Booting Gentoo 2006.1 on an iMac

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Charles Trois wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I am having trouble while installing 2006.1 on my iMac.
I have made
> other installations before, but never had this problem.
> I am using the Universal ppc disk, and I have followed
strictly all the
> steps in the 2006.1 handbook. I have not made any
modules, everything is
> in the kernel.
>
> What happens is that, on the final reboot, I see 10 or
15 lines of text
> (is that the Open Firmware part?) that disappear
immediately. Then there
> is nothing, and I have to cut the power to go on.

This sounds an awful lot like you're missing the
Framebuffer device
driver.  Which iMac do you have exactly?  Perhaps try the
Framebuffer/X setup suggested in the PPC FAQ as described
here:

http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/gentoo-ppc-faq.xml#xorg

- -Joe
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Joseph Jezak a écrit :
> 
> Charles Trois wrote:
>> What happens is that, on the final reboot, I see 10
or 15 lines of text
>> (is that the Open Firmware part?) that disappear
immediately. Then there
>> is nothing, and I have to cut the power to go on.
> 
> This sounds an awful lot like you're missing the
Framebuffer device
> driver.  Which iMac do you have exactly?  Perhaps try
the
> Framebuffer/X setup suggested in the PPC FAQ as
described here:
> 
http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/gentoo-ppc-faq.xml#xorg
> 
> - -Joe
Many thanks to all who have replied!
The problem was indeed one of framebuffer.

My machine is a G4 iMac with LCD.
The video card is a NVIDIA GeForce2 MX.
I had to add support for nvidia fb device in the kernel (the
handbook 
states that only the OF device should be used in the case of
nvidia, but 
  I obviously misunderstood this).

This solved my first problem. I got into a further one about
udev, which 
  I was able to fix (support for tmpfs was missing).

And now it is a clock problem. The error message (copied by
hand) reads:

Cannot access the hardware clock... try the --debug option.

hwclock --debug gives this:

hwclock: Open of /dev/rtc failed, errno=2: no such file or
directory
No usable clock interface found

This is strange, as /dev/rtc exists. On the kernel side
there is "yes" 
to "RTCclass", "sysfs",
"proc" and "dev". The RTC to read is
"rtc0".

Any suggestions?

By the way, enablecdboot did not work because I had written
"enable cdboot". My mistake.

Charles



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gentoo-ppc-usergentoo.org mailing list

Charles Trois wrote:
> Joseph Jezak a écrit :
>>
>> Charles Trois wrote:
>>> What happens is that, on the final reboot, I
see 10 or 15 lines of text
>>> (is that the Open Firmware part?) that
disappear immediately. Then there
>>> is nothing, and I have to cut the power to go
on.
>>
>> This sounds an awful lot like you're missing the
Framebuffer device
>> driver.  Which iMac do you have exactly?  Perhaps
try the
>> Framebuffer/X setup suggested in the PPC FAQ as
described here:
>> 
http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/gentoo-ppc-faq.xml#xorg
>>
>> - -Joe
> Many thanks to all who have replied!
> The problem was indeed one of framebuffer.
> 
> My machine is a G4 iMac with LCD.
> The video card is a NVIDIA GeForce2 MX.
> I had to add support for nvidia fb device in the kernel
(the handbook
> states that only the OF device should be used in the
case of nvidia, but
>  I obviously misunderstood this).
> 
> This solved my first problem. I got into a further one
about udev, which
>  I was able to fix (support for tmpfs was missing).
> 
> And now it is a clock problem. The error message
(copied by hand) reads:
> 
> Cannot access the hardware clock... try the --debug
option.
> 
> hwclock --debug gives this:
> 
> hwclock: Open of /dev/rtc failed, errno=2: no such file
or directory
> No usable clock interface found
> 
> This is strange, as /dev/rtc exists. On the kernel side
there is "yes"
> to "RTCclass", "sysfs",
"proc" and "dev". The RTC to read is
"rtc0".
> 
> Any suggestions?
> 
> By the way, enablecdboot did not work because I had
written
> "enable cdboot". My mistake.
> 
> Charles

To fix the clock problem, make sure that you have the
Generic RTC
emulation and the Extended RTC Emulation enabled.

As for the Framebuffer issue, it seems to change every
kernel as to
which Framebuffer driver (OF, rivafb, or nvidiafb) is
working. :p
Sorry for the confusion.

-Joe
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Joseph Jezak a écrit :

> To fix the clock problem, make sure that you have the
Generic RTC
> emulation and the Extended RTC Emulation enabled.

Yes, that was just it, as a little search with Google has
shown 
meanwhile. I apologize for being too hasty.

> As for the Framebuffer issue, it seems to change every
kernel as to
> which Framebuffer driver (OF, rivafb, or nvidiafb) is
working. :p
> Sorry for the confusion.

My Gentoo is now in operation. Thanks again to everybody.

Charles
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