devnull: can you provide us with the log file of your failing X ?

also provide the xorg.conf file which was used to give that log file please.

Yeh, I agree with the others - the xorg.conf and Xorg.0.log are needed for proper troubleshooting.

Some additions relating to the r128 have been made to the guide I posted before. I shall paraphrase them below:

DRI/AIGLX seems to be a problem with the r128 resulting in black/frozen screens. This, I think, can be overcome in a few ways

1. Set the resolution/colour depth to high values so that direct rendering is disabled automatically

2. Disable DRI manually by

Section "Module"
Disable "dri"
EndSection

3. Disable AIGLX by

Section "ServerFlags"
Option "AIGLX" "off"
EndSection

Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "Disable"
EndSection

4. Set ForcePCIMode

Section "Device"
Identifier "card0"
Driver "r128"

Option "ForcePCIMode" "true"
EndSection

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PowerPCFAQ

OK, here's my current state of play.

The 1Ghz processor upgrade works well.

I ditched the r128 and have installed an ATI 9200 (0000:00:10.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc RV280 [Radeon 9200] (rev 01)) with 128MB. It works, but is still slow (altho now its usable).

Does anybody maybe have a good xorg.conf for a similar setup?

I think DRI gets disabled for some reason:

[ 26.401] (EE) RADEON(0): [dri] RADEONDRIGetVersion failed to open the DRM
[dri] Disabling DRI.

Altho, thats weird, because:

$ glxinfo |head
name of display: :0
display: :0 screen: 0
direct rendering: Yes
server glx vendor string: SGI
server glx version string: 1.4

I get about 80 fps out of glxgears......

Any further clues?

I collected xorg.conf files over the years, you can find them here:
http://mac.linux.be/content/xorgconf-files

Yeh, Ive tried a few and have a pretty decent 2D experience now, but 3D blows chunks still - openarena runs at about 1fps.

3D support is not very good on Linux/PPC. You have to learn to live with that I guess.