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Void Linux for PowerPC

MacMaverick855 said:
View attachment 1922809@wicknix , as it turns out, I did just that. Being paranoid, I added “nomodeset” to the boot Kernel and upon startup received a message that a root file system couldn’t be found and, some message about dracut and the final message being “will not continue” and a flashing cursor. I went to shut down the computer by pushing the power off button and more verbiage popped up and it took me to a dracut# shell. It was late so I shut down the computer and will try again later. The next attempt I will boot the 4.4-126 kernel without modifying the boot kernel to see if that makes a difference.

A terrible picture of what the screen showed is above:
Thanks,
MacMav
Click to expand...
How did you burn the DVD? I read wrong fs (file System)

On Mac: Simple right klick to image in the Finder and select "burn to media".
 
@wicknix, not sure how to do that. In the meantime, @TzunamiOSX guided me to creating/modifying an /etc/X11/Xorg.conf.d file to add (force?) NVIDIA device to use nouveau driver. When I did that, and tried to startx, I received an error that the screen couldn’t be found. So I unplugged the DVI monitor and plugged in the Apple Cinema Display in hopes a screen might be found but no luck. I probably should have written Device 0 instead of just Device since the Nvidia card has a DVI and Apple Cinema port.

As far as the live DVD I tried to boot from goes, is it possible to force the Live DVD to use the fbdev driver? Remember, the only way for me to get to a usable screen is to modify the kernel with nomodeset. Would I be able to nano the /etc/X11 file if I’m trying to use the live DVD? And, finally shouldI expect the Live DVD. To boot to a graphical interface with a log in screen, desktop running XFCE4 etc? The only way that’s going to happen is if I can modify the boot kernel somehow.

Thanks for the help so far,
Mav
 
TzunamiOSX said:
Boot CD
select Void Linux 4.4.x and press the "e"
go to line linux, after the "ro" add "fbdev"
press ctlr+x
Click to expand...
If this does not work (like on my GF 6800) you must install in single mode
Boot CD
select Void Linux 4.4.x and press the "e"
go to line linux, remove the "ro" and add "single"
press ctlr+x
password is: voidlinux
void-installer
then #493
use "NVIDIA" as Identifier
 
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We’ll, all of the above guidance has led no where. I modified the boot kernel as directed by @TzunamiOSX , and never got to an installer screen, never got to any screen for that matter other that the whole dracut thing which I’ve never seen before messing with Void. So it seems void has led to another Linux dead end.

I was pretty excited that I got all the way through the partitioning etc etc but to only be able to boot using nomodeset and then not being able to “startx” without a ton of error messages has,even with all of your help lead to an unusable system. So I may go back and visit Debian or some of the Lubuntu remixes. YDL 6.2 has been the crispest and, with Enlighten17 prettiest distro to date. If I can figure out how to drive two monitors from one Nvidia card, I may just leave YDL on this G4.

I welcome any further thoughts on Void and the Nvidia GeForce4 MX dilemma as I have enjoyed seeing the screen shots of the OS but, I can’t even get the LIVE-DVD to work. Doesn’t seem promising.

Thanks again gang!!!
MacMav855
 
MacMaverick855 said:
We’ll, all of the above guidance has led no where. I modified the boot kernel as directed by @TzunamiOSX , and never got to an installer screen, never got to any screen for that matter other that the whole dracut thing which I’ve never seen before messing with Void. So it seems void has led to another Linux dead end.
Click to expand...

Void has no grapical installer screen. The installer must be started with a terminal command.

When you get a promt, type void-installer, after finish the compleet install process, start from HD in single mode. Add the entry in Xorg, reboot. Now you get a graphical interface.
 
@TzunamiOSX, I’ve got Void installed on a 10GB HD all to itself. I did xbps-install Xorg, xbps-stall lightdm, and xfce4. On reboot after successfully installing the OS, I either get a black screen, split screen or any combination of the photos above. I need definitive guidance on what and how to modify Xorg or the boot kernel to GET to the graphical desktop. All I’ve seen is a command line/terminal like interface but I see there is a graphical desktop somewhere, I just can’t get the Nvidia card to process the software to where I can see it. I followed your instructions about /etc/X11/Xorg.conf.d but it had no affect on getting me to a graphical desktop.

MM855
 
MacMaverick855 said:
@TzunamiOSX, I’ve got Void installed on a 10GB HD all to itself. I did xbps-install Xorg, xbps-stall lightdm, and xfce4. On reboot after successfully installing the OS, I either get a black screen, split screen or any combination of the photos above. I need definitive guidance on what and how to modify Xorg or the boot kernel to GET to the graphical desktop. All I’ve seen is a command line/terminal like interface but I see there is a graphical desktop somewhere, I just can’t get the Nvidia card to process the software to where I can see it. I followed your instructions about /etc/X11/Xorg.conf.d but it had no affect on getting me to a graphical desktop.

MM855
Click to expand...
ah ok, install has finished

picture of the 20-nouveau.conf file in editor please
 
When I nano’d the /etc/X11/Xorg.conf.d/20-nouveau.conf file, the was nothing in it. So I entered the information provided into the file, saved it and rebooted. No change. No graphical desktop. I will look at it again. My Nvidia card has an Apple Cinema Display and a DVI port. Also, how do I edit a directory? At one point there were two 20-nouveau.conf files in it and I wanted to get rid of them and start over.
 
with this command you create the folder xorg.conf.d
Code: 
mkdir -p /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d

With this you create an empty file inside this of xorg.conf.d
Code: 
nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-nouveau.conf

add this to that file

Code: 
Section "Device"
    Identifier "Nvidia"
    Driver "nouveau"
    Option "ShadowFB" "true"
EndSection

you can also test

Code: 
Section "Device"
    Identifier "Device 0"
    Driver "nouveau"
    Option "ShadowFB" "true"
EndSection

to save:
strg+x
y
return
 
Last edited:
Section "Device"
Identifier "Nvidia card"
Driver "nouveau"
EndSection

This is NOT what I modified /etc/X11/Xorg.conf.d/20-nouveau.conf to say. Your instructions stated the Identifier should be NVIDIA. Would this make a difference. I saw the above info on a VoidLinux Reddit thread.
 
MacMaverick855 said:
Section "Device"
Identifier "Nvidia card"
Driver "nouveau"
EndSection

This is NOT what I modified /etc/X11/Xorg.conf.d/20-nouveau.conf to say. Your instructions stated the Identifier should be NVIDIA. Would this make a difference. I saw the above info on a VoidLinux Reddit thread.
Click to expand...
Not sure that "Nvidia card" is working. A simple "Nvidia" is working on my G5 and iMac.

Also imortant is the
Code: 
Option "ShadowFB" "true"
this activate the framebuffer for old Nvidia cards
 
@TzunamiOSX, I modified the /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-nouveau.conf file including the ShadowFB and true entries. I saved the file. Screen was as shown below:
f3b1b2c6-916f-4ec5-ae9e-5549c83917cf-jpeg.1921521


The VoidLinux reddit stated I should install "mesa-dri-32bit" however I sometimes run into "not in repository pool" errors when trying to xbps-install items.That was the case with the mesa package. The reboot results shown above occurred because I did not modify the boot kernel with "single" or nomodeset"

If (when) I get to the textual interface screen where I can log in as root and enter my password, is there a command or commands I can enter to force the system to a graphical interface. I will tell you that entering "startx" results in error messages involving xinint, and no device found messages.

Here are the contents of /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-nouveau.conf
340E80D7-FF8F-4F6D-97F8-3E5874BF9C71.jpeg


I entered “nomodest” into the boot kernel so I could read the error messages. This is the result of the reboot:
0491F959-549F-4151-A33B-1ED5C0A8AF49.jpeg


Two key things to note:
Device 0 is not a valid section name.
The “Using system config directory “user/share/X11/xorg.conf.d” is interesting.

I went to the /user/share directory and found several entries, and.conf, radeon.conf. and a few others but nowhere in this directory was a nouveau.conf or Nvidia.conf. Should there be?

I will now go back and remove Device 0 and just use Device to see what transpires.

Any thoughts @wicknix ?
Thanks,
MacMav855
 
Last edited:
MacMaverick855 said:
Any thoughts
Click to expand...
No. Sorry. Other than buying a gfx card thats known to work, i'm out of ideas. Although i have 1 idea. Why not just make it a GUI-less console only machine? There is tons of software available for ones basic needs. Like links2 for text (and graphical via framebuffer) web browsing, mutt for email, mc (midnight commander) for file management and editing, irssi for irc, moc for a music player, rebuild mplayer with framebuffer support and you have a video player, tmux for a psuedo taskbar w/clock etc etc. Most GUI apps have a console equivelent available so the sky is the limit.

Cheers
 
MacMaverick855 said:
@TzunamiOSX, I modified the /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-nouveau.conf file including the ShadowFB and true entries. I saved the file. Screen was as shown below:
f3b1b2c6-916f-4ec5-ae9e-5549c83917cf-jpeg.1921521


The VoidLinux reddit stated I should install "mesa-dri-32bit" however I sometimes run into "not in repository pool" errors when trying to xbps-install items.That was the case with the mesa package. The reboot results shown above occurred because I did not modify the boot kernel with "single" or nomodeset"

If (when) I get to the textual interface screen where I can log in as root and enter my password, is there a command or commands I can enter to force the system to a graphical interface. I will tell you that entering "startx" results in error messages involving xinint, and no device found messages.

Here are the contents of /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-nouveau.conf
View attachment 1923988

I entered “nomodest” into the boot kernel so I could read the error messages. This is the result of the reboot:
View attachment 1923989

Two key things to note:
Device 0 is not a valid section name.
The “Using system config directory “user/share/X11/xorg.conf.d” is interesting.

I went to the /user/share directory and found several entries, and.conf, radeon.conf. and a few others but nowhere in this directory was a nouveau.conf or Nvidia.conf. Should there be?

I will now go back and remove Device 0 and just use Device to see what transpires.

Any thoughts @wicknix ?
Thanks,
MacMav855
Click to expand...

My ideas running out.

Can you post your complete setup?
computer
AGP and PCI cards (flashed or original)
connection of your monitor (which port)

Is it possible to run the 16.04 remix from wicknix with GUI?
 
Last edited:
@wicknix and @TzunamiOSX, For now, I'm backing off of Void. I will post the (new) configuration of the two G4s once I find the combination of GPU cards I can use to drive two monitors in Linux. 16.04 runs great on my dual monitor MDD G4 from a Radeon card with a VGA and DVI port. I discovered that I have a Radeon card that runs from a PCI slot other than the slot 1 designated for video cards such as my Nvidia and an other Radeon card. Upon this discovery, I started swapping video cards around to see what and how Linux would handle it. I haven't completed testing yet. Some of the results have not been satisfactory. One of the issues is, only the Nvidia card can drive an Apple Cinema display and another DVI monitor. The Radeon cards will only drive a VGA and a DVI monitor. One of the G4s will likely have both the Nvidia and a Radeon card so that G4 can drive the Apple Cinema Display, the other G4 will drive a VGA and DVI. So, If I can't find the correct combination, I will document the specifics of the G4s and the Cards available so that you can look at what I have and go from there.

Thanks for everything you have done, you've been a HUGE help!!!!
MacMav855
 
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Radeon 9800 Pro GUI interface reactions slower as with my GeForce 6800 with LLVMpipe sotware renderer?

For testing i have installed a Radeon 9800 Pro inside my G5. Videos are running much faster in fullscreen, but the GUI has some slow reactions/lags when moving/opening a windows or opening the menu. i this situations the mouse is hannging shortly

Perhaps i have a wrong setting or something is missing, so i add a picture of my settings.

image0.jpg
 
wicknix said:
Try turning off the compositor (marco) in Mate's settings. Then log out, and then log back in.

Cheers
Click to expand...
Under Mate-Tweak/Windows/Window Manager i have 2 marco options

marco
marco-no-composite

I also have installed mutter and metacity but they are not selectable in the menu, don't know why.

Legs are the same with both settings.
 
wicknix said:
This method should work, but i can't promise anything. Boot a live linux cd/dvd (void/ubuntu/adelie/etc) and use dd to create an .img of your entire drive (/dev/sda). This will make an exact copy, bootloader, partition layout, etc. Don't worry about partitions unless you have other OS's on the same drive. If you do then this process gets a bit more involved and is above my knowledge (unless you want those OS's on the second ibook as well). Copy the newly created .img to a usb stick. Boot the other ibook using a live linux cd/dvd and dd the usb.img to it's internal drive. If it is successful and boots use gparted to resize your / partition if your cloned ibook has a bigger HD to reclaim unused space.

Cheers
Click to expand...

Sorry to ask something not entirely Void Linux related but I've used the method for installing Linux Mint on my PowerBook G4 (as described on the website). My big question is how does one boot into operating system after the clone? (in my case I cloned the live system onto the internal hard drive)

Booting from USB is no problem by using something like
Code: 
boot usb1/disk@1:2,\grub
. However after the system is on my internal drive, I can't boot into it (OF claims the file cannot be opened) even though I verified everything has been cloned properly. The command I've tried was
Code: 
boot hd:2,\grub

Also I wonder if the boot picker should automatically recognize GRUB (which resides on the only HFS partition) ?

If I can't get Linux Mint working, I might try Void Linux which seems to have great support for G4 hardware (from what I've read so far)
 
If you followed that method (or this one) you'll end up with an exact copy of an existing HD install including all OS's, bootloader, partitions, etc. You shouldn't have to mess with OF at all. It should just boot. If you just cloned the linux install from a drive with other OS's installed that's a lot harder to troubleshoot and is beyond my knowledge. Basically the fstab/partition layout doesn't match which is causing issues.

Cheers
 
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