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?

I haven't seen a driver on the xfree86 site, just a file mentionning that XF86 version 4.1 supports the nvidia card. And they have a ppc version, not of the driver, but of xfree86 4.1. And they don't mention explicitely that the ppc version of xfree86 doesn't support the nvidia card in accelerated mode. May be it's just incomplete information about their packages.

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.

I booted from a 2.4 ppc kernel that i got from the web. But i didnot have the corresponding system map nor the set of modules. Meanwhile, i dowloaded benh kernel 2.4.6 with system map AND modules. Is this one ok?? Or should i use the 2.4.7-pre6 that you have on the suse/ppc/kernel/BETA/sleep ftp area (there is no specific set of modules available though)? By the way, I'm not too sure of what I actually need to do to properly upgrade suse7.0 to the 2.4.6 kernel. I tried this on my pismo (where i had a a working suse7.0 config with xfree4.0 activated, with an upgrade to kernel 2.2.17pre20-ben3, which works nice except for firewire, sound, sleep and dvd drive). Although it booted correctly, trackpad was no longer active (/usr/bin/trackpad was giving the message "no trackpad!" at boot). I tried to install several additional rpm's (in particular devs-2001.1.2-11.ppc.rpm and modutils-2.4.2-11.ppc.rpm) but it did not improve the situation. Also, sleep was behaving strangely: the pismo went to sleep at bizarre times, even while i was typing. When waking up, strangely enough the trackpad was active although i did nothing specific in that aim (the `trackpad notap' setting seems to be lost each at each wake up though). The copy/paste mouse utility was no longer active with the 2.4.6 kernel, while it was working ok with the 2.2.17 one. Obviously, I missed some crucial steps in the upgrade. Any ideas of what it can be?? I usually don't use lilo to boot, but rather yaboot (using the space bar to toggle between macos and linux). It looks as if it does not work on the G4. As if the open firmware did not get the message from the os-chooser. I have to boot in the open firmware enviroment, and mention explicitely that i need to boot using yaboot. Any ideas of what is causing this?? The normal procedure works perfectly with the pismo, but not with the G4. Is this due to a newer openfirmware?? I don't have the G4 here, but will bring it back tomorrow for new tests. I tried the suse_hw_info.sh script on my pismo and it worked fine, so hopefully,it will work for the G4 as well. I will send you all the information tomorrow.

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.

I also downloaded PCI_DDK_3.0 ok, tried Display Name Registry 1.1 on the pismo and it seems to work fine. I'll do all this on the G4 and will send you the output tomorrow. Meanwhile, any info you can have on upgrading the pismo to the 2.4.6 benh kernel is welcome. The simplest way is probably to buy suse7.1ppc, and i may do it if suse7.3ppc is not expected before a while ;o) ... Thanks again very much for your help!!

Gruss Olaf

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