Linux on new iMac G5 PowerMac12,1 ?
Percy Zahl
I tried to boot a 2.6.14.3-ppc kernel on a new iMac G5 (20"/2.1GHz)
PowerMac12,1, it crashed after about 4 or 5 lines of kernel messages,
and the OF promt was back scrolling endless.... need to manually
power off to recover.
Is there any Linux kernel variant known to boot successfully on such
a machine?
thx
-PZ
--
To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-powe...@lists.debian.org
with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listm...@lists.debian.org
Charles Plessy
> Hi all-
>
> I tried to boot a 2.6.14.3-ppc kernel on a new iMac G5 (20"/2.1GHz)
> PowerMac12,1, it crashed after about 4 or 5 lines of kernel messages,
> and the OF promt was back scrolling endless.... need to manually
> power off to recover.
>
> Is there any Linux kernel variant known to boot successfully on such
> a machine?
Hi,
You might find some useful information in my installation-report...
http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=340980
As far as I used them, the default kernels from testing and sid are OK,
apart from the fact that the sound driver is seriously broken and
crashes the system when it attempts to emit sound...
Best,
--
Charles
Benjamin Herrenschmidt
> Hi all-
>
> I tried to boot a 2.6.14.3-ppc kernel on a new iMac G5 (20"/2.1GHz)
> PowerMac12,1, it crashed after about 4 or 5 lines of kernel messages,
> and the OF promt was back scrolling endless.... need to manually
> power off to recover.
>
> Is there any Linux kernel variant known to boot successfully on such
> a machine?
Not yet. I'm currently working on support for the new machines, that
includes the new iMac G5 with iSight, and the dual core G5s. They have a
new chipset that needs a bit of work. Hopefully, I'll have a patch soon,
probably tomorrow, with some basic support but no thermal control yet.
I'll need testers with the new iMac as I don't have access to one
though, I'll let you know. The thermal control will come soon after
that.
Ben.
Benjamin Herrenschmidt
> You might find some useful information in my installation-report...
>
> http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=340980
>
> As far as I used them, the default kernels from testing and sid are OK,
> apart from the fact that the sound driver is seriously broken and
> crashes the system when it attempts to emit sound...
He's talking about the new model which has a different chipset and isn't
supported yet.
Ben.
Percy Zahl
On Dec 12, 2005, at 1:06 AM, Benjamin Herrenschmidt wrote:
> On Sun, 2005-12-11 at 21:32 -0500, Percy Zahl wrote:
>> Hi all-
>>
>> I tried to boot a 2.6.14.3-ppc kernel on a new iMac G5 (20"/2.1GHz)
>> PowerMac12,1, it crashed after about 4 or 5 lines of kernel messages,
>> and the OF promt was back scrolling endless.... need to manually
>> power off to recover.
>>
>> Is there any Linux kernel variant known to boot successfully on such
>> a machine?
>
> Not yet. I'm currently working on support for the new machines, that
> includes the new iMac G5 with iSight, and the dual core G5s. They
> have a
> new chipset that needs a bit of work. Hopefully, I'll have a patch
> soon,
> probably tomorrow, with some basic support but no thermal control yet.
> I'll need testers with the new iMac as I don't have access to one
> though, I'll let you know. The thermal control will come soon after
> that.
>
> Ben.
>
>
I'll be happy to give it a try and report.
BTW,
I had trouble compiling the 2.6.14.3 from kernel.org, looks like the
default .config is
not good for a error free compile, all I changed was CPU to POWER4/G5
and enabled Thermal.
Everything else unchanged.
-PZ
Percy Zahl
anything for testing out there?
-Percy
On Dec 12, 2005, at 1:06 AM, Benjamin Herrenschmidt wrote:
Benjamin Herrenschmidt
> Just curious what the status is for G5 PowerMac 12,1 architecture --
> anything for testing out there?
Th code for the 11,2 is all working including thermal control, hopefully
the stuff will be in the powerpc git tree today or tomorrow. For the new
iMac (12,1), it should work wihtout thermal control, which I'll try to
get working later this week.
Percy Zahl
Is the latest kernel ready for a test on this box?
If there is any hope to get it up and also get the Windfarm support...:
Can some one help me out or better post/mail a kernel config-file to
get started with.
I have to compile it on my very old G4/400 and this takes me too long
to experiment with all the options.
Which gcc is best to use? 4.X?
thanks
-Percy
Benjamin Herrenschmidt
> I like to try a kernel build for the iMac 12,1.
> Is the latest kernel ready for a test on this box?
> If there is any hope to get it up and also get the Windfarm support...:
2.6.16-rc1 should. Windfarm isn't there yet (but will at some point)
> Can some one help me out or better post/mail a kernel config-file to
> get started with.
just do make g5_defconfig
> I have to compile it on my very old G4/400 and this takes me too long
> to experiment with all the options.
>
> Which gcc is best to use? 4.X?
Yeah, whatever comes with your distro...
Percy Zahl
Then I put it (vmlinux) in my root ditectory of the first and only
disk together with the yaboot stuff and tried to launch it via OF
boot prompt like:
boot hd0:/dev/disk0s3, yaboot
This seamed to launched some code and spit out about 10 lines of some
numbers/tables I really
cant get a real glimpse on, were there only for much less then a
second and then I ended up with
and kind of grey "Forbidden" sign (graphics, a circle with diagonal
line) on a black screen.
All frozen, need to power off.
System: newest G5 iMac 12,1
Any ideas?
-Percy
Percy Zahl
I hardly got a glimpse on the linux kernel output now again, because
it stopped after dumping about one screen of stuff in almost no time
with a blank screen this time. But I took my fast digital camera and
was able to capture it:
The first stage after hitting retun at the yaboot prompt (install):
http://mysite.verizon.net/pyzahl/iMac/imac12,1-stage0-linux2.6.16-
rc1.jpg
Then this for about 1/10 of a second before I got black screen and
needed to power off:
http://mysite.verizon.net/pyzahl/iMac/imac12,1-stage1-linux2.6.16-
rc1.jpg
-Percy
On Jan 21, 2006, at 8:43 PM, Benjamin Herrenschmidt wrote:
> On Sat, 2006-01-21 at 20:26 -0500, Percy Zahl wrote:
>> I compiled a 2.6.16-rc1, this worked OK.
>> Then I put it (vmlinux) in my root ditectory of the first and only
>> disk together with the yaboot stuff and tried to launch it via OF
>> boot prompt like:
>>
>> boot hd0:/dev/disk0s3, yaboot
>>
>> This seamed to launched some code and spit out about 10 lines of some
>> numbers/tables I really
>> cant get a real glimpse on, were there only for much less then a
>> second and then I ended up with
>> and kind of grey "Forbidden" sign (graphics, a circle with diagonal
>> line) on a black screen.
>> All frozen, need to power off.
>
> Looks like yaboot got bunk... that an interesting command line you
> passed to OF anyway :)
>
> Try boot hd:3,yaboot instead
>
> Ben.
Benjamin Herrenschmidt
> OK, that was my fault and I got a set further now.
>
> I hardly got a glimpse on the linux kernel output now again, because
> it stopped after dumping about one screen of stuff in almost no time
> with a blank screen this time. But I took my fast digital camera and
> was able to capture it:
>
> The first stage after hitting retun at the yaboot prompt (install):
> http://mysite.verizon.net/pyzahl/iMac/imac12,1-stage0-linux2.6.16-
> rc1.jpg
>
> Then this for about 1/10 of a second before I got black screen and
> needed to power off:
> http://mysite.verizon.net/pyzahl/iMac/imac12,1-stage1-linux2.6.16-
> rc1.jpg
It seems that the video driver is having a hard time with the new x600
card in there. (In fact, X doesn't work neither, at least not yet it
seems). In the meantime, you can probably get a console if you boot with
video=ofonly on the kenrel command line.
Percy Zahl
installer, to partition the disk, init with ext3 and begin the Net-
Install. DHCP worked just fine.
Let's wait for X support then, would be kind of nice to have.
However, the graphical Linux Penguin Logo of the kernel showed up OK!
-Percy
Benjamin Herrenschmidt
> Very good and thx! This works and I was able to start the Debian
> installer, to partition the disk, init with ext3 and begin the Net-
> Install. DHCP worked just fine.
> Let's wait for X support then, would be kind of nice to have.
>
> However, the graphical Linux Penguin Logo of the kernel showed up OK!
Yes, with "ofonly" it sticks to the 8 bits framebuffer initialized by
the firmware... enough to display the penguin but not much more
unfortunately...
I'm not sure yet what's up with the video. I might ask you to send me
register dumps and to try various things later, maybe next week, I'm a
bit "offline" at the moment (vacation).
Percy Zahl
PowerMac12,1 "i-Sight" using the 2.6.16-rc1 kernel and netinstall via
Debian etch.
-Network (eth0): OK
-using append="video=ofonly": works OK
-needed to disable any X attempts and gdm (crashes), console only
works OK. (No X)
-build-in hardisk workes fine
I have one question about the windfarm stuff, what happens here?:
if I boot into Linux via yaboot directly (no OF commands), then the
Windfarm stays at some comfortable (and usual) slow speed for some
time, as I was playing around in linux suddenly it speeded up to max
and stayed there. What happens here, is there some kind of emergency
control already?
-Percy
Benjamin Herrenschmidt
> I now got a full running Debian Linux system setup on my iMac G5
> PowerMac12,1 "i-Sight" using the 2.6.16-rc1 kernel and netinstall via
> Debian etch.
>
> -Network (eth0): OK
> -using append="video=ofonly": works OK
> -needed to disable any X attempts and gdm (crashes), console only
> works OK. (No X)
> -build-in hardisk workes fine
>
> I have one question about the windfarm stuff, what happens here?:
>
> if I boot into Linux via yaboot directly (no OF commands), then the
> Windfarm stays at some comfortable (and usual) slow speed for some
> time, as I was playing around in linux suddenly it speeded up to max
> and stayed there. What happens here, is there some kind of emergency
> control already?
It's the hardware going into "watchdog" mode... The hardware detects it
hasn't been "ping" by the operating system for a while and ramps all
fans up.