Re: Recipe for installing Debian on powerpc (G4, 32-bit) Mac?

[Johannes Brakensiek]

Am Dienstag, dem 14.12.2021 um 17:12 -0800 schrieb Rick Thomas:
> What is the URL for the latest Debian installer iso for a powerpc
> (32-bit, G4) macintosh?
> 
> Is there anything I need to do (e.g. manually add a few lines to
> sources.list after/during the install) other than the the normal
> installation process (i.e. same as I would use for an amd64 machine)?
> 
> Is there anything in particular you would like me to report on after
> I'm done with the installation?
> 
> Thanks for all your hard work!
> 
> Rick

Hi Rick,

you may find the last snapshot of the PowerPC ports image here: 
https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/ports/snapshots/2021-10-20/

As far as I know you should be able to just run and install it. See my
note over here on how to boot from an USB stick. I don't know if a G4
will be able to do that as well: 
https://lists.debian.org/debian-powerpc/2021/01/msg00035.html

Otherwise just burn a CD.

If you encounter any issues just tell here. Adrian is doing all the
hard work of making the port work (thanks again!). It seems there is
not much manpower left for updating the documentation at the ports
site. I don't even know how this works in this Debian universe… (if
it's kinda straight forward I may try to update some information at
some point…)

Good luck and happy hacking
Johannes

Re: Recipe for installing Debian on powerpc (G4, 32-bit) Mac?

[Johannes Brakensiek]

Am Mittwoch, dem 15.12.2021 um 16:32 +0100 schrieb Steffen Grunewald:

> I've followed this path for my Powerbook G4, and while installation
> 
> from CD went surprisingly fine, I eventually got an error from the
> 
> GRUB installer - which claimed not to be able to find /dev/sda3 :(
> 
> I did a "chroot /target" and was able to "hexdump -C /dev/sda3",
> 
> to prove that the disk wassn't stolen halfway through the install
> 
> process...
> 
> What might be missing?

I did not encounter that one yet. Would have to try at my G4 after
christmas. Are there any experience from the others?

Johannes

Re: Recipe for installing Debian on powerpc (G4, 32-bit) Mac? [failed installation -- looking for advice]

[Johannes Brakensiek]

Am Samstag, dem 18.12.2021 um 09:19 +0100 schrieb John Paul Adrian
Glaubitz:
> Use a different, known to work image.

Sorry, that's my bad. Did not know only certain images are supposed to
work.

Johannes

Re: Some background information

[Johannes Brakensiek]

Hello Adrian,

Am Montag, dem 27.12.2021 um 11:42 +0100 schrieb John Paul Adrian
Glaubitz:
> Until that has happened, please stick to the images that are known to
> work or wait until I release new
> images with the missing temporary hacks implemented and which I am
> declaring as "supposed to work" or
> "known to work". FWIW, since I also create images for other
> architectures, I'm trying to create new
> images regularly. But I cannot always take care of the manual changes
> required for Apple PowerMac
> which is why even newer images might not work.

thank you very much - for both: Your in-deep explanation and the even
way more extensive work on supporting the PowerPC platform!

Currently I can't be much help on this other than testing some odds and
ends at some point (still need to learn how to do proper Debian
packaging). But if you point me to any entry point to learn how to
update the web documentation of the PPC port I may try to update those
pages using the information you provide (e.g. link the latest daily
install image known to work).

Thanks again
Johannes

Re: yaboot installation media

[Johannes Brakensiek]

Am Sonntag, dem 27.03.2022 um 16:17 -0400 schrieb Jeffrey Walton:
> I don't know about the G4's, but I know about the G5's. You cannot
> boot a G5 from USB. You have to burn a CD and boot from the CD.

Booting a G5 PowerMac 11,2 from USB works well, I don't know about the
older ones.

See this mail on how to:
https://lists.debian.org/debian-powerpc/2021/01/msg00035.html

The hacks from the powerprogress forum should not be necessary anymore.

Johannes

Installation on an iBook G4

[Johannes Brakensiek]

Hello everyone,

I installed the CD image from snapshot 2022-03-28 [1], which I burned
using my PowerMac G5 [2]. Installation just went very fine.

Thanks a lot to Adrian for making this happen!

After installation I encountered some issues which could easily be
solved by applying some quick and dirty fixes, maybe.

First packages firmware-b43-installer[3] and and bw43-fwcutter[4] were
missing, which I then got from the linked snapshot. Would it be
possible to place these packages in the unreleased repo to make them
available easily?

Then I wanted to set up wifi, but network-manager-gnome was not
available due to libnma not being built on powerpc (32 bit) due to
libgtk-4-1 not available on powerpc. The correct way probably would be
to fix building of GTK4 on powerpc (I don't know why it fails), but I
was able to build the libnma package after removing all dependencies to
GTK4.

In case we would like to provide such "hacked" packages to powerpc port
users via the unreleased repo, what would be the correct way to achieve
that?

In any case: After building the libnma package manually I was able to
install necessary packages to configure wifi and bluetooth via GUI
(MATE) easily.

Desktop now looks quite similar to this screenshot[5] which I'm quite
happy about.

So far.

Johannes


[1]
https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/ports/snapshots/2022-03-28/debian-11.0.0-powerpc-NETINST-1.iso
[2] Tell me if you need a CD. My PowerMac will happily burn one I'm
going to ship anywhere in Europe.
[3]
https://snapshot.debian.org/archive/debian/20170531T212258Z/pool/contrib/b/b43-fwcutter/firmware-b43-installer_019-3_all.deb
[4]
https://snapshot.debian.org/archive/debian/20170531T212258Z/pool/contrib/b/b43-fwcutter/b43-fwcutter_019-3_powerpc.deb
[5] https://fosstodon.org/@lazarus/108208319638351436

cron 3.0pl1-138

[Johannes Brakensiek]

Hello,

trying to update to the package mentioned above configuration of the
package using dpkg crashes my iBook G4 (system halts, does not react to
anything anymore) in a reproducable manner.

Any hints on how to debug this?

Thanks
Johannes

Thank you, Adrian! [Was: Why it's so difficult to fix PowerMac booting for good]

[Johannes Brakensiek]

Hi Adrian,

just wanted to thank you for your ongoing perservering and
knowledgeable effort to keep supporting PowerPCs!

I think you're on the right track! Even though I don't find time to
boot my PowerPCs often these days, each time I do I'm happy they `apt
upgrade` and still work.

So your work is highly appreciated! I think it's part of what makes
Debian great. Even though I understand the structures of Debian are not
always easy ones to work within.

Best
Johannes

Re: Please test Firefox on ppc64

[Johannes Brakensiek]

Am Donnerstag, dem 31.08.2023 um 23:16 +0200 schrieb John Paul Adrian
Glaubitz:
> On Thu, 2023-08-31 at 23:06 +0200, John Paul Adrian Glaubitz wrote:
> > Can anyone running Debian on ppc64 please give it a try?
> 
> It might crash because of this bug:
> 
> > https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1845669
> 
> Adrian
> 

Hi Adrian,

I was just able to test it using an upgraded Debian Sid ppc64:

It crashes because of:

Thread 1 "firefox-esr" received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault.
i32_load8_u (addr=2014643200, mem=) at rlbox.wasm.c:146
146 rlbox.wasm.c: Datei oder Verzeichnis nicht gefunden.

Backtrace attached.

Regards
Johannes
Thread 1 "firefox-esr" received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault.
i32_load8_u (addr=2014643200, mem=) at rlbox.wasm.c:146
146	rlbox.wasm.c: Datei oder Verzeichnis nicht gefunden.

(gdb) bt
#0  i32_load8_u (addr=2014643200, mem=) at rlbox.wasm.c:146
#1  w2c_rlbox_streqci (var_p0=var_p0@entry=262000, var_p1=2014643200, instance=) at rlbox.wasm.c:925
#2  0x7fffe96bdbe8 in w2c_rlbox_getEncodingIndex (var_p0=, instance=) at rlbox.wasm.c:66394
#3  w2c_rlbox_getEncodingIndex (var_p0=262000, instance=0x7fffd89a8000) at rlbox.wasm.c:841
#4  w2c_rlbox_MOZ_XmlInitEncodingNS_0 (instance=0x7fffd89a8000, var_p0=438772, var_p1=438768, var_p2=262000) at rlbox.wasm.c:2467
#5  0x7fffe97097dc in w2c_rlbox_initializeEncoding (instance=instance@entry=0x7fffd89a8000, var_p0=var_p0@entry=438624) at rlbox.wasm.c:48421
#6  0x7fffe97cbc38 in w2c_rlbox_prologInitProcessor (instance=0x7fffd89a8000, var_p0=438624, var_p1=445808, var_p2=511344, var_p3=262140)
at rlbox.wasm.c:45429
#7  0x7fffe97dc744 in w2c_rlbox_MOZ_XML_Parse_0 (var_p3=0, var_p2=65536, var_p1=445808, var_p0=438624, instance=0x7fffd89a8000) at rlbox.wasm.c:49444
#8  w2c_rlbox_MOZ_XML_Parse (instance=0x7fffd89a8000, var_p0=438624, var_p1=445808, var_p2=65536, var_p3=0) at rlbox.wasm.c:20953
#9  0x7fffea549d30 in rlbox::rlbox_wasm2c_sandbox::impl_invoke_with_func_ptr(XML_Status (*)(unsigned int, unsigned int, int, int), unsigned int&&, unsigned int&&, unsigned int&&, bool&&) (func_ptr=, this=0x7fffd89a8000)
at ./build-browser/dist/include/mozilla/rlbox/rlbox_wasm2c_sandbox.hpp:763
#10 rlbox::rlbox_sandbox::INTERNAL_invoke_with_func_ptr&, rlbox::tainted, unsigned long, bool>(char const*, void*, rlbox::tainted&, rlbox::tainted&&, unsigned long&&, bool&&)
(func_name=, func_ptr=, this=) at ./build-browser/dist/include/mozilla/rlbox/rlbox_sandbox.hpp:790
#11 nsExpatDriver::ParseChunk(char16_t const*, unsigned int, nsExpatDriver::ChunkOrBufferIsFinal, unsigned int*, unsigned long*)
(this=0x776ee740, aBuffer=, aLength=aLength@entry=32768, aIsFinal=aIsFinal@entry=nsExpatDriver::ChunkOrBufferIsFinal::FinalChunk, aConsumed=0x7fffc21c, aLastLineLength=0x7fffc220) at ./parser/htmlparser/nsExpatDriver.cpp:1248
#12 0x7fffea54a13c in nsExpatDriver::ChunkAndParseBuffer(char16_t const*, unsigned int, bool, unsigned int*, unsigned int*, unsigned long*)
(this=this@entry=0x776ee740, aBuffer=aBuffer@entry=0x7fffdbf60020 u"\n\n

Re: Crowdfunding a small but important powerpc bugfix

[Johannes Brakensiek]

Hi Adrian,

Am Mittwoch, dem 11.10.2023 um 15:38 +0200 schrieb John Paul Adrian
Glaubitz:
> I don't think we need to collect a lot of money, a few hundred
> dollars should
> probably be more than enough. We don't have to use Bountysource.com
> for what
> is worth. Any other platform or donation system would be perfectly
> fine, too.

great idea! I'd definitely support such an approach. I'd also be
interested into getting to know a sensible platform for such a task.

I know there is the Open Source Collective[1] relying on the Open
Collective Platform[2]. Really some projects seem to use Open
Collective.[3] I don't though know how much hassle it is to set up a
project there to raise some funding?

Johannes


[1] https://www.oscollective.org/
[2] https://opencollective.com/
[3] https://opencollective.com/siduction-eu (f.e.)

Re: What are the current available browser options for debian-ppc64?

[Johannes Brakensiek]

Hi Adrian,

Am Dienstag, dem 21.11.2023 um 21:20 +0100 schrieb John Paul Adrian
Glaubitz:
> 
> Please test this build which include the image decoder big-endian fix
> from VoidPPC:
> 
> > https://people.debian.org/~glaubitz/firefox-ppc64/test002/
> 
> Adrian
> 

thanks for providing the binary. It still segfaults. Could you provide
debug symbols as well, please? I'd send a backtrace.

Johannes

Re: What are the current available browser options for debian-ppc64?

[Johannes Brakensiek]

Hi,

Am Mittwoch, dem 22.11.2023 um 10:18 +0100 schrieb
kristoffer...@tuta.io:
> I caught this today thru gdb and Firefox 120.0-1 on my dual G5:
> 
> Thread 1 "firefox" received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault.
> i32_load8_u (addr=2016478208, mem=) at
> rlbox.wasm.c:146
> 146 rlbox.wasm.c: No such file or directory.

I did not retest it yet. But if that's still the issue, it's the same I
reported on 23-09-11 to this list for the regular ports package.
Crashdump was attached.

Johannes

Re: What are the current available browser options for debian-ppc64?

[Johannes Brakensiek]

Am Donnerstag, dem 23.11.2023 um 09:01 +0100 schrieb Johannes
Brakensiek:
> Crashdump was attached.

Backtrace, to be more precise.

Johannes

Installing snapshot 2021-01-03 on a PowerMac G5

[Johannes Brakensiek]

Hello everyone,

and a happy new year to you. Thanks to Covid19-based restrictions I 
returned to a Mac PPC (PowerMac 11,2) the last days to rejoin the Apple 
hardware party of my youth and do happy compiling on PPC64.


My attempts were not that lucky at all because each turn of trying to 
install the snapshot mentioned failed.


I’m listing my observations here. Please tell me if and where to post 
logs and/or bug reports. Thank you.


The issues I observed:

1. partman did not create a boot/HFS partition the `/usr/lib/os-probes` 
tests could recognize. It seems these scripts utilize `blkid`, but 
`blkid` would only recognize my boot partition (2MB) as HFS after I 
manually formatted it using `hformat`.
2. Selecting KDE as environment in tasksel did not work (seems not all 
dependencies could be resolved, but I did not dig deeper into this), I 
chose Xfce, using that installation worked.
3. But whatever I did (even after fixing first issue), I did not manage 
to install grub. I even tried the „ugly hack“, mentioned at 
https://www.u58733p55594.web0093.zxcs-klant.nl/installation/grub-problem/ 
to replace hfsprogs with an older snapshot within the target chroot. The 
result stayed the same:


```
grub-installer: info: Running chroot /target grub-install  --force 
"dummy"

grub-installer: Installing for powerpc-ieee1275 platform.
grub-installer: grub-install: error:
grub-installer:
grub-installer: cannot find a GRUB drive for dummy.  Check your 
device.map

grub-installer: .
grub-installer: error: Running 'grub-install  --force "dummy"' failed.
```

If you need the full syslog, partman log and so on, just tell me where 
to upload/store it.


Last question in advance: I saw sid PPC64 ships kernel version 5.10. Is 
the following issue already patched or am I going to run into that one 
as well and should wait until kernel has been updated to at least 5.10.2 
(my PowerMac G5 still runs a GeForce 6600 currently)?


https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=210517

Thanks for your support in advance
Johannes

Re: Installing snapshot 2021-01-03 on a PowerMac G5

[Johannes Brakensiek]

Hello Adrian,

thank you for your reply!

On 9 Jan 2021, at 13:30, John Paul Adrian Glaubitz wrote:


On 1/8/21 9:08 PM, Johannes Brakensiek wrote:
and a happy new year to you. Thanks to Covid19-based restrictions I 
returned to a
Mac PPC (PowerMac 11,2) the last days to rejoin the Apple hardware 
party of my youth

and do happy compiling on PPC64.


Great. Maybe you're interested in helping to improve the Debian 
PowerPC ports?


well, I already invested some (more) time to dig into the issues below. 
I’d do some further QA after fixing and report issues if I find some 
time to do that.


Once I manage installation an aim of mine would be to install SUSE’s 
Open Build Service on that machine. Because the PowerPC architecture is 
missing at their public service for building Debian packages. So if 
I’d ever manage to get that running, then further more packages could 
be built using that machine. But that’s just a uncertain glimpse into 
the future. In addition to this I’d have to mention I would not want 
to run that machine 24/7 as that would suck half the power delivered by 
the coal-fired power plant next door. I’d be already seeing myself 
travelling down the Rhine river on a cargo ship, delivering the coal 
required to keep that thing running. ;)



debian-installer is currently broken on PowerMacs due to two issues:

- libparted crashes on 32-bit PowerPC causing the partitioner to hang 
forever when starting up
- grub-installer is currently not properly setting up the HFS 
partition for installing GRUB


Both issues are known and being worked on. However, since my primary 
debug machine is an
iBook G4 which is a 32-bit machine, I cannot work on the 
grub-installer issue until I have

resolved the libparted issue.

The partioner issue turned out to be rather difficult to debug but I 
have already localized

it to a problem in libparted.


[…]

The grub-installer in this ISO image is not the correct one which has 
been patched for

PowerMac support. I will fix that later.

Try installing GRUB manually:


https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/GRUB_on_Open_Firmware_(PowerPC)


Last question in advance: I saw sid PPC64 ships kernel version 5.10. 
Is the following issue already
patched or am I going to run into that one as well and should wait 
until kernel has been updated to

at least 5.10.2 (my PowerMac G5 still runs a GeForce 6600 currently)?

https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=210517


Debian unstable has already kernel 5.10.4 [1] which - according to 
this bug report - contains the fix.


Ok, thank you very much for these information. That’s good to know and 
sounds promising!


Regarding the manual installation of GRUB I took some time to study that 
tutorial (and try some first steps), but it looks like that is for those 
knowing the powerful way of the boot path warrior. I am showing great 
respect for these honourable men and women and their way to higher 
levels of achievements. But for me I decide to stay a simple man and 
wait for the fixes to come. ;)


Thank you for your work. Once some fixes arrive I’d be eager to test 
them.


Best
Johannes

Re: Installing snapshot 2021-01-03 on a PowerMac G5

[Johannes Brakensiek]

Hello everyone,

On 10 Jan 2021, at 23:48, Johannes Brakensiek wrote:

Regarding the manual installation of GRUB I took some time to study 
that tutorial (and try some first steps), but it looks like that is 
for those knowing the powerful way of the boot path warrior. I am 
showing great respect for these honourable men and women and their way 
to higher levels of achievements. But for me I decide to stay a simple 
man and wait for the fixes to come. ;)


Thank you for your work. Once some fixes arrive I’d be eager to test 
them.


just for the record. I managed to finish installation using the script 
mentioned over there (thanks to Bertrand for the hint!):


https://forum.powerprogress.org/d/15-debian-10-updated-installation-images-for-debian-ports-2019-11-22

I booted from a USB stick using:

```
boot ud:\boot\grub\powerpc.elf
```

I used a recent iso to flash the stick. I modified the script from 
powerprogress a little (to be run in the rescue system after 
installation). I had to use the ofpathname bin as there was not ofpath 
binary using that installation (may be the reason setting up nvram 
failed). I also removed the line setting up fstab as that one made 
booting fail (partition could not be mounted).


I also used a NewWorld boot partition a little bigger (2MB should be 
enough, took 64MB just to be sure).


In rescue mode I installed some drivers from powerprogress using the 
script and as well the nouveau driver for the NVidia GeForce 6600. 
Installing the windfarm driver was not necessary anymore. Fans behaved 
well.


Setting nvram using the rescue system/script also did not work for me as 
well. I had to do so manually using Open Firmware:


```
setenv boot-device ’hd:2,\grub’
```

After booting the installed system graphics showed up, but were very 
distorted (MATE) or kept crashing (Xfce and Lxqt) with segfaults. 
Graphics worked perfectly fine using Enlightenment (very blingbling 
using OpenGL) and WindowMaker (no blingbling at all as we know it).


So far. Thanks for all the hints
Johannes

Radeon HD 5770

[Johannes Brakensiek]

Hello everyone,

I’m thinking of getting a Radeon HD 5770 from a Mac Pro for my 
PowerMac 11,2. Did anyone try to this? Are there PPC drivers/firmware 
that are going to work with this card? (I know Mac OS X Leopard won’t 
work with this, but this mail is not about that. ;))


Thank you
Johannes

Re: Radeon HD 5770

[Johannes Brakensiek]

Hi,

On 26 Jan 2021, at 15:24, luigi burdo wrote:

i had been test linux with G5 Quad . Quadro 7800Gtx in 16x slot, 
radeonhd on 8x slot.

Result, it work with mesa 3D enabled on 4650, 5450, 6570, and R5 220.
only 2D working with SI cards 7750, r7 250 because mesa crash for 
endianess someware.


For have the PC bios card working you need 2 Monitors. one monitor for 
the apple firmaware gpu and one for the "pc firmware gpu".
This is a video of my g5 with Debian Port (thanx Adrian Glubitz) and 
radeonhd 6570 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsB5xlLyZwE&t


Ciao
Luigi

Da: John Paul Adrian Glaubitz 
Inviato: martedì 26 gennaio 2021 15:14
A: Linux User #330250 
Cc: Johannes Brakensiek ; 
debian-powerpc@lists.debian.org 

Oggetto: Re: Radeon HD 5770

Hi!

On 1/26/21 3:06 PM, Linux User #330250 wrote:
If the card doesn't have a Firmware with FCode for the Open Firmware 
of
the Power Mac, it's won't be possible to see anything prior to the 
Linux

boot, where Linux initializes the card using the PC-VideoBIOS.
(...)
The problem is that without an FCode graphics ROM you also don't get 
any

error messages, neither from the Open Firmware (like when it doesn't
find a bootable operating system: the folder symbol with the question
mark in it) or from the early kernel. (early printk)


I would probably just use a serial console for the boot sequence.

Adrian


thank you for all your replys. Sounds as if it works if I’ve already 
got a working system (which I have). And it seems to be even easier when 
using both graphics cards in parallel.


I did not know I can use a serial console with a G5. Going to 
investigate that as well.


Thanks
Johannes

Re: Radeon HD 5770

[Johannes Brakensiek]

On 27 Jan 2021, at 2:27, Alex Perez wrote:

It's possible, and basically involves re-purposing the modem 
interface, which is really just a serial port. See 
http://www.geethree.com/stealth/ for more information.


Thank you for that hint. Not that cheap and it says dual core G5s are 
excluded: http://www.geethree.com/purchase/hardware.html


But if running/exchanging two GPUs works, I’m fine…

Johannes

Re: Radeon HD 5770

[Johannes Brakensiek]

Hello,

On 26 Jan 2021, at 15:24, luigi burdo wrote:

i had been test linux with G5 Quad . Quadro 7800Gtx in 16x slot, 
radeonhd on 8x slot.

Result, it work with mesa 3D enabled on 4650, 5450, 6570, and R5 220.
only 2D working with SI cards 7750, r7 250 because mesa crash for 
endianess someware.


For have the PC bios card working you need 2 Monitors. one monitor for 
the apple firmaware gpu and one for the "pc firmware gpu".
This is a video of my g5 with Debian Port (thanx Adrian Glubitz) and 
radeonhd 6570 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsB5xlLyZwE&t


looks as if I were not lucky at all. Had all drivers installed, but did 
not manage to even get a little piece of a signal out of the Radeon HD 
5770 I got from a Mac Pro. If I researched correctly it is because the 
the 5770 needs a PCIe 2.0 while the G5 only has 1.0. Do you think this 
is correct? Going to try a 6570 then (X1900 for G5 would be great, but 
are hard to find it seems).


Johannes

Re: Radeon HD 5770

[Johannes Brakensiek]

On 30 Jan 2021, at 23:18, Karl wrote:


The maintainer of VoidLinux has also a Terascale running in his G5:
https://imgur.com/Drt5KYo

What about the xorg.log or xorg config file? Maybe you have to 
blacklist the other card in Grub?
Regarding X1900, the Mac Edition won’t work on Linux, because of the 
reduced BIOS, IIRC.


Hello Karl,

thank you for these hints. Ok, won’t try the X1900 then. I would try 
further investigation and debugging (modules, xorg and so) if I knew 
that card should work. But it seems especially the HD 5xxx series does 
have problems regarding backward compatibility:


https://community.amd.com/t5/graphics/hd-5770-pcie-1-0/td-p/272859

So regarding time investment it might be cheaper to just get another 
card?


Johannes

Re: Radeon HD 5770

[Johannes Brakensiek]

Hello Karl,

On 31 Jan 2021, at 14:40, Karl wrote:


as you can see in the picture, q66 is using a 6470.

Coincidentally, I just found a post in the Linux on PowerPC Mac 
Facebook group from someone who also uses a 5770 on Void Linux. He 
also had problems. But then changed his xorg file back to the original 
and it worked. His 5770 was from a MacPro by the way ;-)


Christian Zigotzky uses a 6970 in his X5000, IIRC. All Terascale GPUs 
should work. Also a R5 230.


encouraged by your report I put the 5770 back in.

I checked the xorg config - there is none. I blacklisted the nouveau 
module, made a new ramfs, installed grub and so on. But the boot process 
hangs at the point where the radeon module is loaded. With 
„nomodeset“ and having the NVidia card connected it gives the error 
message about missing UMS/KMS at the point (and boots). So I’d expect 
driver loading/mode setting to happen there, but it does not.


Any helpful idea out there?

Thanks
Johannes

Re: Radeon HD 5770

[Johannes Brakensiek]

Hello Luigi,

On 1 Feb 2021, at 7:14, luigi burdo wrote:

for have the radeon work is need to play with yaboot kernel append 
options,




here my shared experience with ubuntu communty.



[[PPC] Instruction for Install Ubuntu & sons on PowerMac G5 Quad with 
Radeon HD [Archive] - Ubuntu 
Forums]()


thank you for your patient help. I removed fbdev and added all the 
kernel parameters of that post using grub. No luck with current kernel 
from Debian sid. Boot process hangs even earlier, just after setting up 
smp_core. Seems I do have to try other kernel version or build one on my 
own… But it does not seem to get easier. ;)


Johannes

Re: Radeon HD 5770

[Johannes Brakensiek]

Thank you.

On 1 Feb 2021, at 12:42, Michel Dänzer wrote:

Is the firmware-amd-graphics / firmware-linux-nonfree package 
installed?


Yes, firmware is installed.


If yes, I'd suggest booting with

 modprobe.blacklist=radeon

on the kernel command line (this will prevent the radeon kernel driver 
from getting loaded automatically). Then once the system is booted up, 
log in via SSH and run


 sudo modprobe radeon

This way you should be able to capture dmesg output from loading the 
radeon driver.


That’s helpful. I did not get the dmesg output via SSH, but at the 
console. So the radeon driver loads the JUNIPER firmware, then the 
CYPRESS firmware and then hangs up.


The last 5 lines are like this:

```
firmware: direct-loading firmware radeon/JUNIPER_smc.bin
[drm] Internal thermal controller with fan control
[drm] radeon: dpm initialized
firmware: direct-loading firmware radeon/CYPRESS_uvd.bin
[drm] GART: num cpu pages 16384, num gpu pages 262144
```

And then it hangs up. Completely. :)

Thank you
Johannes

Re: Tool for blessing HFS+ filesystems required

[Johannes Brakensiek]

Hello Adrian,

thank you for your work and your approach towards fixing this issue.

On 2 Feb 2021, at 16:41, John Paul Adrian Glaubitz wrote:


On 2/2/21 4:24 PM, John Paul Adrian Glaubitz wrote:


In order to solve this issue, we have a couple of options:

- Use HFS instead of HFS+ and use the old hformat utility in 
grub-installer



On a sidenote: This variant has the huge advantage that the partioning 
tool
in debian-installer takes care of setting up the HFS+ partition and 
making

sure nothing gets overwritten etc.

This is something that we would have to do manually in case we can't 
use

hfsprogs - unless we hack the hfsutils package.


I just joined this list, but for me everything seems to vote for this 
solution. All tools are already there and a blessed partition will 
provide a huge gain considering user experience.[1] I don’t see any 
advantage in using HFS+ for a 2MB partition that’s not used for 
anything else. Do you?


Thanks again
Johannes


[1] It also means you can choose that partition as boot partition from 
the preference pane of Mac OS X, doesn’t it?

Re: Tool for blessing HFS+ filesystems required

[Johannes Brakensiek]

On 2021-02-03 19:28:45 +0100 John Paul Adrian Glaubitz 
 wrote:



On 2/3/21 4:35 PM, John Paul Adrian Glaubitz wrote:

The MDB is still corrupted, so I have to look into that:


And fixed:


Great work, thank you!

Johannes

Re: Workaround for installing Debian onto PowerMacs (2020-02-02 image)

[Johannes Brakensiek]

On 8 Feb 2021, at 14:45, Mark Cave-Ayland wrote:

This path looks wrong - according to the aliases listing at 
https://www.mail-archive.com/misc@openbsd.org/msg164291.html the unit 
address of the k2-sata device which is a child of the k2-sata-root 
device should be 0, whereas above it is given as -1? Perhaps something 
in ofpathname is subtracting 1 from the unit address of 0 when it 
shouldn't. Does the following alternative work?


nvsetenv boot-device 
"/ht@0,f200/pci@5/k2-sata-root@c/@0/@0:2,\grub"


This sounds reasonable. I had no luck with the env value set by the 
installer as well and changed it to the alias `hd:2,\grub` manually. 
Think the regular boot device will be `hd` in most cases. You may get 
the alias list using the command `devalias` in Open Firmware. Don’t 
know if there is a way to get this list from a running Linux.


Johannes

Re: Radeon HD 5770

[Johannes Brakensiek]

Hello everyone,

just to resolve this issue: I had no luck with whatsoever setup.

I now just exchanged the HD5770 with a regular PC BIOS HD 6570 (half the 
price) and it boots without problems. I connect the display to the card, 
start lightdm via systemctl and get the image.


So it probably was some hardware compatibility or some very kernel 
specific setting which I am not able to solve (and don’t want to).


Thank you for all your support
Johannes

Re: iMac G3 r128 - failed to load module "r128"

[Johannes Brakensiek]

On 27 Feb 2021, at 14:10, John Paul Adrian Glaubitz wrote:


I'm pretty sure, it does. I have used it myself.


I can confirm it works.

You are even able to install on a PowerMac G5 using the broken image if 
you follow these hints: 
https://lists.debian.org/debian-powerpc/2021/01/msg00035.html


Johannes

Re: iMac G3 r128 - failed to load module "r128"

[Johannes Brakensiek]

On 27 Feb 2021, at 14:10, John Paul Adrian Glaubitz wrote:


I'm pretty sure, it does. I have used it myself.


I can confirm it works.

You are even able to install on a PowerMac G5 using the broken image if 
you follow those hints: 
https://lists.debian.org/debian-powerpc/2021/01/msg00035.html


Johannes

Re: Update Debian Ports installation images 2021-04-14

[Johannes Brakensiek]

Hi Adrian,

this is very great. Thank you very much!

On 14 Apr 2021, at 22:43, John Paul Adrian Glaubitz wrote:

> Let me know how the image works for you, then I can commit the changes for
> the grub-installer package to git when we know it works for most people for
> the time being.

Is this meant to work for 32bit only or for ppc64 as well?

Thanks
Johannes

Re: Update Debian Ports installation images 2021-04-14

[Johannes Brakensiek]

Hi Adrian,

thanks for your work again!

On 14 Apr 2021, at 22:43, John Paul Adrian Glaubitz wrote:

Let me know how the image works for you, then I can commit the changes 
for
the grub-installer package to git when we know it works for most 
people for

the time being.


I now found some time to run the install procedure from USB disks (I 
could boot fine via `boot ud:\boot\grub\powerpc.elf`). I did a very 
default install with the preset partition table. But it failed at 
installing grub at the end of the installation procedure. I can see the 
obvious: It is not correct to install grub to /dev/sdb3 as this is the 
partition that was created for swap. But there seems to be even more 
going wrong:


```
Apr 15 19:52:24 grub-installer: info: Installing grub on '/dev/sdb3'
Apr 15 19:52:24 grub-installer: info: grub-install does not support 
--no-floppy
Apr 15 19:52:24 grub-installer: info: Running chroot /target 
grub-install  --macppc-directory=/boot/grub --no-nvram --force
Apr 15 19:52:24 grub-installer: Installing for powerpc-ieee1275 
platform.
Apr 15 19:52:25 grub-installer: grub-install: error: filesystem on 
/boot/grub is neither HFS nor HFS+

Apr 15 19:52:25 grub-installer: .
Apr 15 19:52:25 grub-installer: error: Running 'grub-install  
--macppc-directory=/boot/grub --no-nvram --force failed.
Apr 15 19:55:20 main-menu[245]: (process:4796): dpkg-divert: warning: 
diverting file '/sbin/start-stop-daemon' from an Essential package with 
rename is dangerous, use --no-rename
Apr 15 19:55:20 main-menu[245]: (process:4796): dpkg-divert: warning: 
diverting file '/sbin/start-stop-daemon' from an Essential package with 
rename is dangerous, use --no-rename
Apr 15 19:55:20 main-menu[245]: (process:4796): dpkg-divert: warning: 
diverting file '/sbin/start-stop-daemon' from an Essential package with 
rename is dangerous, use --no-rename

Apr 15 19:55:20 main-menu[245]: (process:4796): grub-probe: error:
Apr 15 19:55:20 main-menu[245]: (process:4796):
Apr 15 19:55:20 main-menu[245]: (process:4796): failed to get canonical 
path of `/boot/grub'

```

I’m sending you full install logs via direct mail. If you do need any 
more information, just tell me. The machine is still warm and running 
the install OS and I could try some things.


Thank you
Johannes

Re: Update Debian Ports installation images 2021-04-14

[Johannes Brakensiek]

On 16 Apr 2021, at 8:43, John Paul Adrian Glaubitz wrote:

But that's an issue with how the image was assembled, not with the 
changes

per se. I don't need any additional reports on ppc64, I already saw my
mistake.


Great, thank you. Would you like to point us the fresh image once it’s 
there? I admit I don’t get where to find the correct testing image in 
all those dirs…


Thanks
Johannes

Re: Updated installer images 2021-04-16 🎉

[Johannes Brakensiek]

Hello Adrian,

On 16 Apr 2021, at 11:40, John Paul Adrian Glaubitz wrote:


As promised, new images:



https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/ports/snapshots/2021-04-16/



ppc64 should install fine on PowerMac G5 now.


hooray! It works - smoothly! Very great! 🎉

Really nice. To say it with words like Steve: It’s the best system 
that was ever made for a PowerMac G5!


So, thank you for your efforts.

From a user’s perspective now I only had one wish left, Adrian: Do 
you think it would be possible to generate a blessed iso/install image? 
If I could boot that image using the regular „option key boot disk 
view“ of a Mac, it would be very appealing regarding user experience. 
I’d even say UX would be *very good* then.


Thanks again
Johannes

Re: Updated installer images 2021-04-16 🎉

[Johannes Brakensiek]

On 16 Apr 2021, at 13:54, John Paul Adrian Glaubitz wrote:

But the image is blessed in HFS vocabulary. If you insert such a CD 
and press the 

key during boot, the CD will be selectable during boot.


Ok, good to know. Then I suppose the Mac’s firmware just won’t 
detect it if it’s copied to a USB stick?


Johannes

Re: Updated installer images 2021-04-16

[Johannes Brakensiek]

Hey David,

On 16 Apr 2021, at 13:56, David VANTYGHEM wrote:

In english : The boot partition isn't the first primary partition on 
the disk. This is necessary to boot the machine. Please restart and 
use the first primary partition as boot partition.


If you don't come back to the partition menu to modify this default, 
the partition will be used as this. It means that you will probably 
not be able to start from the hard disk.


Coming to the menu and modify this default ?


please read the mails Adrian is writing. That’s not an error message. 
You are supposed to say „Non“ at that point. It is going to work 
nontheless.


Johannes

Re: Updated installer images 2021-04-16 🎉

[Johannes Brakensiek]

On 17 Apr 2021, at 10:19, Jeffrey Walton wrote:


This is likely correct. I experienced the same issue when trying to
boot from USB.

I just burned a plain old bootable CD and things worked fine.


Yep, I think that both of you are correct. I had no trouble to boot from 
USB using this OF command though:


`boot ud:\boot\grub\powerpc.elf`

The issue remains even with the first Dual Core Intel models: They boot 
fine from CD ROM (even using legacy Windows MBR boot loading), but 
won’t when trying from USB.


Thanks
Johannes

Re: Some questions, plus hfsprogs is missing

[Johannes Brakensiek]

Hello James,

On 24 Apr 2021, at 22:32, James Madgwick wrote:


james@PowerMac-G5:~$ firefox
Crash Annotation GraphicsCriticalError: |[0][GFX1-]: glxtest: No
visuals found (t=4.23128) [GFX1-]: glxtest: No visuals found Crash
Annotation GraphicsCriticalError: |[0][GFX1-]: glxtest: No visuals
found (t=4.23128) |[1][GFX1]: Unknown image format 1 (t=11.8668)
[GFX1]: Unknown image format 1 Crash Annotation GraphicsCriticalError:
|[0][GFX1-]: glxtest: No visuals found (t=4.23128) |[1][GFX1]: Unknown
image format 1 (t=11.8668) |[2][GFX1]: Unknown image format 1
(t=11.9111) [GFX1]: Unknown image format 1 Exiting due to channel
error. Illegal instruction


I don’t know about the other issues, but there is a known issue about 
Firefox and Thunderbird[1] which was fixed by Adrian and should be 
delivered by sid soon.


As long you might want to use ArcticFox from Riccardo Mottola which you 
can retrieve using the powerprogess repo like so (from root, if you have 
sudo installed):


```
sh -c "echo 'deb http://repo.powerprogress.org/debian sid main' >> 
/etc/apt/sources.list"
wget -O - https://repo.powerprogress.org/debian/conf/public.gpg.key|sudo 
-s apt-key add

apt-get update

apt-get -y install arcticfox
```

Johannes



[1] https://phabricator.services.mozilla.com/D105354

Re: Some questions, plus hfsprogs is missing

[Johannes Brakensiek]

On 25 Apr 2021, at 18:01, James Madgwick wrote:


Ultimately I don't think being forced to use fbdev
really matters, these old GPUs have nothing to offer beyond 3D
acceleration - which has little application on this system in 2021. It
would however be interesting to see if this radeon slowness is
replicated on x86.


I’m using a Radeon HD 6570 now in a PowerMac11,2 and it works quite 
well - it is as fast as I’d expect it to be from a machine of this 
age. The PowerMac11,2 already has got PCIe (1.00) of course, so I 
don’t know if it is specific to your machine’s architecture.


I’m experiencing the same issues with epiphany-browser as well though 
(it’s quite fast, but colors are not ok), it does not work using 
Wayland at all (only grey noise for the whole window). So this seems to 
be specific to the ppc(64?) architecture.


I suppose the issues I’m experiencing (if not BigEndian errors) might 
derive from the same source as the issues mentioned over there:


„X kinda works with the wsfb driver. Colours are all wrong because for
some reason the OF calls for colour map control don't work. Mine's got
a Radeon X1950, which the radeon driver of course supports, but for
some reason expects to find an x86 BIOS ROM with, which of course
doesn't exist on a mac. May or may not be easy to fix.“[1]

But I did not debug those yet.

I've also now created a new problem for myself. My system has two 
disks,

one with MacOS and now one with Debian. I had disconnected the MacOS
disk while I installed Debian. After completing the installation, the 
G5

would boot into Debian only if the Mac disk was unplugged. My mistake
was to then go into the startup disk utility on MacOS and see if I
could make Debian the startup disk. This didn't work and with the Mac
disk unplugged I now get the flashing "?" folder (I can still boot
manually from OpenFirmware). I guess MacOS has erased an nvram 
variable
set by the Debian installer? Is there an easy way to reproduce what 
the

installer did and get Debian booting automatically again?


You probably need to boot the install CD/image, mount your Debian root 
and boot partitions, chroot into it and reinstall grub.[2] The device 
IDs probably have changed by inserting the new drive. So, yes, it would 
have been better to do the install with all disks inserted, I think.


Good luck
Johannes

[1] https://mail-index.netbsd.org/port-macppc/2017/10/01/msg002461.html
[2] Information about grub on PowerPC: 
https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/GRUB_on_Open_Firmware_(PowerPC)

HFS Grub Partition Read-Only

[Johannes Brakensiek]

Hello,

when trying to update to Kernel version 5.10.0-7 I recognized that my 
HFS partition at /boot/grub is mounted as read-only now. I am missing 
any tools like fsck.hfs or the package hfsprogs to check the partition 
and to mount it rw.


As the partition is read-only my system did not break when trying to do 
the update, but I am stuck at 5.10.0-6 now.


It’s the same old PowerMac G5 11,2, ppc64 port.

Did I do anything wrong? Are there new hfs tools on their way?

Thanks for your support
Johannes

Re: HFS Grub Partition Read-Only

[Johannes Brakensiek]

Hello Adrian,

On 25 May 2021, at 17:18, John Paul Adrian Glaubitz wrote:

"contrib" and "non-free" have not been added for Debian Ports yet, I 
will ping the responsible
admin again. In the meantime, I will build the hfsprogs package and 
upload it manually for powerpc

and ppc64 later today.


perfect, thank you very much! Installed hfsprogs, could run fsck and 
remounted /boot/grub. Upgrade proceeded successfully now.


Is there anything we could to do to motivate people to complete Debian 
Ports packages regarding contrib and non-free?


Thanks again
Johannes