Following the howto written by Dave Ray (penguinppc.org/usr/newg4howto.html) gave me the same results he described. What I did was: use the suse 7.0 CD along with a newer kernel (2.4.2 if I remember correctly) with the following yaboot install parameters: image = vmlinux label = installer initrd = ramdisk.image.gz initrd-size = 64000 root = /dev/ram0 video = ofonly it looks as if using the parameters of the os chooser are not properly transmitted to the open firmware. i had to boot in the open firmware, then to boot on the proper partition (ie boot ultra1:8,\\yaboot) The yast2 installer works ok, apart from the fact that the windows appear as black rectangles with nothing in them. it's only when you click in them that the highlighted text becomes visible. It's inconvenient but it works. Then the installer reboots and the reboot fails. I had to reboot under macos, changed the yaboot parameters to image = vmlinux label = linux root = /dev/hdb6 hda = autotune video = ofonly and reboot again through the open firmware. all the install went fine, even the XF86 version 3 (the one that comes with suse 7.0 by default) worked fine, except that the whole screen appears in psychedelic colors. Konsoles are basically unuable (black text on black background), except if you chose some non standard setup, where you get greenish text on black background. Still, it's hard to work with. I tried to change to a newer configuration of Xfree (4.0.1, ie that also provided with suse 7.0) and messed up my xf86Config file, and could no longer get x to work. But as the ethernet card does not work either (neither does the sound card), i stopped my investigations, hoping that there will be some new suse version integrating all this soon. i didnot test the cd/dvd burner yet... as far as the video card support, going to the xfree86 site, they say that version 4.1 supports the nvidia geforce 2 mx (accelerated), and they have a ppc version. They do not mention that the ppc version does not provide accelerated X for this nvidia card, so I assume that it worked. I tried to install it directly from the xfree86 site, but i could not even get x working: it looks as if the suse version of xfree86 is slightly different than the official version. is this right?? I also tried to install the rpm's from the suse ftp site (ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/ppc/X/suse71/4.1.0) but it failed again (version GLIBC2.2 not found). May be it's because I only have suse7.0ppc rather than suse7.1ppc. According to you, there will be no ppc driver for nvidia. It sounds really stupid isn't it?? given the fact that they produced drivers for intel platforms, why not for ppc platforms as well?? Is that what the nvidia guys told you??? Is it definite?? I'm reluctant to go back to an ati rage128 card as they are supposed to be far worse in terms of graphical performance. Any idea of how i could make the ethernet card work?? I thought of buying suse7.1ppc to see if it worked any better. is it supposed to work any better than the 7.0 version for all the above issues (os chooser booting, nvidia accelerated support, ethernet, sound)?? when is the 7.3ppc supposed to come out? should it perform better on this particular hardware?? Thanks again in advance for all the info. cheers, jean-francois.
On Tue, Aug 07, Jean-Francois Donati wrote:
Following the howto written by Dave Ray (penguinppc.org/usr/newg4howto.html) gave me the same results he described. What I did was:
use the suse 7.0 CD along with a newer kernel (2.4.2 if I remember correctly) with the following yaboot install parameters:
image = vmlinux label = installer initrd = ramdisk.image.gz initrd-size = 64000 root = /dev/ram0 video = ofonly
it looks as if using the parameters of the os chooser are not properly transmitted to the open firmware. i had to boot in the open firmware, then to boot on the proper partition (ie boot ultra1:8,\\yaboot)
The yast2 installer works ok, apart from the fact that the windows appear as black rectangles with nothing in them. it's only when you click in them that the highlighted text becomes visible. It's inconvenient but it works. Then the installer reboots and the reboot fails. I had to reboot under macos, changed the yaboot parameters to
image = vmlinux label = linux root = /dev/hdb6 hda = autotune video = ofonly
and reboot again through the open firmware.
all the install went fine, even the XF86 version 3 (the one that comes with suse 7.0 by default) worked fine, except that the whole screen appears in psychedelic colors. Konsoles are basically unuable (black text on black background), except if you chose some non standard setup, where you get greenish text on black background. Still, it's hard to work with.
I tried to change to a newer configuration of Xfree (4.0.1, ie that also provided with suse 7.0) and messed up my xf86Config file, and could no longer get x to work. But as the ethernet card does not work either (neither does the sound card), i stopped my investigations, hoping that there will be some new suse version integrating all this soon. i didnot test the cd/dvd burner yet...
as far as the video card support, going to the xfree86 site, they say that version 4.1 supports the nvidia geforce 2 mx (accelerated), and they have a ppc version. They do not mention that the ppc version does not provide accelerated X for this nvidia card, so I assume that it worked. I tried to install it directly from the xfree86 site, but i could not even get x working: it looks as if the suse version of xfree86 is slightly different than the official version. is this right?? I also tried to install the rpm's from the suse ftp site (ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/ppc/X/suse71/4.1.0) but it failed again (version GLIBC2.2 not found). May be it's because I only have suse7.0ppc rather than suse7.1ppc.
I can provide binaries for 7.0 if you have enough bandwidth. However, that will not solve the real problem, a missing nvidia driver. But it might be possible that the XFree86 framebuffer driver handle things better. The wrong colors are a kernel issue, the color table must be handled for each unknown/unsupported card.
According to you, there will be no ppc driver for nvidia. It sounds really stupid isn't it?? given the fact that they produced drivers for intel platforms, why not for ppc platforms as well?? Is that what the nvidia guys told you??? Is it definite?? I'm reluctant to go back to an ati rage128 card as they are supposed to be far worse in terms of graphical performance.
I dont think you will see much performace difference in Linux and rage128 are well supported. No idea if nvidia will ever provide ppc drivers, where did you see a ppc driver on the xfree86 site?
Any idea of how i could make the ethernet card work?? I thought of buying suse7.1ppc to see if it worked any better. is it supposed to work any better than the 7.0 version for all the above issues (os chooser booting, nvidia accelerated support, ethernet, sound)?? when is the 7.3ppc supposed to come out? should it perform better on this particular hardware??
It should be easy to get ethernet and (maybe) sound working. Can you help to collect the needed infos for the kernel hackers? At first, make sure you can always boot into Linux with a kernel that is know to work. Booting via CD would be an option. You can find newer kernels here: /mirror/SuSE/ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/ppc/kernel/BETA/sleep/ There is a kernel-benh.rpm, it installs /boot/vmlinux-benh, configure lilo to boot that kernel, you still need "video=ofonly" Boot that kernel and send me the "dmesg" output. There is a script to collect needed infos from the /proc filesystem: /mounts/mirror/SuSE/ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/ppc/update/BETA/suse_hw_info.sh But it can hang your machine. If you have OS9 installed, download the PCI DDK 3.0 from http://developer.apple.com/sdk/: ftp://ftp.apple.com/developer/Development_Kits/PCI_DDK_3.0.sit.hqx There is a tool Display Name Registry 1.1, start that, go to "file, save as.." activate "save all entries" and send me the file. I'm not sure how to solve the black text on black background bug, you could try to activate 256 colors in MacOS, the OF driver will use that. Gruss Olaf -- $ man clone BUGS Main feature not yet implemented...
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Jean-Francois Donati -
Olaf Hering