Linux MintPPC Forums • View topic - iMac G4 display "fades to black" with recent dist-upgrade?

este.el.paz · Joined:Wed Jun 15, 2011 10:57 pm Posts:403 Location: SoCal

@tba:

Thanks for your efforts to help out, but yes, fairly quickly after the first post str8 suggested that changing to the fbdev driver would be a default choice since the nv driver was no longer possible . . . . So I changed to the fbdev driver and indeed the display is working, everything is clear and read-able, the system is more or less working quite well. The latest posts are working out a way to get the nouveau driver to work in the G4 iMac, which in the past did not work. There are still some issues, seemingly when I'm in a hurry to log in to the Linux side then that seems to increase the amount of kernel panics . . . and I found yesterday when I tried to use the ethernet that also works intermittently that the wifi option doesn't work, but otherwise once logged in there are things to play with in Linux thru the GUI interface using the fbdev driver . . . it's all good . . . . Still plenty of things that could be better, doesn't seem that any Linux distro has solved all the problems that PPC venue seems to present to it . . . .

e.

tba · Joined:Thu Oct 14, 2010 5:32 pm Posts:75

good to here that you have GUI

whats IMAC G4 do you have ?

your wifi card is ?

can you post your xorg.conf

did you tried MINTPPC 9.3 with IMAC G4 ?

tba

este.el.paz · Joined:Wed Jun 15, 2011 10:57 pm Posts:403 Location: SoCal

tba wrote:

good to here that you have GUI

whats IMAC G4 do you have ?

your wifi card is ?

can you post your xorg.conf

did you tried MINTPPC 9.3 with IMAC G4 ?

tba

@tba: It's the iMac 800 MHz w/512 MB ram, circa 2000. I don't know off hand what the wifi card is because I don't really need wifi in the iMac, it sits right next to the router and its plugged into ethernet. I just mentioned it here because I have a thread going on wifi issues in my iBook, and before I thought the wifi was working in the iMac because it showed the network, but the iBook doesn't even show the network--but when I tested the wifi in the iMac it didn't work. But this thread is about the iMac display problems, many people have posted here about display problems with various iMacs, the hope is to not only solve my issues but maybe bring some more attention from debian about fixing it. The xorg.conf should be posted here in this thread from mr str8bs--it's simple but absolutely the display is working just as well as when the file was much larger. As far as 9.3 goes, I had that working on the iBook before I upgraded to 11, but if memory serves (and it doesn't too well since we're going back to December of '11) I don't think even 9.3 got the display to work in the iMac, I believe I have the 9.3 LiveDVD and I tried it in the iMac and couldn't get it to work, but it did work in the iBook. After I got 11 going in the iBook I started trying out other distro LiveDVD's in the iMac and none worked too well, but did get MintPPC 11 going with the imac8.txt xorg.conf file for awhile that is in JD's repsoitory . . . . Hope that helps.

e.e.p.

este.el.paz · Joined:Wed Jun 15, 2011 10:57 pm Posts:403 Location: SoCal

Latest update:

In trying to help a poster on this forum with some information about what sound card the Linux system uses on the iMac G4 I had to restart into the Linux world partition . . . still having the issue with the kernel panics, this time three kernel freakouts to get to the login window, so that still continues to be a problem w/ the iMac G4 series. Moving on I tried to use Synaptic to upgrade the iMac kernel from 3.1 to the newer 3.2 as I had just done the day before in the iBook; seemingly the 3.2 option only showed something like "3.2 smp???" . . . it didn't show up with the same "linux-image 3.2.0.21" or whatever it was . . . so I was struck with indecision. While I was scrolling through the list of options, suddenly the mouse was no longer responding to my movements . . . Hal9000 was taking over the screen and nothing was happening as far as the mouse was concerned . . . . This mouse problem happened in the past when trying out the various Lubuntu LiveDVD options as well. I tried to use keyboard inputs to quit Synaptic or quit anything . . . Hal was not responding . . . had to hit the power button to escape the grip of Hal . . . .

So, in terms of the iMac it seems that there is still work to be done . . . but, the main question, why wouldn't the same kernel show up in Synaptic, both the iBook and iMac had the same 3.1 kernel and seems like they should be able to get to the new kernel to see if that also repairs the iMac wireless problem or even the kernel panic problem or even the failure to wake from suspend problem which did seem to be fixed by the new kernel in the iBook . . . .

e.e.p.

este.el.paz · Joined:Wed Jun 15, 2011 10:57 pm Posts:403 Location: SoCal

I'm double-posting what I posted on the "Nouveau trubbel Debian 7 MINTPPC 11" thread to update my own thread about getting the display back on the iMac 800 G4, which has been a long and twisted road . . . we'll see where this road goes and how long it lasts in a bit . . . .

Quote:

e.e.p. wrote:

Quote:

tba wrote:
yes but if you put the stuff in yaboot and save then you dont need to doit
every time
ubuntu Faq pos 9. show you an example

@tba:

OK, thanks again for the reply . . . between your ideas, ojordans hints, str8bs's xorg.conf file, and JD's "blacklisting nouveau" . . . as well as some mental gymnastics of my own, I'm on "the other side" with a fresh installation of Xubuntu 12.0.4 with a working GUI and no boot parameters!!!!!! Not the fastest horse out of the gate, but it does seem to eventually respond to mouseclicks . . . .

I started off with the Lubuntu LiveDVD because I thought that would be faster, but the 8 bit desktop was too much for my aging eyes, and then the installer wasn't responsive to my commands, and because I was installing next to OSX (which installer was saying was OS 6), as well as the disc partition program was not familiar--after several attempts to get Lu installed using an .iso from March '12, I switched to a Ubuntu mini-iso I had burned sometime back and went thru that graphical installer which was more familiar like the Debian version--seemed to take a long time, maybe 5 hours?? (mirror defaulted to UK for me in CA) and then I had to boot into (drumroll please) the green-black screen . . . . Had to play around reading the Ubun PPC FAQ to figure out how to get into a CLI that I could read and then ran the "nv" compilation/build, blacklisted nouveau. And . . . then tried to add myself to sudoers, which did work at first glance, but Xubuntu doesn't seem to have a separate "root terminal" and after letting me do all the other CLI stuff, but after I added myself to the sudoers it no longer accepted my password, and I can't "nano" /etc/sudoers back to edit it--"permission denied." The whole process took about 6 - 7 hours, but, I now have a working GUI system in the G4 iMac 800 once again using nv to run the display . . . I just can't run "sudo apt-get update" in the, uh, console. Unless I can somehow adjust the sudoers list--which following the MintPPC advice gave an error as it did when I did it the last time--"you should use the 'visudo' command" and I ignored it as I did last time, but in Xu it seems to have busted something?? I can probably use "Software Update" in the GUI?? but I like running the upgrades in the Terminal--such is life, the bitter and the sweet together.

So, back in a Linux system, we'll see if this one's a keeper or if it too will last a couple months before losing the display . . . 6th times a charm perhaps?? Thanks to all those who helped me on the twisting road to a new system . . . .

e.e.p.

If I get time maybe I can now check the "Mahjongg" game tiles for rkmugen in a few days.

e.e.p.