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Re: OT: Survey on "Still running PPC?"--The Radeon Affair

 

Thanks to you both for all your hard work on this. I'd really
appreciate it if this information could get to the KnownIssues page:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PowerPCKnownIssues
or the FAQ:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PowerPCFAQ

Is that something you can take care of, Boris? If not, just give me
the test and I'll fit it in there somewhere. I'd keep to the tone of
the wiki and be as instructional/informational as possible.

BTW average_guy (cc'd) now has two of my old PowerBooks and he's been
doing (passing!) testing with Vivid now that the ISO tracker is back
up. Of course, he's got an nvidia:
https://gist.github.com/anonymous/b491dbab017f5222e4ae

I would recommend that all of you test the LXQt packages. Not the
prototype iso (unfortunately the build system doesn't build PPC, boo),
but the PPA packages (ppa:lubuntu-dev/lubuntu-daily). It won't give
you a good sense of what it's like to have everything included (and
missing the stuff that doesn't need to be there), but it will be a
good "go/no-go" test for whether or not we have any problems with the
Qt packages.

wxl

On Thu, Oct 23, 2014 at 8:25 AM, Fritz Hudnut <este.el.paz@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Boris:
>
> Yes, that did work . . . but, I had to add "live-nosplash-powerpc
> video+ofonly radeon.agpmode=-1" . . . .  When I just used the "video=ofonly
> radeon.agpmode=-1" I got "unable to open file, Invalid device."
>
> I'm in the 14.10 livedvd right now, and it is working; window dragging isn't
> exactly smooth, but it follows the mouse and no freezes . . . it's fine.
>
> 14.04 might be my long term choice for an install, which was working OK, but
> window dragging was "glitchy" as I mentioned.  Can't remember if Suspend
> worked OK in 14.04 or not, that's more needed for me than sound is.  But,
> looks like a tad too late for keeping PPC in support???
>
> F
>
> On Wed, Oct 22, 2014 at 8:50 PM, Boris Reinhard
> <reinhard.boris@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>
>> Please give it a try when you find the time, via a Live CD would suffice
>> to help confirm the suspicion it's the AGP transfer on a specific set of
>> Macs (very limited range compared to all radeon macs)
>>
>> Using the following yaboot options should do the trick:
>>
>> video=ofonly radeon.agpmode=-1
>>
>> thx
>> boris
>>
>> Am 22.10.2014 22:31 schrieb "Fritz Hudnut" <este.el.paz@xxxxxxxxx>:
>>
>>> BR:
>>>
>>> Thanks for the reply, sure, it was a "generalization" . . . I was making
>>> that point based upon the recent decision by the devs to a) "not fix the
>>> radeon issue" . . . and thusly b) support for PPC is dropped or dropping in
>>> 14.10, etc . . . .  And, my iBook also has radeon card . . . which in the
>>> past was easier to get 12.04 running on the iBook than on my iMac with an
>>> Nvidia card . . . took a lot of time to get the iMac running.  The point
>>> being to find a way to keep the PPC hardware going . . . but, that has
>>> turned out to be a fairly "short" road . . . and weird that it's due to a
>>> "radeon" issue, rather than the "Nvidia" issue.
>>>
>>> You obviously have some skills vis computer programming . . . I just have
>>> the "seat of the pants" experience of doing a fair number of installs and
>>> running of various flavors of linux on my personal computers, Apple . . .
>>> so, I'm used to stuff more or less just working.  In the 14.04 iBook install
>>> I had to use "radeonfb" . . . and get an xorg.conf file . . . and it
>>> ***still*** was "glitchy" . . . window dragging would not follow mouse
>>> movement, etc . . . slow scrolling.  I don't know what "radeon.apgmode"
>>> would do, might try it out on boot parameter; but, I've got too many other
>>> things going to spend time "going under the hood" to just get basic function
>>> . . . so . . . that might be "my problem."  But, from my estimate, Adam
>>> Smith has got skills and knowledge and yet he found the same issues with
>>> 14.04 PPC as well . . . .
>>>
>>> F
>>>
>>> On Wed, Oct 22, 2014 at 12:41 PM, Boris Reinhard
>>> <reinhard.boris@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> I'm sorry Fritz,
>>>>
>>>> I was adressing what sounded like a generalization to me, not trying to
>>>> invalidate an issue you encountered.
>>>>
>>>> Out of the box lubuntu 14.04/ 14.10 was indeed freezing for me too, upon
>>>> making use of graphic Hardware  acceleration it seemed.
>>>>
>>>> My ibook uses a Radeon 9200 which supposedly uses AGP 4x but I quickly
>>>> discovered that disabling AGP or more like forcing PCI transfer was the
>>>> official and expected to use workaround for an unknown issue with AGP on a
>>>> range of those Macs. So simply using radeon.agpmode=-1 made it work tho it
>>>> did not seem to correctly detect my ATI.
>>>>
>>>> Am 22.10.2014 21:20 schrieb "Fritz Hudnut" <este.el.paz@xxxxxxxxx>:
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On Wed, Oct 22, 2014 at 11:00 AM, Boris Reinhard
>>>>> <reinhard.boris@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Your conclusion as glitchy is simply wrong and baseless.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Boris:
>>>>>
>>>>> I, as well as Lars N, both found that 14.10 would "freeze" and was
>>>>> basically not useable on my iBook . . . and 14.04 was found by myself and
>>>>> Adam Smith to have problems with simple stuff like dragging windows or
>>>>> scrolling.  I simply report what I've experienced, therefore it is not
>>>>> "baseless" . . . nor is it "wrong" . . . .  Your experience is something
>>>>> different, I don't say it is "baseless and wrong."
>>>>>
>>>>> F
>>>
>>>
>



-- 
@wxl
Lubuntu Release Manager, Head of QA
Ubuntu PPC Point of Contact
Ubuntu Oregon LoCo Team Leader


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