If the Xorg.log shows the Radeon driver loaded, how do I keep it from loading? And as far as the E edit for the grub menu, adding one of the Plymouth commands at the end of the Linux line needs to be done separate from or in conjunction with turning off or removing the Radeon driver?

And how exactly do I keep the driver from loading or remove the Radeon driver?

The display driver, video cards, GPUs for Macintosh machines seems to be the biggest stumbling block for installing any Linux distro. Some work great others result in a nearly impossible road block to accessing the machines after boot up. I have yet to get Debian to boot up on 32 bit G4s or 64 bit G5 to anything other than a black screen, and inaccessible computer. No Esc key, shift key at startup or attempt to access terminal via Ctl-Alt-F1-F15, has come up empty. In all the machines I have successful installed Linux on, it rocks!! But the G4s and G5 are are fighting me as I attempt to install the latest Distro they should be able to run.

I currently have a white MacBook running the unsupported Mountain Lion via a Hakintosh method but am thinking of wiping the hard drive and loading some distro of Linux, many of which I have successfully test drove via live CD, as the speed and response of Linux on this “newer” Mac has been really exciting. The G series Macs are an attempt to breathe new life into old machines. Loading Linux onto newer machines may be in the future if the revival of the G series Macs goes well.

Thanks for the assistance,
Mav

Why would you want to keep the Radeon X driver from loading? Anything else on an ancient Radeon would be an unpleasant performer.

One way to prevent the Radeon X driver from loading is to uninstall it. Upstream package name is xf86-video-ati. Various distros use other names for the package.

Another way to prevent loading is to configure some other driver explicitly. AFAIK, the only possible alternatives for old Radeons are VESA and FBDEV, very crude, limiting resolutions usually to actual VESA modes, none of which are 16:9 or other widescreen formats, with the possible exception (rarely) showing up of 1920x1080. Forget about 1366x768, 1280x800, 1600x900, 1920x1200, 1440x900 and others.

E in Grub is for editing the kernel command line for the current boot only. Whether or not you wish to disable the Radeon X driver is normally a separate issue, but the Radeon X driver can be blocked by disabling KMS, which also blocks the Radeon kernel driver. Appending nomodeset via the E key in Grub is one method of blocking KMS.

Disabling Plymouth is just something to try. It's little other than bling bloat, independent of disabling Radeon.

I misunderstood. I thought you wanted me to see if the Radeon driver had loaded and perhaps causing the problem when what you really wanted me to do is to see if it IS loaded. I'll do that and try the Grub "e" thing with Plymouth to see if that helps.

Thanks
Mav

Just a small suggestion .

With all this iso downloading and dvd burning.

Hope you md5sum or shasum file integrity of iso downloads.
Before and after burning dvd.
As alpha and beta tester for my preferred distro. Mentioned in this thread.
Those checks save me headaches later on. Like no screen display because my iso download was corrupted.
Plus. MY ISP provider is hinky out here in the boon docks and they like to throttle my connection or just disconnect entirely while downloading.

Ok, I was able to get into and read /var/log/Xorg.0 and as near as I can tell, the Radeon drivers DID NOT LOAD but the FBDEV driver was(is) being used. The G5 uses a 23” Apple studio monitor with the funky, Apple proprietary connector. No other video connectors are available to swap out the monitor.

I’m going to shorten what I see and you can derive what ever conclusions or additional guidance you have:

First LOADMODULE was ‘glx’
AIGLX Enabled
Then it tried and failed to load fglrx with the warning (module does not exist, 0)

LoadModule “ati”
LoadModule “Radeon”
LoadModule “modesettting”
WARNING! Couldn’t open module modesetting
Unload modesetting
Unloading module modesetting
Failed to load module modesetting (module does not exist,0)

Loadmodule “fbdev”
Matched fgrlx as auto configured driver 3
Matched ati as auto configured driver 1
Matched modesetting as auto configured driver 2
Matched fbdev as auto configured driver 3
Assigned the driver to the xf86ConfigLayout

Then it went through another module load sequence
Couldn’t load fglrx
Loaded ati
Couldn’t load modesetting (didn’t exist)

LoadModule fbdev
Fbdev failed to load

Then it listed ALL of the Radeon chipset drivers, my Radeon card was listed

After the list:

FBDEV:driver for framebuffer:fbdev
Load sub module “fbdevhw”

FBDEV(1) claimed PCI slot 240@0:16:0
FBDEV(1) using default device
Screen 0 deleted because of no matching config section
UnloadModule: radeon
FBDEV(0) creating default display

The FBDEV(0) list went on showing depth, screen resolutions module and sub module shadow, backing store enabled, RandR enabled,
SELinux: Disabled on system
AIGLX: screen 0 is not DRI2 capable
AIGLX: reverting to software rendering
AIGLX: Loaded and initialized swrast
GLX: Initialized DRIWRAST GL provider for screen 0
XKB: reuse xkmfile blah blah blah.xkm

Then the screen went on to describe mouse and keyboard drivers which work just fine.

Yes there are parts missing from the log because I hand typed it but the gist is there.

What can I do?
Mav

Does your G5 have PCIe video? If not, adding radeon.agpmode=-1 to the kernel command line in the bootloader may help. Since it's a Mac, possibly it would help even if it is PCIe (though I doubt it).

The modesetting driver for Xorg releases prior to 1.17.0 was a separate package. Possibly not installed is why it couldn't load. Old enough Radeons, like yours, aren't supported by it anyway, so even if it loads it won't produce a working X.

I did install Debian on a Power Mac G4 with one gig of RAM (I'm using it now to type this). Having said that, it's not a very functional machine (I'll elaborate on that later).

Here's some information: I got the ISO from here --> https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/p...owerpc/iso-cd/

I burnt this on a CD. When booting the Mac with the CD inserted, I pressed "Ctrl-Alt-o-f" (on some keyboards this might be "WinKey-Alt-o-f" or on Mac it would be "Cmd-Option-o-f"), to get the Open Firmware prompt. Then, at the prompt, I entered:

This booted up the Debian install CD. If you have an ethernet internet connection, you'll be fine from here.

I myself only have WiFi, so it was a bit of a challenge for me. I put in a pci WiFi device, which required nonfree drivers. After the very minimal install, I got these drivers from the nonfree package firmware-atheros (a package that's fine for all architectures, fortunately.) I got this deb package from another computer, and transferred it via a USB stick (which I needed to mount, via "mount /dev/sdc1 /mnt", and then install via "dpkg -i"). I then needed to set up the internet connection. This was possible via the package wpasupplicant, which fortunately was included on the install CD (I had to install it from the CD). After installing wpasupplicant, I followed the advice of this site: https://www.howtoforge.com/how-to-co...ines-on-debian

Here's my sources.list:

As I mentioned, it's not a very functional system. It can create documents with abiword, and also print them to pdf. Listening to music works (Audacious is a good program). Surfing the web is possible, but not with Firefox or Chromium. The NetSurf browser works, but it's poor. There's another browser called Arctic Fox which works better, but there's no package in the repositories for it. There is a package here though: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1E2x...i_TdskSgk/view

Surfing Facebook and interacting on it is possible, but only by using the mobile Facebook site (m.facebook.com). YouTube doesn't really work, and videos can't be played on the system (Parole video player works, but it's very slow, and all other video players simply don't start -- at least in my experience).

Transferring files with an Android and/or Lineage phone works using gMTP.

I set mine up using IceWM.

Anyway, good luck.

2 members found this post helpful.

Can’t find a post I sent earlier so, I’ll try again. Thanks to mark_alfred for his guidance on loading Debian 10 from the net install iso he pointed me to. I burned it to a DVD and while holding down the option key was able to see the DVD and boot from it without going into Open Firmware. My Mac G5 is hard wired to the internet so the install went pretty well. Until I got the “Grub Boot Installer Dummy fatal error”. I’m researching what this means but perhaps you can provide guidance as to what went wrong and how to rectify it.

I’ve rebooted into rescue mode and am looking to see if there is some way to fix it from there. I have read in my searches that perhaps using “Expert” install mode could provide a way to get GRUB to load. I do not consider myself an expert but have worked my way through text installers and hopefully it’s obvious.

Thanks for the excellent iso sources. Any help would be appreciated. In the meantime I will continue consulting Dr. Google.

Maverick855

The install iso I directed you to is solely for a G4 (powerpc) install. So, I figure that's why it's not working properly. If you have a G4 that you're interested in installing Debian on, then that should go better.

Regarding G5 installs, the important thing is to ensure that the install is set for an EFI and/or UEFI and/or GPT install, rather than BIOS and/or MBR (usually somewhere in the install you'll be given a choice). Other than that, if the Mac is from 2006 or later, the architecture should be the same as any other computer due to Mac switching at this point to an Intel 64-bit system. So, based on this page, I think G4s would use a 32 bit powerpc architecture, G5s prior to 2006 would use a ppc64 architecture, and all the rest would use what pretty well every other computer uses (x86 or amd64).

The other thing that's a bit tricky is setting up WiFi in a lot of Macs, due to some of them needing the Broadcom (b43) drivers. Some distributions come with the drivers already present (I think Manjaro does) and others rely on a package with a name like firmware-b43-installer, which would need to be run (if your computer has a Broadcom WiFi device). Also, at least in the case of Debian, it's best to enable the nonfree repository to be able to install what you need.

I look forward to trying the Debian iso on my G4, which I am trying to install Slackintosh 12 on. It’s been installed but I’m fighting to get to a GUI vs text interface. In reading about Slackware, I see it is meant for the more text base computer users. I’ve been a Mac guy all my life.

I did find it strange as the Debian iso I was installing on the G5 kept showing ppc64 files being installed. I just figured the iso contained files for both the 32 bit and 64 bit Macs and it was smart enough to realize it was installing on a 64 bit system.

I’ve successfully loaded Lubuntu 16.04 on another G4 I have and am not going to mess with success. I tried loading Lubuntu 14.04 on this G5 with terrible results. This is why your Debian solution appeared to be a possible route to finally get a working Linux distro on it. And trust me, I’ve tried a lot!

Itlooks like I have a couple of ways to go: Use expert mode to install Debian and hope I come across the part of the install that directs me to the EFI/UEFI/GPT, because it appears the iso realizes this is a 64bit system. Rather than fighting with Sslackintosh any longer, I’ll just install Debian and run with it. Finally, I just looked at me Linux download folder and realized I have both a 64 bit and 32bit (PowerPC) Debian 10 netinstall iso. So I must be using the 64bit one on the G5 and will burn the 32bit one to a DVD and use it on the G4.

Your assistance has been excellent and I hope to mark this thread resolved with a final report showing my machine stats and what distros finally worked.

Maverick

Slackintosh is an ancient distribution. I think it was last updated in 2013. For myself, the goal was to install a new distro and see if I could get it working. But, perhaps an old distro would work better. I don't know.

Road Block encountered on the G4 net install: the installer is saying it can’t detect my CD/dvd drive and is asking me to chose a driver for it, which is weird since the install is being driven by the dvd. Where can I look for the type, kind, name of the driver for my dvd? I looked in the system profiler, but drivers aren’t mentioned there. It’s a pioneer dvd -rw dvd 105 model. If I want to to a deep dive into the guts of the OS X file system, I’ll have to abort the installation, again. Not the end of the world but the solution should be simpler than it has been so far. A search at the apple.com web site has resulted in zip-point-nothing. Dr. Google hasn’t resulted in any hints either. Did you run into this?

I’ll keep digging, thanks,
Maverick

If you're talking about the Debian 10 netinstall CD, then I've no further information on how to get it to boot besides what I wrote above, which was:

I have found with G4s that the one big struggle is getting the CD to boot (I find that CDs work better than DVDs, even if your machine has a DVD-reader). There's a lot of information on booting at the Void Linux for PPC site.

G4 Debian Install: I was able to boot the CD by holding down the Option (alt) key, and choosing the CD from the drives provided at system startup. It booted up and I started installing the distro (default install), walking through the process. When I got to the part where the installer was set to detect hardware and disks, I was presented with a question about the CD(DVD) driver and was then presented with a very long list of potential drivers to chose from. I've done some digging but can't seem to locate a "driver type" for my particular CD/DVD unit. I could go thru the whole list choosing one at a time until it worked, but I was hoping there would be a more scientific or informed method of choosing.

I could also use Open Firmware to boot the CD but I don't see how that eliminates the need for a CD/DVD driver. I'll keep plugging along and if I figure out what works I'll let you know.

G5 Debian Install: I am using expert install now and have gotten to the point where I can load the Grub Boot Installer. The installer told me that the G5 was using an EFI boot system and directed me to install the grub boot onto a "removable media". I'll need to do more research but I found a Debian Troubleshooting page on how to address this. I'm guessing (hoping) all I need to do is insert a USB drive and hope it can use it to install the Boot Loader. We'll see.

Thanks again,
Mav

Update: It isn’t the CD/DVD drivers that the installer can’t find on the G4, it’ the hard drives’ drivers. Not sure if it’s possible but it may be that I was trying to install Debian “over” the Slackintosh install and that (Slackware) install screwed up the drivers. So I rebooted into OSX and erased the hard drive to start over. I haven’t tried it yet so we’ll see. Not sure I believe my own conclusion but I’m hoping this is the reason. Not installing the hard drive drivers (because I still don’t know what they are called) is not allowing me the opportunity to partition the drive. In fact the installer isn’t seeing any of the hard drives.