G4 Cube and ATI Rage 128 / Flatpannel Sucess!

[Maxwell Bottiger]

Hello All.

Many thanks goes out to Peter Lovell and Herouth Maoz.  They managed to 
solve my problem not getting X to run.  I'd also like to extend my thanks 
to the group as a whole for sending me many useful leads.

I'm going to publish what I needed to do so hopefully someone will be 
browsing the archives one day and find this all useful.


What I have is a G4 Mac Cube with an Apple flat pannel display and an ATI 
Rage 128 Video card.  In order to get X working there were two files I 
needed to edit.  First, this is what my /etc/yaboot.conf file looks like:
boot=/dev/hda10
device=/pci@f2000000/mac-io@17/ata-4@1f000/disk@0:
init-message="Welcome to Yellow Dog Linux!\nHit <TAB> for boot 
options.\n\n"
partition=12
timeout=300
install=/usr/lib/yaboot/yaboot
magicboot=/usr/lib/yaboot/ofboot
default=Linux

image=/boot/vmlinux
        label=Linux
        root=/dev/hda12
        read-only
        append="video=aty128fb:1280x1024-24@60"

macosx=/dev/hda9
defaultos=linux

The append line is necessary for everything to work.  The ati 128 faq I 
was sent put the refresh rate at 85, but that was out of range for my 
monitor.  So, that may be a flexible paramater, but this is what worked 
for me.  Like the FAQ says, you don't need to set a cmode and vmode if you 
specify the resolution like this.

The other file that needed work was /etc/X11/XF86Config.  The two sections 
that needed work are the monitor and device sections.  Here they are:

Section "Monitor"

        Identifier   "Monitor0"
        ModelName    "Monitor Model"
        HorizSync    30.0 - 130.0
        VertRefresh  50.0 - 60.0
        Option      "FlatPanel"
EndSection
Section "Device"

        #Option "ShadowFB"      "true"
        Identifier  "Card0"
        Driver      "r128"
        Option      "UseFBDev" "true"
        BusID       "PCI:0:16:0"
EndSection


These may not be optimal settings, but everything runs really nicely this 
way and the performance is pretty snappy.  Good luck to anyone else who 
tries this.

-- 


-Maxwell Bottiger

This thing is like a wolf
This thing is a wolf
Thus, it is a thing to be bansished