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bertaboy
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Joined: 05 Nov 2004
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 Posted: Wed Sep 30, 2009 1:51 am Post subject: PowerBook G4- 1.33Ghz |
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I came into possession of a 1.33ghz Powerbook G4 and am considering putting some sort of Linux flavor on it (mostly due to Apple not providing 10.6 for the PPC line and this machine is only using the 10.4 operating system.) From what I've dug into it, I see two potential issues:
1) The machine is using some form of bcm43xx driver, but I was still unable to connect to a wireless network with an Ubuntu livecd
2) The machine likely has a Geforce FX Go5200, which I'm finding is an NV34M chipset. From what I've gathered, Nouveau has proper 2D support. As I will not be gaming with this computer, I don't think this should cause any issues.
Has anyone had any experience with getting PowerBook G4's to work with Linux? Particularly, are there any hardware aspects which I should be overly concerned about? Do any of my presumptions above look incorrect?
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pilla
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Joined: 07 Aug 2002
Posts: 7729
Location: Underworld
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| Posted: Wed Sep 30, 2009 5:00 pm Post subject: |
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Moved from Kernel & Hardware to Gentoo on PPC.
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Simba7
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Joined: 22 Jan 2007
Posts: 706
Location: Billings, MT, USA
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| Posted: Wed Sep 30, 2009 5:55 pm Post subject: |
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I think the latest (and last) Mac OS X you can put on it is Leopard (10.5).
The G4 1.33GHz processor is a decent processor. I have a Mac Mini (running Leopard) and it keeps up nicely. I usually VNC into it since I'm running Windows 7 on my desktops and run the Mini headless.
Other than that, if you do install it, use the latest Gentoo LiveCD. I'd suggest the System Rescue CD, but it hasn't been updated for the PPC platform in years. I wish they'd get an update out soon. |
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bertaboy
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Joined: 05 Nov 2004
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| Posted: Wed Sep 30, 2009 11:25 pm Post subject: |
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| Simba7 wrote: | | I think the latest (and last) Mac OS X you can put on it is Leopard (10.5). |
It looks like Snow Leopard was released August 28th, so over a month ago, which doesn't look like it supports PPC. I know I could put Leopard on this, but support for various things (e.g. jre's & jdk's) are making me think that Linux may be the better route.
It's good to hear that you think the processor should have enough zip. I'm planning on upping the memory from the stock 256MB to 1.25GB, so that should definitely help me out regardless of the outcome. I guess I'll just have to make an image of the OS X partition either this weekend or the next and hope for the best! |
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gringo
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Joined: 27 Apr 2003
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| Posted: Thu Oct 01, 2009 7:43 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | The machine is using some form of bcm43xx driver, but I was still unable to connect to a wireless network with an Ubuntu livecd |
it works here, there was really no big problem to make it run once it was supported.
my powerbook has a radeon card, so i have no experience with nvidia on ppc, but yeah, i would try with nouveau too.
I have gentoo running on my g4 powerbook with the same processor that yours has and well, it´s slow. If you are going to compile everything in this computer get ready for long compile times.
| Quote: | | Particularly, are there any hardware aspects which I should be overly concerned about? |
on mine, everything exluding the onboard modem ( not that i care about this one) does work on linux.
cheers
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bertaboy
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Joined: 05 Nov 2004
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| Posted: Fri Oct 09, 2009 4:46 pm Post subject: |
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Gringo,
Have you had any issues with your PB overheating? Mine is automatically shutting down after the CPU is ramped up for more than a few minutes. I first noticed this when I tried backing up the hard drive to an external (dd if=/dev/hda | gzip /mnt/external/imagename.img.gz), the computer would freeze up after the backup was around 1GB (when backing up a 60GB drive.) When just performing dd w/out compressing the image, the computer completed the entire process.
Once I backed up the original image, the computer turned itself off when compiling python. The only way I could get through finishing that (and getting Portage installed) was by pausing the operation every few minutes so that the computer could cool down.
Thoughts? Should I try underclocking it? |
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bigboote
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Joined: 27 May 2003
Posts: 14
Location: Chicago, IL USA
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| Posted: Sat Oct 10, 2009 5:38 am Post subject: |
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| bertaboy wrote: | Gringo,
Have you had any issues with your PB overheating? Mine is automatically shutting down after the CPU is ramped up for more than a few minutes. I first noticed this when I tried backing up the hard drive to an external (dd if=/dev/hda | gzip /mnt/external/imagename.img.gz), the computer would freeze up after the backup was around 1GB (when backing up a 60GB drive.) When just performing dd w/out compressing the image, the computer completed the entire process.
Once I backed up the original image, the computer turned itself off when compiling python. The only way I could get through finishing that (and getting Portage installed) was by pausing the operation every few minutes so that the computer could cool down.
Thoughts? Should I try underclocking it? |
I found the therm_adt746x module cranked up the fan too high on my PB. If it's loaded try /sbin/rmmod therm_adt746x and see if the fan stops screaming.
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gringo
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| Posted: Mon Oct 12, 2009 10:48 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | Have you had any issues with your PB overheating? |
no problems at all. The adt746x stuff is doing its job pretty well here : fans come on /off when they are expected to.
cheers
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bertaboy
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| Posted: Wed Oct 14, 2009 12:46 am Post subject: |
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Hmm, it must've been an issue with the drivers on the install cd. Once I got base system installed on the hard drive, I stopped having issues running the computer at full-speed (although the only way I could get the base system installed was by changing the governor from Performance to Conservative.) Now I just have 2 remaining hardware issues that I know of:
1) Sound
2) Modem
I've read of some people getting their modems to work with their powerbooks, but that is low-priority for me. Can one of you help walk me through getting sound support on the powerbook? When I ran alsaconf, it crashed the system (re: hard) and inserted some modules which caused kernel panics when I rebooted. I'm thinking that this has to be
| Code: | # alsamixer
alsamixer: function snd_ctl_open failed for default: No such file or directory |
| Code: | CONFIG_SOUND=y
CONFIG_SOUND_OSS_CORE=y
CONFIG_SND=y
CONFIG_SND_TIMER=y
CONFIG_SND_PCM=y
CONFIG_SND_HWDEP=m
CONFIG_SND_RAWMIDI=m
CONFIG_SND_SEQUENCER=y
CONFIG_SND_SEQ_DUMMY=y
CONFIG_SND_OSSEMUL=y
CONFIG_SND_MIXER_OSS=y
CONFIG_SND_PCM_OSS=y
CONFIG_SND_PCM_OSS_PLUGINS=y
CONFIG_SND_SEQUENCER_OSS=y
CONFIG_SND_SUPPORT_OLD_API=y
CONFIG_SND_VERBOSE_PROCFS=y
CONFIG_SND_VMASTER=y
CONFIG_SND_DRIVERS=y
CONFIG_SND_DUMMY=m
CONFIG_SND_PCI=y
CONFIG_SND_PPC=y
CONFIG_SND_POWERMAC=m
CONFIG_SND_POWERMAC_AUTO_DRC=y
CONFIG_SND_AOA=y
CONFIG_SND_AOA_FABRIC_LAYOUT=y
CONFIG_SND_AOA_ONYX=y
CONFIG_SND_AOA_TAS=y
CONFIG_SND_AOA_SOUNDBUS=y
CONFIG_SND_AOA_SOUNDBUS_I2S=y
CONFIG_SND_USB=y
CONFIG_SND_USB_AUDIO=m
CONFIG_SND_PCMCIA=y |
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gringo
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Posts: 3793
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| Posted: Wed Oct 14, 2009 7:44 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | Can one of you help walk me through getting sound support on the powerbook? |
depending on your hardware it can be CONFIG_SND_POWERMAC or CONFIG_SND_AOA_*, having both set will only cause pain IIRC.
I´m not sure but i think the latter is the one that you should try first.
About the modem, again it depends on what pb model you have, in mine the modem is apparently connected to the i2c bus and does not work in linux; previous models had it attached to the usb bus and it worked (somewhat ...) using the hcfusbmodem package.
Some more info about this can be found here : http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/gentoo-ppc-faq.xml#modem
cheers
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trann
n00b
Joined: 13 Nov 2009
Posts: 3
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| Posted: Fri Nov 13, 2009 7:15 pm Post subject: |
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| Gringo: What video driver do you use? A quick look at the ATI FAQ says that fglrx isnt supported on ppc, so I am guessing you use the open source drivers? |
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gringo
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Joined: 27 Apr 2003
Posts: 3793
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| Posted: Mon Nov 16, 2009 8:49 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | I am guessing you use the open source drivers? |
exactly, ati doesn´t provide any driver for ppc, so that the opensource driver is your only chance.
cheers
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potuz
Guru
Joined: 30 Jan 2010
Posts: 378
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| Posted: Mon Feb 15, 2010 11:38 pm Post subject: |
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| bertaboy wrote: | | Hmm, it must've been an issue with the drivers on the install cd. Once I got base system installed on the hard drive, I stopped having issues running the computer at full-speed (although the only way I could get the base system installed was by changing the governor from Performance to Conservative.) |
Thanks for the tip, I'm having the same issue installing a fresh gentoo on a powerbook G4. It shuts down at bootstrapping. Conservative is not available in the minimal ppc, but there's powersave as a module, I just loaded it and hopefully that'll go through with the compilation.
R. |
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potuz
Guru
Joined: 30 Jan 2010
Posts: 378
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| Posted: Wed Feb 17, 2010 4:48 pm Post subject: |
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Im running a fresh install on a PB G4 1.3GHz with the nvidia card and I'm having trouble with thermal control. The four combinations of governors (performance or powersave) and the module therm_adt746x loaded or not behave like this:
performance/loaded: The fan speeds up for a second after the module is loaded dmesg doesn't show anything wrong adding the module. When you start compiling something, the fan shuts down after a while and the board takes care of shutting down the laptop.
performance/not loaded: Starting a compilation spins the fans quite a bit but anyway the board turns off the laptop
powersave/loaded: The fans spin at full speed but the laptop doesn't turn off
powersave/not loaded: Fans are spinning moderatly and the laptop doesn't turn off
I am compiling gnome in this last setup, it'll take a couple of days. Is is possible to have the cpu running 100% on this one? Are there parameters that I should be passing to therm_adt746x? The first setup is quite strange in that it doesn't really spin the fans up to full speed, yet the computer shuts down anyway.
R. |
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potuz
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potuz
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| Posted: Tue Mar 02, 2010 5:15 pm Post subject: |
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@bertaboy: could you get the nvidia-based powerbook to suspend to ram? is it even possible?
R. |
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Gentoo on PPC
