Radeon HD 5770

Johannes Brakensiek

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Jan 26, 2021, 8:00:02 AM1/26/21

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Hello everyone,

I’m thinking of getting a Radeon HD 5770 from a Mac Pro for my
PowerMac 11,2. Did anyone try to this? Are there PPC drivers/firmware
that are going to work with this card? (I know Mac OS X Leopard won’t
work with this, but this mail is not about that. ;))

Thank you
Johannes

Linux User #330250

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Jan 26, 2021, 9:10:03 AM1/26/21

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If the card doesn't have a Firmware with FCode for the Open Firmware of
the Power Mac, it's won't be possible to see anything prior to the Linux
boot, where Linux initializes the card using the PC-VideoBIOS.

I tried this about 10 years ago with a different Radeon card on a
PowerMac3,6 (Mirrored Drive Doors G4, thus only 32-bit) and it worked
due to Linux supporting and loading the PC graphics card BIOS correctly.

PC graphics cards worked, as I remember it, often better with Linux on
PowerPC than Mac video cards would, because Linux support for FCode
firmware was always worse than support for the VBIOS version. I remember
that loading the PC-VBIOS from a file was sometimes a good solution, so
Linux would initialize graphics using the VBIOS way rather than going
the Open Firmware path using the native FCode Video-ROM...

The problem is that without an FCode graphics ROM you also don't get any
error messages, neither from the Open Firmware (like when it doesn't
find a bootable operating system: the folder symbol with the question
mark in it) or from the early kernel. (early printk)

And, as you said, you won't be able to use Mac OS X with it either...

Good luck!
Linux User #330250

John Paul Adrian Glaubitz

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Jan 26, 2021, 9:20:02 AM1/26/21

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Hi!

On 1/26/21 3:06 PM, Linux User #330250 wrote:
> If the card doesn't have a Firmware with FCode for the Open Firmware of
> the Power Mac, it's won't be possible to see anything prior to the Linux
> boot, where Linux initializes the card using the PC-VideoBIOS.

> (...)

> The problem is that without an FCode graphics ROM you also don't get any
> error messages, neither from the Open Firmware (like when it doesn't
> find a bootable operating system: the folder symbol with the question
> mark in it) or from the early kernel. (early printk)

I would probably just use a serial console for the boot sequence.

Adrian

--
.''`. John Paul Adrian Glaubitz
: :' : Debian Developer - glau...@debian.org
`. `' Freie Universitaet Berlin - glau...@physik.fu-berlin.de
`- GPG: 62FF 8A75 84E0 2956 9546 0006 7426 3B37 F5B5 F913

Johannes Brakensiek

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Jan 26, 2021, 1:50:03 PM1/26/21

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Hi,

On 26 Jan 2021, at 15:24, luigi burdo wrote:

> i had been test linux with G5 Quad . Quadro 7800Gtx in 16x slot,
> radeonhd on 8x slot.
> Result, it work with mesa 3D enabled on 4650, 5450, 6570, and R5 220.
> only 2D working with SI cards 7750, r7 250 because mesa crash for
> endianess someware.
>
> For have the PC bios card working you need 2 Monitors. one monitor for
> the apple firmaware gpu and one for the "pc firmware gpu".
> This is a video of my g5 with Debian Port (thanx Adrian Glubitz) and
> radeonhd 6570 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsB5xlLyZwE&t
>
> Ciao
> Luigi
> ________________________________
> Da: John Paul Adrian Glaubitz <glau...@physik.fu-berlin.de>
> Inviato: martedì 26 gennaio 2021 15:14
> A: Linux User #330250 <linuxus...@gmx.net>
> Cc: Johannes Brakensiek <m...@codingpastor.de>;
> debian-...@lists.debian.org <debian-...@lists.debian.org>
> Oggetto: Re: Radeon HD 5770

>
> Hi!
>
> On 1/26/21 3:06 PM, Linux User #330250 wrote:
>> If the card doesn't have a Firmware with FCode for the Open Firmware
>> of
>> the Power Mac, it's won't be possible to see anything prior to the
>> Linux
>> boot, where Linux initializes the card using the PC-VideoBIOS.
>> (...)
>> The problem is that without an FCode graphics ROM you also don't get
>> any
>> error messages, neither from the Open Firmware (like when it doesn't
>> find a bootable operating system: the folder symbol with the question
>> mark in it) or from the early kernel. (early printk)
>
> I would probably just use a serial console for the boot sequence.
>
> Adrian

thank you for all your replys. Sounds as if it works if I’ve already
got a working system (which I have). And it seems to be even easier when
using both graphics cards in parallel.

I did not know I can use a serial console with a G5. Going to
investigate that as well.

Thanks
Johannes

Alex Perez

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Jan 26, 2021, 8:40:03 PM1/26/21

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Johannes,

It's possible, and basically involves re-purposing the modem interface,
which is really just a serial port. See http://www.geethree.com/stealth/
for more information.

Johannes Brakensiek

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Jan 27, 2021, 2:20:02 AM1/27/21

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On 27 Jan 2021, at 2:27, Alex Perez wrote:

> It's possible, and basically involves re-purposing the modem
> interface, which is really just a serial port. See
> http://www.geethree.com/stealth/ for more information.

Thank you for that hint. Not that cheap and it says dual core G5s are
excluded: http://www.geethree.com/purchase/hardware.html

But if running/exchanging two GPUs works, I’m fine…

Johannes

Johannes Brakensiek

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Jan 30, 2021, 3:30:03 PM1/30/21

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Hello,

On 26 Jan 2021, at 15:24, luigi burdo wrote:

> i had been test linux with G5 Quad . Quadro 7800Gtx in 16x slot,
> radeonhd on 8x slot.
> Result, it work with mesa 3D enabled on 4650, 5450, 6570, and R5 220.
> only 2D working with SI cards 7750, r7 250 because mesa crash for
> endianess someware.
>
> For have the PC bios card working you need 2 Monitors. one monitor for
> the apple firmaware gpu and one for the "pc firmware gpu".
> This is a video of my g5 with Debian Port (thanx Adrian Glubitz) and
> radeonhd 6570 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsB5xlLyZwE&t

looks as if I were not lucky at all. Had all drivers installed, but did
not manage to even get a little piece of a signal out of the Radeon HD
5770 I got from a Mac Pro. If I researched correctly it is because the
the 5770 needs a PCIe 2.0 while the G5 only has 1.0. Do you think this
is correct? Going to try a 6570 then (X1900 for G5 would be great, but
are hard to find it seems).

Johannes

Karl

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Jan 30, 2021, 5:20:03 PM1/30/21

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The maintainer of VoidLinux has also a Terascale running in his G5:
https://imgur.com/Drt5KYo

What about the xorg.log or xorg config file? Maybe you have to blacklist the other card in Grub?
Regarding X1900, the Mac Edition won’t work on Linux, because of the reduced BIOS, IIRC.

Johannes Brakensiek

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Jan 31, 2021, 5:10:02 AM1/31/21

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On 30 Jan 2021, at 23:18, Karl wrote:

> The maintainer of VoidLinux has also a Terascale running in his G5:
> https://imgur.com/Drt5KYo
>
> What about the xorg.log or xorg config file? Maybe you have to
> blacklist the other card in Grub?
> Regarding X1900, the Mac Edition won’t work on Linux, because of the
> reduced BIOS, IIRC.

Hello Karl,

thank you for these hints. Ok, won’t try the X1900 then. I would try
further investigation and debugging (modules, xorg and so) if I knew
that card should work. But it seems especially the HD 5xxx series does
have problems regarding backward compatibility:

https://community.amd.com/t5/graphics/hd-5770-pcie-1-0/td-p/272859

So regarding time investment it might be cheaper to just get another
card?

Johannes

Karl

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Jan 31, 2021, 8:50:03 AM1/31/21

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Hello Johannes,

as you can see in the picture, q66 is using a 6470.

Coincidentally, I just found a post in the Linux on PowerPC Mac Facebook group from someone who also uses a 5770 on Void Linux. He also had problems. But then changed his xorg file back to the original and it worked. His 5770 was from a MacPro by the way ;-)

Christian Zigotzky uses a 6970 in his X5000, IIRC. All Terascale GPUs should work. Also a R5 230.

I myself don't have a G5 anymore, unfortunately. So I can only give you limited tips.

Regards
Karl

Johannes Brakensiek

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Jan 31, 2021, 1:50:02 PM1/31/21

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Hello Karl,

On 31 Jan 2021, at 14:40, Karl wrote:

> as you can see in the picture, q66 is using a 6470.
>
> Coincidentally, I just found a post in the Linux on PowerPC Mac
> Facebook group from someone who also uses a 5770 on Void Linux. He
> also had problems. But then changed his xorg file back to the original
> and it worked. His 5770 was from a MacPro by the way ;-)
>
> Christian Zigotzky uses a 6970 in his X5000, IIRC. All Terascale GPUs
> should work. Also a R5 230.

encouraged by your report I put the 5770 back in.

I checked the xorg config - there is none. I blacklisted the nouveau
module, made a new ramfs, installed grub and so on. But the boot process
hangs at the point where the radeon module is loaded. With
„nomodeset“ and having the NVidia card connected it gives the error
message about missing UMS/KMS at the point (and boots). So I’d expect
driver loading/mode setting to happen there, but it does not.

Any helpful idea out there?

Thanks
Johannes

Karl

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Jan 31, 2021, 5:00:03 PM1/31/21

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Puh, I’m out of the game, but maybe Adrian or someone else has a hint?
Could you post your xorg.log file? Normally xorg detects the card by itself.

Is the Nvidia card working? I guess no, because Debian uses a Kernel pagesize of 64KiB, IIRC? Nouveau needs a pagesize of 4KiB.

Regards
Karl

Johannes Brakensiek

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Feb 1, 2021, 3:50:03 AM2/1/21

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Hello Luigi,

On 1 Feb 2021, at 7:14, luigi burdo wrote:

> for have the radeon work is need to play with yaboot kernel append
> options,
>
>
>
> here my shared experience with ubuntu communty.
>
>
>
> [[PPC] Instruction for Install Ubuntu & sons on PowerMac G5 Quad with
> Radeon HD [Archive] - Ubuntu
> Forums](<https://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-2274612.html>)

thank you for your patient help. I removed fbdev and added all the
kernel parameters of that post using grub. No luck with current kernel
from Debian sid. Boot process hangs even earlier, just after setting up
smp_core. Seems I do have to try other kernel version or build one on my
own… But it does not seem to get easier. ;)

Johannes

Michel Dänzer

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Feb 1, 2021, 7:00:03 AM2/1/21

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On 2021-01-31 7:47 p.m., Johannes Brakensiek wrote:
>
> I checked the xorg config - there is none. I blacklisted the nouveau
> module, made a new ramfs, installed grub and so on. But the boot process
> hangs at the point where the radeon module is loaded. With „nomodeset“
> and having the NVidia card connected it gives the error message about
> missing UMS/KMS at the point (and boots). So I’d expect driver
> loading/mode setting to happen there, but it does not.
>
> Any helpful idea out there?

Is the firmware-amd-graphics / firmware-linux-nonfree package installed?

If yes, I'd suggest booting with

modprobe.blacklist=radeon

on the kernel command line (this will prevent the radeon kernel driver
from getting loaded automatically). Then once the system is booted up,
log in via SSH and run

sudo modprobe radeon

This way you should be able to capture dmesg output from loading the
radeon driver.

--
Earthling Michel Dänzer | https://redhat.com
Libre software enthusiast | Mesa and X developer

Johannes Brakensiek

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Feb 1, 2021, 7:20:03 AM2/1/21

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Thank you.

On 1 Feb 2021, at 12:42, Michel Dänzer wrote:

Is the firmware-amd-graphics / firmware-linux-nonfree package installed?

Yes, firmware is installed.

If yes, I'd suggest booting with

modprobe.blacklist=radeon

on the kernel command line (this will prevent the radeon kernel driver from getting loaded automatically). Then once the system is booted up, log in via SSH and run

sudo modprobe radeon

This way you should be able to capture dmesg output from loading the radeon driver.

That’s helpful. I did not get the dmesg output via SSH, but at the console. So the radeon driver loads the JUNIPER firmware, then the CYPRESS firmware and then hangs up.

The last 5 lines are like this:

firmware: direct-loading firmware radeon/JUNIPER_smc.bin
[drm] Internal thermal controller with fan control
[drm] radeon: dpm initialized
firmware: direct-loading firmware radeon/CYPRESS_uvd.bin
[drm] GART: num cpu pages 16384, num gpu pages 262144

And then it hangs up. Completely. :)

Thank you
Johannes

Martina Hřebcová

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Feb 1, 2021, 2:40:03 PM2/1/21

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---------- Původní e-mail ----------

Johannes,

maybe it is offtopic, but do you have two cards? ( for open firmware/OSX + linux )? Because in the case of two cards my Quad needs custom xorg.conf. By default there is bad BusID.
--
Martina

Johannes Brakensiek

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Feb 12, 2021, 10:50:03 AM2/12/21

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Hello everyone,

just to resolve this issue: I had no luck with whatsoever setup.

I now just exchanged the HD5770 with a regular PC BIOS HD 6570 (half the
price) and it boots without problems. I connect the display to the card,
start lightdm via systemctl and get the image.

So it probably was some hardware compatibility or some very kernel
specific setting which I am not able to solve (and don’t want to).

Thank you for all your support
Johannes