Void Linux for PowerPC

[dreadone]

Which kernel version?

It's probably this https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/drm/amd/issues/773

I'd test different kernel versions, see if it affects all, and post your findings in that ticket.

Ok. The solution should be a newer/better kernel ?!

Kernel here is: 5.4.24_1 ( see picture).
How to test kernel versions?
And what is the difference between glibc and musl ?
Is it possible to change the repository ?

Ardour5 is working..thank you!!....but i could only start it from terminal.

 

[-MB-]

Hi!!

What I am doing wrong? I can't go further after the "Release keys to continue!” message.

And that “Invalid memory access”? Anything to do with triyng the 32bit instead of 64 bit? This is on a G5 DC with 16GB RAM, booted from optical drive.

Thanks!

 

[q66_]

Fresh ISO images now available: https://voidlinux-ppc.org/news/2020/04/new-images.html

They bring modern kernels and an assortment of improvements.

Also, for those who can't boot a modern kernel (and therefore have no option to install), there is now an alternative 4.4 kernel option available. You can choose between them in the GRUB bootloader.

Also for those who for some reason can't get GRUB to start up (it's rare, but bugs happen), there is now also a yaboot fallback shipped in the images (has to be booted explicitly via the OpenFirmware console if needed) so there is always *some* way to boot.

@-MB- hard to say what your issue is. The bootloader is always a 32-bit binary, that's normal. I'm testing on a G5 DC and it generally works just fine, if you can't even get into the OF console, there is something seriously wrong, before you even get to start booting the system.

@dreadone well, I'd try a bunch of different kernels. We now have installable options for all long term support series, plus the current stable ones, which means 5.6, 5.5, 5.4, 4.19, 4.14, 4.9 and 4.4. Maybe one of them will work. Seems to be a rare bug.

 

[heinerwoestefeld]

Hi, thanks for your work. I tried different kernel. Nothing changed. ....


Kernel now 5.4.30.

One more question:
How to upgrade with the iso?
Stay at home.

 

[q66_]

Hi, thanks for your work. I tried different kernel. Nothing changed. ....


Kernel now 5.4.30.

One more question:
How to upgrade with the iso?
Stay at home.

What didn't change?

You don't need the installation media to upgrade. You can upgrade any existing installation just fine using the package manager.

 

[dreadone]

What didn't change?

You don't need the installation media to upgrade. You can upgrade any existing installation just fine using the package manager.

Ok, i didn't noticed that i was using two profiles. If i'm writing with my mobile, i using a tapatalk profile with my name
heinerwoestefeld. So it was my fault.

Back to the topic: I tested different kernels, but the hardware acceleration (hd5770) does not work. Nothing new.
Maybe the hd5770 is not compatible; i tested two: a pc card and one from a macpro.

What i also noticed:
- i tested smplayer ( in vlc there is a blackscreen) to play mkv-files. I can play them, but resizing the video is not possible. With a G5/2,3ghz/fx4500/Debian 10/5.5.0.1 it works.
- after a while some keyboard keys suddenly changed; the Return,-Space and Direction-keys are useable only if i press the shiftkey before. What could be the reason for that?
- Cannot install my brother-printer (MFC-j6510dw). Do i have to use ubuntu/debian drivers?
- usb3/ Renesas NEC card does not work.
- Tempo Sata Pcie 2.0 card (should work in g5) does not work.

 

[q66_]

@dreadone I was messing around with my G5's PCIe configuration today and I was able to reproduce your acceleration issue with an R5 235. Turns out the problem happens when the card is in the x16 slot. Switching it to an x8 slot results in acceleration working fine.

I also put back my USB3 card (lspci reports it as "Renesas Technology Corp. uPD720202 USB 3.0 Host Controller") and it works fine (i can plug in a flash drive and it'll report itself). I don't have that SATA controller, you'll have to figure out yourself what's possibly missing from the kernel and only once you know it can be enabled.

Pretty sure you can't install your Brother printer either way on any Linux, they require proprietary drivers and these are x86 only. At least those available on their website contain x86 binaries.

VLC works fine, but you need to disable hardware decoding (settings->input/codecs->disable hardware-accelerated decoding). Hardware decoding with vdpau/vaapi and AMD cards is broken on big endian systems, that's not Void specific either. Smplayer also works fine, it's just a frontend for another player, you should install mpv and set that as the backend. Otherwise it will use mplayer. Mplayer likewise works fine, if it doesn't resize it's using a video output engine that's not capable of resizing, so you'd need to switch to something that can, e.g. xv or opengl.

 

[z970]

@q66_ I've had good success on Linux with any printer, just by installing cups, then entering into a browser: localhost:631.

Usually, it will automatically find it, integrate it with the system, then it's on it's way.

 

[q66_]

that assumes your printer has open source drivers present within cups, or doesn't need special drivers, which is not the case for brother or epson, they have proprietary filter programs (basically converts input from cups to something the printer understands, otherwise you can get the printer to print *something* but it'll all be junk) for cups that are binary-only and x86-only

 

[MoerBoer]

Great job @q66!

I've finally been able to run the live ISO with the latest version on my iMac 2.1Ghz with iSight. ( typing this from within VoidLinux )

Just a question, I want to install it, but I'm finding setting up of the partitions very confusing. Is there a graphical interface I can use ( like gParted )?

I want to give this a go on my 250gb internal drive.

 

[q66_]

there isn't, you'll have to do with pmac-fdisk, as APM is old and modern partitioning tools don't support it

read the partitioning notes section of the documentation, it shouldn't be *that* hard, i think it's described in a pretty detailed way

 

[sparty411]

I gave the new live image a whirl last night, and installed it on an iBook G4. It worked great, but I experienced periodic lock ups, usually when the GPU was being leveraged in one way or another. This iBook features the Mobility Radeon 9550.

 

[q66_]

modern kernels should work fine, 4.4 will need `radeon.agpmode=-1` on kernel command line to prevent lockups (see the old debian/ubuntu/gentoo powerpc wiki and so on)

that said, regardless of kernel version, my 15" powerbook hangs when I run games (usually happens after e.g. loading a map), I assume there is some bug in the kernel that is exposed through some specific opengl feature

 

[sparty411]

modern kernels should work fine, 4.4 will need `radeon.agpmode=-1` on kernel command line to prevent lockups (see the old debian/ubuntu/gentoo powerpc wiki and so on)

that said, regardless of kernel version, my 15" powerbook hangs when I run games (usually happens after e.g. loading a map), I assume there is some bug in the kernel that is exposed through some specific opengl feature

Ah ok, I guess that would explain why I didn't experience this problem until I enabled hardware acceleration in Gnome Web.

 

[dreadone]

@dreadone I was messing around with my G5's PCIe configuration today and I was able to reproduce your acceleration issue with an R5 235. Turns out the problem happens when the card is in the x16 slot. Switching it to an x8 slot results in acceleration working fine.

I also put back my USB3 card (lspci reports it as "Renesas Technology Corp. uPD720202 USB 3.0 Host Controller") and it works fine (i can plug in a flash drive and it'll report itself). I don't have that SATA controller, you'll have to figure out yourself what's possibly missing from the kernel and only once you know it can be enabled.

Pretty sure you can't install your Brother printer either way on any Linux, they require proprietary drivers and these are x86 only. At least those available on their website contain x86 binaries.

VLC works fine, but you need to disable hardware decoding (settings->input/codecs->disable hardware-accelerated decoding). Hardware decoding with vdpau/vaapi and AMD cards is broken on big endian systems, that's not Void specific either. Smplayer also works fine, it's just a frontend for another player, you should install mpv and set that as the backend. Otherwise it will use mplayer. Mplayer likewise works fine, if it doesn't resize it's using a video output engine that's not capable of resizing, so you'd need to switch to something that can, e.g. xv or opengl.

[automerge]1586810809[/automerge]
Thanks for the answer. Tomorrow i will test the other pcie-slot.
For the Brotherprinter: in debianppc i installed the driver from the brother website and it works.

 

[MoerBoer]

there isn't, you'll have to do with pmac-fdisk, as APM is old and modern partitioning tools don't support it

read the partitioning notes section of the documentation, it shouldn't be *that* hard, i think it's described in a pretty detailed way

Ahh ok. I should have checked the online documentation.

I'll try a bit later again. Thanks for the reply.

 

[dreadone]

[automerge]1586810809[/automerge]
Thanks for the answer. Tomorrow i will test the other pcie-slot.
For the Brotherprinter: in debianppc i installed the driver from the brother website and it works.

Ok...so i tested the hardware-acceleration:
In the the sec. PCIE-slot the cards working, also the AMD6970 Cayman (see pictures).

- Now VLC is working too.
- At moment, the keyboard-fault is to solve. It is really exhausting for me, to write. Changing the keyboard-layout does not help.

- In Debian the Brother Printer is working, with cups (s. pic.).

 

[tlosm]

Hello,
Luigi here ...
thanks to linux kernel you will be able on your G5 break the hardware limit of osx, it mean you can use all the pcie cards linux compatibles like are usb3 or sata3 cards ... in my case i have on my g5 quad 2 HD and 2 SSD plus the dvdrom (apple) ... result i have linux ubuntu mate 16.0.4.4 on SSD Sata3 booting time after yaboot init 2 seconds. Sed only that Linux ppc crash with radeonsi.

 

[-MB-]

Hi!

I’ll try the latest ISO on my Late 2005 G5 dual-core 2.3GHz. It has the built in NVIDIA GeForce 6600 but I also have here the ATI Radeon X1900. Which one is better for this linux? Or any other linux..

Thanks!

 

[z970]

@-MB- From the tests I've conducted on everything from Debian 7 / Ubuntu 12.04 to Debian 10 / Ubuntu 16.04, the 6600 will work fine, while the X1900 will not work at all OOB with X.

I unfortunately haven't gotten the chance to try the two with Void, because it kept crashing during boot. But assuming Void supports the latter, the X1900 is a vastly superior card to the 6600 and is definitely preferable (when it works).

Hope I helped.

 

[-MB-]

Thanks! I’ll try both them later. I just burned the ISO on DVD.

 

[-MB-]

Hi,

I did try both kernels on but stuck here. I can’t go any further than this. What to do now?

 

[dreadone]

Hi, I tested some app in my configuration (g5quad, voidlinux) :
- So I installed "Blender" successful (see pic), but the app does not start and in the taskmanager it is not listed.

- Youtube - videos in FF64 only works with "Viewtube" helper...

By the way: my gt1900 gaphiccard never boots in Void.
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[z970]

@-MB- Not sure. I don't think I've ever gotten to the environment, same as you.

@dreadone That's a shame, I was really counting on X1900 support...

 

[xeno74]

Ok...so i tested the hardware-acceleration:
In the the sec. PCIE-slot the cards working, also the AMD6970 Cayman (see pictures).

- Now VLC is working too.
- At moment, the keyboard-fault is to solve. It is really exhausting for me, to write. Changing the keyboard-layout does not help.

- In Debian the Brother Printer is working, with cups (s. pic.).

Hi dreadone,

Great work! Very interesting! Could you please post the output of “vblank_mode=0 glxgears” with your Radeon HD6970?

Thanks,
Christian