leopard on my PB G4 and I was impressed at first.
For starters, thanks to @z970mp and the entire community here for this excellent guide https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/the-powerpc-linux-wiki.2178457/

I remember in the past that I would use the search button a lot to find answers and now everything is documented on 1 page.

Debian 10 after the repository fix, installed like a breeze. Installed Mate and touchpad works smoothly out of the box.
Mesa and NV34 seem to have had an upgrade also since I last tried Ubuntu Mate back in the stoneages (2018-2019) because glxgears runs at a whopping 59 fps.
Haven't tried any video playback yet .

Firefox 52ESR however is slow and if Youtube would ever start to play a video , I couldn't hear it over the fans blazing away trying to tame the 99% CPU.
Any alternatives on Debian 10 ?

Brightness however doesn't work , haven't looked at the solution that was presented on this forum yet.
But then qemu-system-ppc64 3.1 , I started a netinst iso and after 20 minutes still didn't get any install screen so I gave up.

Final tries for today, create an i386 qemu image on the G4 that supplies docker, node.js etc ...
Either try to run it in Debian/Leopard using qemu or VPC7.
If that fails then it's PPC64 install time on the G5, which means I'm stuck at the desk it resides on but well ...
 
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Lastic said:
Firefox 52ESR however is slow and if Youtube would ever start to play a video , I couldn't hear it over the fans blazing away trying to tame the 99% CPU.
Any alternatives on Debian 10 ?
Click to expand...

Arctic Fox, SpiderWeb, and InterWeb are available from the Wiki's Software sector. Don't forget to add foxPEP for best results.

Lastic said:
Brightness however doesn't work , haven't looked at the solution that was presented on this forum yet.
Click to expand...

Did you hold down Fn when hitting the brightness keys?
 
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Lastic said:
Any alternatives on Debian 10 ?
Click to expand...
Ubuntu 12 Remix-v3. Light, fast, lots of improvements over stock, some updated software was built and added. Should run really well on your pbg4. Bottom of first post.
forums.macrumors.com

Lubuntu 16.04 Remix (updated)

Updated to v2 (03/04/20) Here it is. New and improved over the stock 16.04 release. You can use as a live dvd / recovery system, or install it. What's changed since the original release back in 2016? Added SpiderWeb, SpiderMail, InterWeb and Arctic Fox (modern web browsers and email client)...
forums.macrumors.com forums.macrumors.com

Cheers
 
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z970mp said:
Arctic Fox, SpiderWeb, and InterWeb are available from the Wiki's Software sector. Don't forget to add foxPEP for best results.



Did you hold down Fn when hitting the brightness keys?
Click to expand...

I should have phrased that more specific, which other browsers will allow me to playback inline videos without the CPU going at 99% ?

Yes, I did use Fn when using the brightness keys but the issue is on a PB G4 1.5Ghz with an Nvidia it never worked out of the box, this was 4 years ago https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/updated-debian-ubuntu-on-powerbook-g4-12-nvidia-fx5200.1985604/
Or are there any Linux based distros where brightness works out of the box on the fx5200 ?
 
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Lastic said:
I should have phrased that more specific, which other browsers will allow me to playback inline videos without the CPU going at 99% ?

Yes, I did use Fn when using the brightness keys but the issue is on a PB G4 1.5Ghz with an Nvidia it never worked out of the box, this was 4 years ago https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/updated-debian-ubuntu-on-powerbook-g4-12-nvidia-fx5200.1985604/
Or are there any Linux based distros where brightness works out of the box on the fx5200 ?
Click to expand...

SurfTube, a fast YouTube client from the Software section, is available for Ubuntu 14.04 / 16.04 and Debian 8.

Otherwise, there is another solution, preferably on Arctic Fox because it's the fastest. Go to about:config, and change media.webm.enabled to false. Restart the browser, grab another video, then watch the CPU usage again. Same method foxPEP employs.

Just to clarify here, you are in fact getting a picture, but you just can't adjust the screen brightness via the function keys?
 
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z970mp said:
SurfTube, a fast YouTube client from the Software section, is available for Ubuntu 14.04 / 16.04 and Debian 8.

Otherwise, there is another solution, preferably on Arctic Fox because it's the fastest. Go to about:config, and change media.webm.enabled to false. Restart the browser, grab another video, then watch the CPU usage again. Same method foxPEP employs.

Just to clarify here, you are in fact getting a picture, but you just can't adjust the screen brightness via the function keys?
Click to expand...

Just installed Articfox on Debian 10 and it's usable, Surftube won't work since I used Debian 10.
Will check further after work for fine-tuning Arctic Fox.

And yes, I have a working screen but like before the brightness doesn't work , also if I add the Applet it's crossed-out indicating like in previous Debian/Ubuntu versions that the FX5200 combo is the culprit.

And since it's 07:45 AM now here, good morning @wicknix and @z970mp , thanks already for all the usefull help !
 
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Lastic said:
Just installed Articfox on Debian 10 and it's usable, Surftube won't work since I used Debian 10.
Will check further after work for fine-tuning Arctic Fox.

And yes, I have a working screen but like before the brightness doesn't work , also if I add the Applet it's crossed-out indicating like in previous Debian/Ubuntu versions that the FX5200 combo is the culprit.

And since it's 07:45 AM now here, good morning @wicknix and @z970mp , thanks already for all the usefull help !
Click to expand...

If you want to turn the brightness down, xrandr --output LVDS --brightness .4 to 1 will do the job.

Good morning to you too. :)
 
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z970mp said:
If you want to turn the brightness down, xrandr --output LVDS --brightness .4 to 1 will do the job.

Good morning to you too. :)
Click to expand...
I had the same problem in Mint 18 on my Intel iMac with an Apple Pro keyboard, so I turned the commands into 3 applets on the panel - for full, mid and low brightness. Works well ;)

Cheers :)

Hugh
 
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So destiny struck, yesterday my Retina 2012 15" MBp had to get a PRAM reset and a Single User boot to clean up files since fsck couldn't repair due to the disk being full (18 Gb free).
After removing some more files (60 Gb free) today it decided not to boot , OS X loads and then at the end hangs and shuts down. Single User fsck keeps repairing,finding issues,repairing , Internet Recovery cannot repair the disk.

Thus my 13" 2010 MBP that I use as a work laptop has backup duties now .

I will have to use my PowerPC's now :)

mpv is doing a good job on Debian 10 on the G4 to playback videos so far but now I'm going to install Debian onto the G5.
 
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