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darren kirby wrote: |
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> Hello all, |
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> |
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> Hardware: |
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> PowerPC G5, dual 2GHz CPUs, 1.5GB RAM |
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> |
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> I am no stranger to installing Gentoo, but I have questions that don't appear |
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> to be answered in the PPC64 handbook. I am waiting for a new SATA drive here, |
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> and when it arrives I intend to install Gentoo on it. A few Qs: |
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> |
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> 1. OS X is on the first sata drive, Gentoo will be on the second. Is it still |
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> necessary to create the 'apple_bootstrap' partition if Gentoo will be on its |
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> own complete disk? |
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|
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Yes. Open Firmware looks for a HFS blessed partition to boot from, |
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which is all the apple_bootstrap partition actually is. It contains |
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a copy of yaboot as well. When ybin runs, it will tell OpenFirmware |
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to boot from this device (well, that what the nvram write is for. |
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If your kernel doesn't have nvram support, you'll have to set this |
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manually). Note that it doesn't really matter which disk this |
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partition is on, but it's preferred to have it before the OSX |
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partition so that if OSX resets the nvram, it will be the first |
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blessed HFS partition found and still boot as normal. |
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|
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> 2. If I follow the PPC64 guide does this give me the 64bit userland? If so, is |
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> there enough (hard) unmasked software to use this as a general desktop |
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> machine? Is all software in the package database marked stable under PPC64 |
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> 64bit userland software? Can I mix and match PPC32 and PPC64 software? Any |
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> and all information on this issue would be most helpful, as I don't think I |
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> completely understand it (I don't have an x86-64 machine so I am mostly |
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> ignorant of 64bit issues). |
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|
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I can't speak too much for ppc64 (I only have ppc32 machines), but |
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you have a few options. A pure ppc64 machine won't work with |
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everything. For instance, there are issues with Mozilla based |
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applications and ppc64, but KDE (and konqueror) should work great. |
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You can also run a 32bit UL very easily and for desktop usage this |
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is the recommended configuration afaik. I'm not sure about a mixed |
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environment. |
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|
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> 3. I have the 23 inch Cinema display and a ATI Radeon 9600 Pro vidcard. Are |
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> there drivers that can make this setup work? I ask because I booted the |
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> machine with a Kubuntu PPC livecd to play around and while the cli worked, |
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> when it came time for X to start the screen went black and I was forced to do |
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> a hard reset. I am not sure if this was just a problem with Kubuntu, or some |
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> other reason. I am not too concerned with hardware acceleration or anything, |
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> at most I just want to be able to watch DVDs. |
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|
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This should work just fine with DRI as well. I have a Radeon 9600 |
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in my PB and it works very nicely with OpenGL acceleration, etc. :) |
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|
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> Apropos, if any one has the same, or a similar setup I would love if you could |
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> send me your xorg.conf. |
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|
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Not really required, just use Xorgautoconfig and it should work |
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fine. With that display you will probably also need to set the |
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reduced blanking setting. |
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|
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> Again, I am very familiar with Gentoo, but have little knowledge of PPC |
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> hardware and 64 bit issues...pointers to docs that explain differences and |
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> ramification on this topic would be great. |
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> |
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> Thanks for consideration. |
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> -d |
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|
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Hope that helped, |
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-Joe |
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-- |
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