video problem with ydl 2.3 and xfree86 on powerbook g4
yellowdog-general@lists.terrasoftsolutions.com
yellowdog-general@lists.terrasoftsolutions.com
Thu Jul 25 20:23:00 2002
Thanks for such detailed write up. Apparently, I did get lucky. The ydl 2.3 linux already came with the radeon driver that I need. The following are the steps for installing YDL 2.3 on my powerbook G4.
1. use the "safe" text install mode to do the install. even the normal text install failed to work for me.
2. when you get to the X configuration step, configure your video for apple titanium powerbook G4 normally. By the way, according to my owner's manual my ti is 1152x768. But others on net seem to have 1280x768.
3. At the last step of the X configuration, select boot up to Text command prompt.
4. complete the installation and wait for machine to start reboot.
5. at yaboot stage, hit the key. select the no video boot up choice.
6. login as root. edit /etc/X11/XF86Config-4
7. search for the line:
Driver "fbdev"
8. change that to
Driver "radeon"
9. find the "Screen" section. change DefaultDepth value to 16
10. save file and you are done
11. run startx to start kde or whatever you prefer.
note that you still must always boot up in novideo mode.
-James
--- On Wed 07/24, Stefan Bruda wrote:
From: Stefan Bruda [mailto: bruda@ubishops.ca]
To: yellowdog-general@lists.terrasoftsolutions.com
Date: Wed, 24 Jul 2002 22:48:32 -0400
Subject: Re: video problem with ydl 2.3 and xfree86 on powerbook g4
>
> Hi.
>
> At 20:23 -0400 on 24-7-2002 jl@excite.com wrote:
> >
> > I am running into video problem trying to install ydl 2.3 on my
> > powerbook G4.
>
> It took me quite some time to get X working on my tibook (same
> generation as yours). I was installing YDL 2.2 instead of your 2.3,
> but it looks like 2.3 has similar problems.
>
> I will try here to summarize my set of fixes to the problem. I should
> warn you though that I had to experiment a lot and I didn't write
> things down or something, so I might have forgotten some
> information; if things do not work following my advice, feel free to
> contact me and I will try to see whether I missed something.
>
> > During installation phrase, I cannot use the GUI installer at all.
>
> Nope, I used the text installer and I cannot think of any way of using
> the GUI. The text installer is OK though (as OK and the YDL installer
> is anyway, I kind of hate its "features" like not allowing an
> install
> over existing partitions and compared to the installer of the ancient
> LinuxPPC 2000 it simply sucks; but that's another story altogether).
> Anyway, as I was saying, the text installed does its job and you do
> not have a choice that I know of anyway.
>
> > How do I configure XFree86 for powerbook G4? I tried the
> > Xconfigurator already. I was had limited success at getting the
> > XFree86 to run in 8 bit color mode.
>
> The stock kernel of YDL 2.2 (2.4.18-6a I believe) had no chance at all
> to drive the ATI Radeon Mobility. It did not even sense its
> parameters. So, I was stuck with the failsafe mode which turned out
> to be a lousy framebuffer with 8-bit depth (like in your case I
> believe).
>
> So, first step is to check out what your kernel thinks about your
> graphic card. Take a peek at /var/log/dmesg (referred to henceforth as
> dmesg) and look for the lines that start with "radeonfb"
> (without
> quotes). At the beginning of the file you should have something like
> this:
>
> radeonfb: ref_clk=2700, ref_div=12, xclk=36675 from OF
> radeonfb: detected DFP panel size from EDID: 1280x854
>
> and a bit later on:
>
> radeonfb: pm reg @50, clk_pwrmgt: f17500, pll_pwrmgt: a027e01f,
> mdll_cko: 980098
> radeonfb: ATI Radeon M7 LW DDR SGRAM 32 MB
>
> If instead of these you see... umm, I don't quite remember the
> original lines, but I seem to recall that not even the last line was
> present. In any case, if those parameters are not detected by the
> kernel you are in for a kernel installation.
>
> Maybe you are however lucky than me, so before thinking about a new
> kernel try adding one of the following lines to the kernel arguments:
>
> video=radeon:1280x854-8@60 (feel free to experiment with 16 and
> 24 instead of 8), or
> video=radeonfb:1280x854-8@60 (again, you may want to experiment
> with 16 and 24).
>
> Given the above lines from my dmesg the latter variant looks better.
> These lines were suggested in various earlier postings on this list.
> The reason I don't know much about them is that none worked for me.
> The only two consequences (depending on the kernel I was running at
> the time) were either no change at all or a blank display very early
> in the boot process.
>
> Anyway, try these kernmel arguments and see whether you get the last
> two lines that I mentioned in dmesg. If you do not get them, I cannot
> think of anything else than a new kernel. I am running one of the
> latest benh's (but I am willing to change it in case anybody discovers
> one that solves my tibook's sleep problems!!), but others may work as
> well.
>
> Depending on how confident you are, you can compile yours from source
> (see the howto on the YDL site, and take a peek at the kernel howto
> from LDP as well), or install a precompiled one
> (http://www.ibooklinux.net/plain_page.php?caller=ibooklinux.php3+record=85
> contains very good instructions on how to do that). In either case,
> you can get the kernel archives (source or compiled) from
> http://ppckernel.org/.
>
> Email me if you need further assistance on this one, as I will not
> ellaborate (after all, you may not even need to go through kernel
> installation).
>
> So I assume that your kernel detects the graphic card. Now for the
> X. The XFree86 that came with YDL 2.2 worked in my case with 24-bit
> depth, but using /dev/fb. To make things work like this, I used the
> XF86config file that I include below, with the following changes:
>
> (a) The line
>
> ModulePath "/usr/local/X11R6/lib/modules"
>
> should be commented out, and
>
> (b) In the following two lines
>
> #Device "FBDev"
> Device "Radeon"
>
> exchange comments; that is, they should become
>
> Device "FBDev"
> #Device "Radeon"
>
> (after all, I just mentioned that I am gonna use /dev/fb).
> Finally,
>
> (c) I don't remember whether this makes things better, but you may want
> to experiment with the line
>
> #DefaultFbBpp 32
>
> by removing the comment and see whether things are more to your
> liking afterwards.
>
> The really interesting part in the config file is the modeline for the
> new tibook LCD display. There were some that were vehiculated on this
> list (if you are curious, they are in the included XF86config below,
> but commented out), but the one that works best appears to be
>
> Modeline "1280x854" 79.816 1280 1296 1408 1536 854 855
> 858 866 -HSync -VSync
>
> This one is again included in the config file. Don't trust me though,
> issue the following command at the prompt
>
> fbset -x
>
> and compare the things you get with the values from the modeline
> (adjusting the latter if necessary).
>
> Once you did all of these, you should have a crisp, 24-bit depth X in
> no time, albeit in nonaccelerated mode.
>
> For an attempt at the accelerated mode, I later installed the binaries
> from http://www.penguinppc.org/~daenzer/XFree86-4.2/. If you are
> interested in trying them out, read the "ReadMe" file and then
> follow
> the "binaries" link to download the thing. Just ignore the
> XF86config
> file posted there, as it is for the older tibook. Oh, yeah, it is
> stated in the changelog that "you need a fairly recent benh kernel
> for
> the DRM to work; the X server will likely lock up on startup
> otherwise." I did not quite test this claim, as by the time I
> installed this version I was already using a "fairly recent benh
> kernel."
>
> This package works on my system (currently featuring a 2.4.19-rc1-ben0
> kernel, it worked with some earlier, benh versions as well) rigth with
> the XF86config included below.
>
> As you noticed, the option "UseFBDev" is still needed, so I am
> not
> much better off than in the first case. I am using this latter
> configuration though, if only because I took the time to download and
> unpack it. ;-)
>
> Actually, this variant does almost work without the UseFBDev. As
> opposed to the YDL stock XFree86 (which blanks the screen or shows
> garbage), this one does show a comprehensible image even in the
> absence of UseFBDev (with a way faster rendering too). However, there
> also are some extraneous artifacts in that image, which I have no idea
> how to get rid of (advice is most welcome!!).
>
> As a final note, the image on the graphical terminal may appear from
> time to time shaky and garbled. Again, I don't know why (and again
> advice is most welcome :-) ), but don't panic: just switch to another
> virtual terminal (VT) and then back to VT7, and repeat this till the
> problem disappears (I cannot think of any time when I needed more than
> two such switches, one worked most of the times). This problem
> manifests itself only when X is restarted, or when you switch back
> from another VT, so it is not really a problem, more of an
> inconvenience really.
>
> > The kde desktop also takes for forever to startup.
>
> I don't know if the above mangling with the OS solves this problem,
> sorry. Truth being told, I am not a fan of KDE and thus I am not using
> it.
>
> Hope this helps anyway. If there is something I forgot, or something
> that does not work, let me (better yet, the list) know. But I would
> rather hear the success story... :-)
>
> Regards,
> Stefan
>
> --
> If it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as
> it isn't, it ain't. That's logic.
> --Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass
>
>
> --- XF86config-4 begins here ---
>
> # XF86Config-4 (XFree86 server configuration file).
> #
> # Edit this file with caution, and see the XF86Config manual page.
> # (Type "man XF86Config" at the shell prompt.)
>
> Section "ServerLayout"
> Identifier "XFree86 Configured"
> Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
> InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
> InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
> EndSection
>
> Section "Files"
>
> # ModulePath set by default to "/usr/X11R6/lib/modules"
> ModulePath "/usr/local/X11R6/lib/modules"
>
> # The location of the RGB database. Note, this is the name of the
> # file minus the extension (like ".txt" or ".db").
> There is normally
> # no need to change the default.
>
> RgbPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb"
>
> # Multiple FontPath entries are allowed (they are concatenated together)
> # By default, YDL 2.0 and later now use a font server independent of
> # the X server to render fonts.
>
> FontPath "unix/:7100" # local font server
> EndSection
>
> Section "Module"
> Load "GLcore"
> Load "dbe"
> Load "dri"
> Load "extmod"
> Load "glx"
> Load "record"
> # Load "xtrap"
>
> Load "ddc"
> # Load "bitmap"
> Load "freetype"
> # Load "speedo"
> Load "type1"
> Load "vbe"
> Load "int10"
> EndSection
>
> Section "InputDevice"
> Identifier "Keyboard0"
> Driver "keyboard"
>
> Option "Protocol" "Standard"
>
> Option "AutoRepeat" "250 30"
>
> Option "LeftAlt" "Meta"
> Option "RightAlt" "Meta"
> Option "ScrollLock" "Compose"
> Option "RightCtl" "Control"
>
> # XkbModel no longer used in XF 4.1.0
> #Option "XkbModel" "macintosh"
> Option "XkbLayout" "us"
> EndSection
>
> Section "InputDevice"
> Identifier "Mouse0"
> Driver "mouse"
> Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
> Option "Protocol" "IMPS/2"
> Option "Device" "/dev/mouse"
> EndSection
>
> Section "Monitor"
> Identifier "Monitor0"
> VendorName "Apple"
> ModelName "New Titanium LCD"
>
> Option "DPMS"
> HorizSync 30-130
> VertRefresh 50-160
>
> UseModes "Modes0"
> EndSection
>
> Section "Modes"
> Identifier "Modes0"
>
> # Apple iMac modes
> Modeline "1024x768" 78.525 1024 1049 1145 1312 768 769
> 772 800 +hsync +vsync
> Modeline "800x600" 62.357 800 821 901 1040 600 601
> 604 632 +hsync +vsync
> Modeline "640x480" 49.886 640 661 725 832 480 481
> 484 514 +hsync +vsync
> # Apple monitors tend to do 832x624
> Modeline "832x624" 57 832 876 940 1152 624 625
> 628 667 -hsync -vsync
> # Apple PowerBook G3
> Modeline "800x600" 100 800 816 824 840 600 616
> 624 640 -hsync -vsync
> # Generated (see below)
> # D: 79.815 MHz, H: 51.963 kHz, V: 60.003 Hz
> Modeline "1280x854" 79.816 1280 1296 1408 1536 854 855
> 858 866 -HSync -VSync
> # (old modeline)
> #Modeline "1280x854" 79.815 1280 1296 1408 1536 854 855
> 858 866 -HSync -VSync
> # (Steve Penn's)
> #Modeline "1280x854" 80 1280 1312 1408 1664 854 857 863 902
> -HSync -VSync
> EndSection
>
> #[root@tibook X11]# fbset -x
> #
> #Mode "1280x854"
> # # D: 79.815 MHz, H: 51.963 kHz, V: 60.003 Hz
> # DotClock 79.816
> # HTimings 1280 1296 1408 1536
> # VTimings 854 855 858 866
> # Flags "-HSync" "-VSync"
> #EndMode
>
>
> Section "Device"
> Identifier "FBDev"
> #Option "ShadowFB" "true"
> Option "fbdev" "/dev/fb0"
> Driver "fbdev"
> BusID "PCI:0:16:0"
> EndSection
>
> Section "Device"
> Identifier "Radeon"
> Driver "radeon"
> BusID "PCI:0:16:0"
>
> Option "UseFBDev"
>
> #Option "ShadowFB" "true"
> EndSection
>
> Section "Screen"
>
> Identifier "Screen0"
> #Device "FBDev"
> Device "Radeon"
> Monitor "Monitor0"
> DefaultDepth 24
> #DefaultFbBpp 32
> SubSection "Display"
> Depth 8
> Modes "1280x854"
> EndSubSection
> SubSection "Display"
> Depth 16
> Modes "1280x854"
> EndSubSection
> SubSection "Display"
> Depth 24
> Modes "1280x854"
> EndSubSection
> EndSection
>
> Section "DRI"
> Mode 0666
> EndSection
>
> --- XF86config-4 ends here ---
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