X.Org on Powerbook G4 12"

liu.pei · n00b Joined: 25 Mar 2006 Posts: 9 Location: France

Hello,

I'm reading online documents in order to prepare to install X.Org on my Powerbook G4 12" which already running Gentoo Linux 2007.0 with kernel 2.6.15 (I will upgrade the kernel once the desktop is fully installed).

Here's the information taken from Mac OS X:

Model: Powerbook6,8
Processor: PowerPC G4 (1.5)
nVidia GeForce FX Go5200
LCD 1024x768 32bits

I was wondering about the monitor configuration especially the values I should set for HorizSync and VertRefresh. Can anyone be of any help for me because I know bad values could severly damage the display unit.

Any other suggestions or experiences about installing X.Org with further XFCE desktop would be welcome.
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nixnut · Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2007 6:31 pm Post subject:

Try using the xac tool to create an xorg.conf for you. You'll probably need to emerge it first.
To bad you have an nvidia gpu. There are no binary drivers from nvidia for ppc and the opensource driver doesn't support 3D acceleration goodies.
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liu.pei · n00b Joined: 25 Mar 2006 Posts: 9 Location: France

nixnut · Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2007 7:15 pm Post subject:

For ppc it's better to buy ATI, for x86... we'll either should do. ATI's drivers have improved a good deal I've heard. Nvidia used to be the better deal, but I have no idea how things stand these days.

XFWM is the window manager of the XFCE desktop environment. If you install XFCE you'll have XFWM too. If you want a quick and easy wm with little dependencies you could give fluxbox a try.
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hawaiian717 · n00b Joined: 13 May 2004 Posts: 71

JoseJX · Retired Dev Joined: 28 Apr 2002 Posts: 2774

xac is the new Xorgautoconfig. :) If you could give it a try and let me know if it works for you, I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks!
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Gentoo PPC FAQ: http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/gentoo-ppc-faq.xml

prairie_dad · n00b Joined: 02 Aug 2007 Posts: 68 Location: Denver, CO

I have a "quicksilver" G4 tower 733, with, Apple's web site says, nvidia geforce 2mx (32 MB.) (Edit -- but oddly enough, lspci, which must be definitive?, says it has a Radeon 7500, with the RV200 chipset....isn't that odd?)

I haven't had any success yet using any of the xorg cofig tools discussed in gentoo's xorg documentation: xorgcfg or xorgconfig, nor making the .conf by hand, etc. looking forward to trying the new version of xorgautoconfig, of which I only learned today. (Edit, that didn't work last night either....sorry)

Why do so many of the horiz and vert sync rate categories overlap? The studio display has vert 75, horiz 79.9 something, but these values fall within the bounds of several of one's choices in xorgcfg. so which to choose? (Edit -- and the range chosen in xac's xorg.conf for the vert is only 50-60, I think.)

I know there are proprietary drivers for this card, but are there open source ones as well, like fglrx for ati cards? Nvidia's web site says there's a version 1.0-96xx, while gentoo documentation says nvidia-drivers-1.0.7185, can it just be that our docs are a little out of date...? (Edit--I guess that's all moot, so now the question is radeon vs. fglrx, any thoughts...)

thanks, I think the display is just about the last problem, everything is all compiled at last.

well, there is still Java to deal with, but ...

Sodki

liu.pei · n00b Joined: 25 Mar 2006 Posts: 9 Location: France

I used xorgcfg to generate a skeleton of xorg.conf and then fbset to setup de screen to 1024x768 VESA mode for a "generic" display not defining HorizSync and VertRefresh values at all since I have to laptop. The 1024x768 resolution is not setup correctly.

I followed www.linux-france.org/macintosh HOWTOs to setup de keyboard. The keymap for the console keyboard suits very well without any effort but unfortunately the keymap for X.Org does not work even if it improves a little bit the use of the keyboard under X.

Setup of X.Org on a Powerbook is the most awfull and I wonder if I'll succeed to setup it correctely one day.

I tried to find xac with emerge but I did not succeed so I did not try this tool, sorry.
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Sodki · Posted: Sun Aug 19, 2007 6:56 pm Post subject:

vnv_lain · n00b Joined: 05 Oct 2004 Posts: 2

xac worked REALLY well creating my xorg.conf file. Ran it on an old Powerbook 12' Alum 867 MHz. Typed in startx and loaded Ratpoison no problem.

No more manual editing...I remember I used to spend a long time back in the days setting up X's conf file.

Thanks for the nifty tip.

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x30n · n00b Joined: 27 Dec 2007 Posts: 6

Thanks for the hint xac worked fine on my 6.8.

The lack of a native 3D driver is not too bad. I´m happy with a load of shells ;D

I´m really impressed by xac. I´m used to very bad autoconfigs by these programs ... but thats maybe only on PCs who knows.

cu
x30n

JoseJX · Retired Dev Joined: 28 Apr 2002 Posts: 2774

Thanks for trying xac! Please let me know if xac doesn't work for you, or if you have a better suggestion for some of its defaults. It should also work on x86 and amd64 (but is a bit less reliable).
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Gentoo PPC FAQ: http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/gentoo-ppc-faq.xml

jp10hp · Apprentice Joined: 29 Feb 2004 Posts: 180 Location: Milano

ddc · Guru Joined: 29 Aug 2006 Posts: 525

hi
is the kernel aty128fb having issue with the x11-video-ati-driver ?