iMac Open Firmware update 4.1.9 compatibility question
I have a Dec 1999 g3 400 iMAc.
Since I am about to install OSX 10.1 and OS 9.2, Apple indicates updating
Firmware to 4.1.9 Anyone know if this will thwart my plans to install SuSe
Linux 7.1 ?
I read the following on the SuSE site, but it is a little vague:
< It seems to imply that the firmware on the newer macs is not compatible.
Well if I update my older Mac with the latest Firmware update 4.1.9, it
sounds like I may shoot my Linux installation plans in the foot! Anyone
tried this?
Thanks
Phlyz
I am not able to give you a direct answer, but if this can be useful, I'm running a Cube (Dec. 2000) with 4.1.9f1 BootROM built on 09/14/01 (as from /proc/device-tree/rom/boot-rom/model) on a patched 7.0 SuSE Linux system. (Actually I first installed 7.0, thanks to Olaf for guiding me through this tricky assignment, and afterwards upgraded to the new firmware, without causing any harm to my linux system.) The doc on http://www.suse.com/us/products/suse_linux/ppc/system_requirements.html is really cryptic, if not wrong at all! Does it make any sense to release in Nov. 2001 SuSE 7.3 with support only for the pre-Dec. 2000 machines? BTW I'm VERY satisfied with SuSE 7.0 and really UNSATISFIED with MAC OS 9.1. I'm considering to upgrade to SuSE 7.3 and MAC OS X 10.1, but I'm little scared of broking a working system. Regards, Stefano On Tue, 4 Dec 2001, Phil Gray wrote:
I have a Dec 1999 g3 400 iMAc.
Since I am about to install OSX 10.1 and OS 9.2, Apple indicates updating Firmware to 4.1.9 Anyone know if this will thwart my plans to install SuSe Linux 7.1 ?
I read the following on the SuSE site, but it is a little vague:
<
* January 2001 * These machines have a newer firmware, the bootloader is unable to open the textmode * iMacs can be used with 7.1 * Cube, Titanium Powerbook G4 can be used with 7.1 * G4 can be used with 7.1, the Radeon and nVidia cards are unsupported, remove the SCSI card, onboard ethernet may not work * iBook2 works (unconfirmed), enter "boot cd:,\\yaboot" on the firmware prompt.
* August 2000 * These machines have a newer firmware, the bootloader is unable to open the textmode * G4, Cube, iMac, iBook, Powerbook can be used with 7.0, kernel 2.2.18 recommended * the available Radeoncards are unsupported
It seems to imply that the firmware on the newer macs is not compatible. Well if I update my older Mac with the latest Firmware update 4.1.9, it sounds like I may shoot my Linux installation plans in the foot! Anyone tried this?
Thanks Phlyz
-- Stefano Miccoli chicco98@inwind.it
Phil, I have a 2001 iMac (500mHz, slot-loading CDRW, FireWire) and SuSE 7.1 installed on it properly and runs fine with the 2.4.2 kernel supplied. I do have some issues with the internal modem, which is not recognized by kppp, but that appears to be a common problem with Linux. -- Tom On Tuesday, December 4, 2001, at 11:03 PM, Phil Gray wrote:
I have a Dec 1999 g3 400 iMAc.
Since I am about to install OSX 10.1 and OS 9.2, Apple indicates updating Firmware to 4.1.9 Anyone know if this will thwart my plans to install SuSe Linux 7.1 ?
I read the following on the SuSE site, but it is a little vague:
<
* January 2001 * These machines have a newer firmware, the bootloader is unable to open the textmode * iMacs can be used with 7.1 * Cube, Titanium Powerbook G4 can be used with 7.1 * G4 can be used with 7.1, the Radeon and nVidia cards are unsupported, remove the SCSI card, onboard ethernet may not work * iBook2 works (unconfirmed), enter "boot cd:,\\yaboot" on the firmware prompt.
* August 2000 * These machines have a newer firmware, the bootloader is unable to open the textmode * G4, Cube, iMac, iBook, Powerbook can be used with 7.0, kernel 2.2.18 recommended * the available Radeoncards are unsupported
It seems to imply that the firmware on the newer macs is not compatible. Well if I update my older Mac with the latest Firmware update 4.1.9, it sounds like I may shoot my Linux installation plans in the foot! Anyone tried this?
Thanks Phlyz
I have a Apple PowerBook Pismo/FireWire up and running with Suse7.3PPC. I'm impressed by this distribution, but for some reason I can't get the modemn working - which is funny since Wvdial worked fine on the same machine with Suse Linus 7.1PPC. What do I do? -j -- Men are from Earth. Women are from Earth. Deal with it!
On Wed, Dec 05, 2001 at 07:49:38PM +0100, Janus Sandsgaard wrote:
I have a Apple PowerBook Pismo/FireWire up and running with Suse7.3PPC. I'm impressed by this distribution, but for some reason I can't get the modemn working - which is funny since Wvdial worked fine on the same machine with Suse Linus 7.1PPC.
I had the same problem (first after updating 7.0 -> 7.3, then again after complete reinstall), and ended up replacing wvdial 1.42 (the version on the 7.3 CD) with an older rpm (1.41) I had lying around. An ugly fix, maybe, but I forgot investigating further, as it has been working fine ever since. (PowerBook Firewire 400Mhz with whichever internal modem Apple built into it, the problem was wvdial never getting to send the modem initialization string and just giving up at some point. No error messages on the console, nothing in /var/log/messages. No idea.) Is there some public bug-reporting tool for stuff like this? I'm always willing to file bug reports, if needed :) kind regards, Sonja
I had a similar problem. It was fixed by changing the baud rate settings for the modem. Still not 100% reliable though, but works most of the time. Joss On Wed, Dec 05, 2001 at 07:49:38PM +0100, Janus Sandsgaard wrote:
I have a Apple PowerBook Pismo/FireWire up and running with Suse7.3PPC. I'm impressed by this distribution, but for some reason I can't get the modemn working - which is funny since Wvdial worked fine on the same machine with Suse Linus 7.1PPC.
What do I do?
-j
-- Men are from Earth. Women are from Earth. Deal with it!
--
On Wed, Dec 05, Sonja Krause-Harder wrote:
On Wed, Dec 05, 2001 at 07:49:38PM +0100, Janus Sandsgaard wrote:
I have a Apple PowerBook Pismo/FireWire up and running with Suse7.3PPC. I'm impressed by this distribution, but for some reason I can't get the modemn working - which is funny since Wvdial worked fine on the same machine with Suse Linus 7.1PPC.
I had the same problem (first after updating 7.0 -> 7.3, then again after complete reinstall), and ended up replacing wvdial 1.42 (the version on the 7.3 CD) with an older rpm (1.41) I had lying around. An ugly fix, maybe, but I forgot investigating further, as it has been working fine ever since.
(PowerBook Firewire 400Mhz with whichever internal modem Apple built into it, the problem was wvdial never getting to send the modem initialization string and just giving up at some point. No error messages on the console, nothing in /var/log/messages. No idea.)
Is there some public bug-reporting tool for stuff like this? I'm always willing to file bug reports, if needed :)
You already found the place to report bugs ;) Try to increase the modem port speed, the default is 57600 and that does not work for some modems, ibook1 as example. Does that help? Gruss Olaf -- $ man clone BUGS Main feature not yet implemented...
On Wed, Dec 05, Janus Sandsgaard wrote:
I have a Apple PowerBook Pismo/FireWire up and running with Suse7.3PPC. I'm impressed by this distribution, but for some reason I can't get the modemn working - which is funny since Wvdial worked fine on the same machine with Suse Linus 7.1PPC.
Try to increase the port speed in wvdial.conf, 57600 is maybe to slow, try 115200. Gruss Olaf -- $ man clone BUGS Main feature not yet implemented...
On Tue, Dec 04, Phil Gray wrote:
I have a Dec 1999 g3 400 iMAc. Since I am about to install OSX 10.1 and OS 9.2, Apple indicates updating Firmware to 4.1.9 Anyone know if this will thwart my plans to install SuSe Linux 7.1 ? I read the following on the SuSE site, but it is a little vague: <
The means yaboot can not display the 'boot:' message, on CD or when you boot from disk. It is only an issue with CD boot on 7.0, 7.1 has a workaround on the CD and it was never an real problem when booting from harddrive. 7.1 and 7.3 should install fine on the iMac, it does not depend on the firmware level. Tell us how it works for you :) Gruss Olaf -- $ man clone BUGS Main feature not yet implemented...
On Wed, Dec 05, chicco98@inwind.it wrote:
I am not able to give you a direct answer, but if this can be useful, I'm running a Cube (Dec. 2000) with 4.1.9f1 BootROM built on 09/14/01 (as from /proc/device-tree/rom/boot-rom/model) on a patched 7.0 SuSE Linux system.
(Actually I first installed 7.0, thanks to Olaf for guiding me through this tricky assignment, and afterwards upgraded to the new firmware, without causing any harm to my linux system.)
The doc on http://www.suse.com/us/products/suse_linux/ppc/system_requirements.html is really cryptic, if not wrong at all! Does it make any sense to release in Nov. 2001 SuSE 7.3 with support only for the pre-Dec. 2000 machines?
I think we should at least increase that to the spring 2001 Powerbooks and ibooks. G4 with nvidia cards are still problematic, the nvidia card might not work correctly, only via openfirmware framebuffer. But running it as server should be no problem. The very new ibook and powerbook need a newer kernel, I prepared a boot iso image, it should be appear on the ftp server tomorrow, have to test it first. check http://sdb.suse.de/sdb/en/html/history.html Gruss Olaf -- $ man clone BUGS Main feature not yet implemented...
On Wed, Dec 05, 2001 at 10:12:23PM +0100, Olaf Hering wrote:
You already found the place to report bugs ;)
Fine :)
Try to increase the modem port speed, the default is 57600 and that does not work for some modems, ibook1 as example. Does that help?
Yes and no... (insert re-upgrade to 1.42 here) wvdialconf suggested 460800 as speed, after changing that to 115200, the modem works fine. Could have thought of that - well. however, I had to chgrp dialout /etc/wvdial.conf and chmod 640 /etc/wvdial.conf before my dialout user was allowed to dialout again - was this intentional, or something that slipped through in packaging? Thanks, anyway :) Sonja
On Wed, Dec 05, Sonja Krause-Harder wrote:
On Wed, Dec 05, 2001 at 10:12:23PM +0100, Olaf Hering wrote:
You already found the place to report bugs ;)
Fine :)
Try to increase the modem port speed, the default is 57600 and that does not work for some modems, ibook1 as example. Does that help?
Yes and no... (insert re-upgrade to 1.42 here) wvdialconf suggested 460800 as speed, after changing that to 115200, the modem works fine. Could have thought of that - well.
however, I had to chgrp dialout /etc/wvdial.conf and chmod 640 /etc/wvdial.conf before my dialout user was allowed to dialout again - was this intentional, or something that slipped through in packaging?
the rpm is extracted with this permissions: -rw-r----- root dialout 399 Okt 26 00:47 /etc/wvdial.conf I dont know who does change the permissions. It was unchanged on the ibook that I use right now. Gruss Olaf -- $ man clone BUGS Main feature not yet implemented...
On Wed, Dec 05, 2001 at 11:13:50PM +0100, Olaf Hering wrote:
the rpm is extracted with this permissions: -rw-r----- root dialout 399 Okt 26 00:47 /etc/wvdial.conf
I dont know who does change the permissions. It was unchanged on the ibook that I use right now.
It happens here when running wvdialconf as root (can't be helped?) or running ppp network setup/autoconfigure modem from within yast1. *shrug* kind regards Sonja
On Wed, 5 Dec 2001, Olaf Hering wrote:
On Wed, Dec 05, Janus Sandsgaard wrote:
I have a Apple PowerBook Pismo/FireWire up and running with Suse7.3PPC. I'm impressed by this distribution, but for some reason I can't get the modemn working - which is funny since Wvdial worked fine on the same machine with Suse Linus 7.1PPC.
Try to increase the port speed in wvdial.conf, 57600 is maybe to slow, try 115200.
I think it works. I don't get any initalization-error anymore. Just need a phoneline to test if it's able to dial up (I am at work right now). I will return with "part II" of the story later.. ;-) Thank a lot, Olaf. -j -- Men are from Earth. Women are from Earth. Deal with it!
What is the best way to set up Suse Linux 7.3PPC with Airport on a PowerBook Pismo? I am on a AirPort-network that uses hardwareadresses, no encryption, no passwords. What do I do: Stop 1 - 3 ;-) With 7.1PPC I remember walking a long way go get there. The manual didn't help me much, and I can't find anything about Airport in the new 7.3-manual. Why? -j -- Men are from Earth. Women are from Earth. Deal with it!
On Wed, 5 Dec 2001, Olaf Hering wrote:
I think we should at least increase that to the spring 2001 Powerbooks and ibooks. G4 with nvidia cards are still problematic, the nvidia card might not work correctly, only via openfirmware framebuffer. But running it as server should be no problem.
That would certainly help a lot of people because like this it looks like SuSE PPC runs only on really old HW. Does anybody ever had success using X on a G4 with nvidia card ? I am using it as server right now, but I would be more than glad to use it as a workstation, too.
The very new ibook and powerbook need a newer kernel, I prepared a boot iso image, it should be appear on the ftp server tomorrow, have to test it first. check http://sdb.suse.de/sdb/en/html/history.html
Oh yes, I installed 2.4.12 & ext3 on my G4 and then one day it won't boot because yaboot didn't want to load the kernel from the unchecked ext3 volume (after a ieee1394 related crash) and of course the 2.4.2 kernel on the CD didn't know about ext3. In the end I was saved by the 2.4.16 in the BETA subdir. Thanks a lot for it. Conclusion: Always keep a kernel on an HFS part or even on CD ! Gruss, Schlomo -- Schlomo Schapiro Senior System Administrator MobilEye Vision Technologies Ltd. 24 Mishol Hadkalim St., Jerusalem, Israel Telephone: + 972-2-586-6989 Ext. 131 Mobile: + 972-55-767898 Fax: + 972-2-586-7720 email: schapiro@mobileye.com WWW: http://www.mobileye.com
On Wed, 5 Dec 2001, Olaf Hering wrote:
On Wed, Dec 05, Janus Sandsgaard wrote:
I have a Apple PowerBook Pismo/FireWire up and running with Suse7.3PPC. I'm impressed by this distribution, but for some reason I can't get the modemn working - which is funny since Wvdial worked fine on the same machine with Suse Linus 7.1PPC.
Try to increase the port speed in wvdial.conf, 57600 is maybe to slow, try 115200.
Did as you told me. Worked fine I am on the net now via a ppp-connection. Thanks a lot. Thaks to this list and the effort of Olaf Suse is the best PPC-distribution so far. -j -- Men are from Earth. Women are from Earth. Deal with it!
On Thu, Dec 06, Schlomo Schapiro wrote:
On Wed, 5 Dec 2001, Olaf Hering wrote:
I think we should at least increase that to the spring 2001 Powerbooks and ibooks. G4 with nvidia cards are still problematic, the nvidia card might not work correctly, only via openfirmware framebuffer. But running it as server should be no problem.
That would certainly help a lot of people because like this it looks like SuSE PPC runs only on really old HW.
Does anybody ever had success using X on a G4 with nvidia card ? I am using it as server right now, but I would be more than glad to use it as a workstation, too.
Try that as a kernel arg with the 2.4.12 kernel: video=rivafb:1280x1024-8@60 or video=rivafb:1024x768-8@75
The very new ibook and powerbook need a newer kernel, I prepared a boot iso image, it should be appear on the ftp server tomorrow, have to test it first. check http://sdb.suse.de/sdb/en/html/history.html
Oh yes, I installed 2.4.12 & ext3 on my G4 and then one day it won't boot because yaboot didn't want to load the kernel from the unchecked ext3 volume (after a ieee1394 related crash) and of course the 2.4.2 kernel on the CD didn't know about ext3. In the end I was saved by the 2.4.16 in the BETA subdir. Thanks a lot for it.
You need a newer yaboot. grab the 1.3 from penguinppc.org, extract the tar.gz with tar xfz yaboot-1.3.6.tar.gz cd yaboot-1.3.6 make yaboot cp second/yaboot /boot/ lilo This has a newer ext2 lib, it can read a crashed ext3 filesystem. Gruss Olaf -- $ man clone BUGS Main feature not yet implemented...
What is the easyist way to keep your KDE2.x up-to-date on a PowerBook running KDE2 on a SuSE 7.3PPC-system? I am able to locate "LinuKS: SuSE Linux KDE Service" on http://www.suse.com/us/support/download/linuks/index.html but there is only support for 7.0 and 7.1 on PPC. -j -- Uwaga! Skoddede min sidste smøg d. 26.07.01. Det var en transylvansk "Snagov". - Nu seks måneders jubilæum!
participants (9)
-
chicco98＠inwind.it -
Janus Sandsgaard -
Joss Winn -
Olaf Hering -
Phil Gray -
Schlomo Schapiro -
Sonja Krause-Harder -
Sonja Krause-Harder -
Tom Dove