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Installing Debian on an iMac G5

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Ermaxx
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Joined: 2017-06-08 15:01

Installing Debian on an iMac G5

#1 Post by Ermaxx »

Hello !

I'm quite new to Linux, though I have some experience with computers.

I bought an old iMac G5 17", 1.6GHz
Everything is original except RAM (I installed 2GB)
It runs on Mac Os X 10.3.5 (Panther)

I'm trying to install Debian but the Mac won't boot from USB, CD-RW or DVD-RW, even if burnt with the Mac.
I tried by holding the 'c' key; 'Alt'+'Apple'+'O'+'F' and with the Open Firmware.

I made a few searches but couldn't find anything.

Does someone see what I could do ?

Also, I have an idea, would it be possible to remove the harddrive, install Debian on it by plugging it into my Windows 10 computer, and then putting it back into my iMac.

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oswaldkelso
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Re: Installing Debian on an iMac G5

#2 Post by oswaldkelso »

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Ermaxx
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Re: Installing Debian on an iMac G5

#3 Post by Ermaxx »

Thank you for your help

Unfortunately it still doesn't work, even with the mini iso (OpenFirmware fails to boot on the usb drive)

What if I burn the debian iso directly on the mac harddrive ?

Ermaxx
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Re: Installing Debian on an iMac G5

#4 Post by Ermaxx »

Okay so i tried by burning the iso directly on a partition of the Mac's harddrive, but it STILL won't boot from it !

I'm starting to wonder if there is a problem with the iso I chose : https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/cu ... el/iso-cd/
(I took the netinstall)

Any idea ?

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GarryRicketson
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Re: Installing Debian on an iMac G5

#5 Post by GarryRicketson »

by Ermaxx »Okay so i tried by burning the iso directly on a partition of the Mac's harddrive
Since I know nothing about "iMac G5", I was reluctant to even comment,
but one thing for sure, you can not "burn" a iso to a hardrive, the hard drive
is not like a CD or Dvd, where you can burn a image , files, or iso (image) to the CD or DVD,...
Any idea ?
Learn about the 'dd' command, it is used to copy the iso contents to the HD,

Code: Select all

man dd
This may be of use: https://superuser.com/questions/334187/ ... t-is-a-dvd



"How to use the dd command to put a iso on the hd" , or something:
Example: On a Linux system How to extract a iso to a hd

================
How to install Debian to a iMac G5 17
https://www.debian.org/ports/powerpc/inst/pmac
This would be to start with, it has links to more info and details,.. one thing leads to another,
http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=132155
Postby beauhefley » 2017-03-12 19:28
Nevermind, I got the installer to boot! If anyone else has this problem, make sure you get the netINST iso, not the netboot.

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Re: Installing Debian on an iMac G5

#6 Post by oswaldkelso »

Unlike with "Ordinary PC's" There are very little concerns about using Ubuntu info. A huge percentage is from upstream (pure Debian)

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PowerPCFAQ

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PowerPCKnownIssues

The first thing to check is the type of CD or DVD your using. Some Apples are DVD+ some DVD- and some will boot either. That said they can be very picky. I have on occasion had to use and external firewire DVD drive. (boot it in "target disk mode" iirc)

ps. Also Apple partitioning is not like PC's, either in size or file system.

My old imac looked like this

6.4 gb hard drive:
#1 32.3kb apple
#2 1.0mb B K Boot untitled
#3 6.1GB F Ext3 untitled
#4 333.6mb F swap swap
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sjukfan
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Re: Installing Debian on an iMac G5

#7 Post by sjukfan »

Ermaxx wrote:I'm starting to wonder if there is a problem with the iso I chose : https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/cu ... el/iso-cd/
(I took the netinstall)

Any idea ?
Yesh. I did the same mistake just the other day. The powerpc 970* in the iMac G5 is a 64-bit cpu, but it's big endian. The iso you (and me) tried with is the little endian. Download an unofficial zip with Debian Sid for ppc/ppc64 from here. Burn it and boot the iMac while pressing the C key.

Here's the reply from John Paul Adrian Glaubitz that I got in the Debian powerpc mailing list.
https://lists.debian.org/debian-powerpc ... 00006.html

In case you feel paranoid about that iso, download the official 8.8.0 for powerpc and upgrade it to Stretch. Sorry I'm an idiot, upgrade to Sid, Stretch nor Buster exists for powerpc any longer.
Bullseye amd64, AMD Ryzen 5 3600
Buster amd64, Intel Xeon E3-1240 v3
Sid ppc, PowerPC 7447a
Sid ppc64, PowerPC 970FX

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sjukfan
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Re: Installing Debian on an iMac G5

#8 Post by sjukfan »

Some useful links

* isight-firmware-tools can be used to get the isight firmware. Oddly enough there's only amd64 and i386 versions so you'll have to get the Mac OSX AppleUSBVideoSupport from another computer, or there's a link to it here.
* A lot of the howtos to get graphic running is outdated, use the Debian one.

There's of course more, but I don't want to spoil the fun of finding the right info :-)
Bullseye amd64, AMD Ryzen 5 3600
Buster amd64, Intel Xeon E3-1240 v3
Sid ppc, PowerPC 7447a
Sid ppc64, PowerPC 970FX

Ermaxx
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Joined: 2017-06-08 15:01

Re: Installing Debian on an iMac G5

#9 Post by Ermaxx »

Thank you everyone for your answers
sjukfan wrote: Yesh. I did the same mistake just the other day. The powerpc 970* in the iMac G5 is a 64-bit cpu, but it's big endian. The iso you (and me) tried with is the little endian. Download an unofficial zip with Debian Sid for ppc/ppc64 from here. Burn it and boot the iMac while pressing the C key.
So this iso worked, I went through the install, however the Mac freezes on boot on this line :
Image

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sjukfan
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Re: Installing Debian on an iMac G5

#10 Post by sjukfan »

Are you booting yaboot with

Code: Select all

Linux radeon.agpmode=-1
as mentioned here?
Bullseye amd64, AMD Ryzen 5 3600
Buster amd64, Intel Xeon E3-1240 v3
Sid ppc, PowerPC 7447a
Sid ppc64, PowerPC 970FX

Ermaxx
Posts: 7
Joined: 2017-06-08 15:01

Re: Installing Debian on an iMac G5

#11 Post by Ermaxx »

sjukfan wrote:Are you booting yaboot with

Code: Select all

Linux radeon.agpmode=-1
as mentioned here?
I just tried that but it's giving me the same result.

How can I know from where the problem come ?

Ermaxx
Posts: 7
Joined: 2017-06-08 15:01

Re: Installing Debian on an iMac G5

#12 Post by Ermaxx »

So, following what I found there https://wiki.debian.org/PowerPC/FAQ#How ... working.3F

I typed "Linux nouveau.noaccel=1" in the second yaboot prompt
It doesn't freeze anymore but it adds these lines again and again while the screen is flickering:
nouveau 0000:f0:10.0: DRM: Pixel clock comparison table not found
gnome-session-f[536]: unhandled signal 11 at 00000000 nip 0fbf10c0 lr 0fbf10bc code 30001
nouveau 0000:f0:10.0: DRM: Pixel clock comparison table not found
gnome-session-f[629]: unhandled signal 11 at 00000000 nip 0fbf10c0 lr 0fbf10bc code 30001
nouveau 0000:f0:10.0: DRM: Pixel clock comparison table not found
gnome-session-f[722]: unhandled signal 11 at 00000000 nip 0fbf10c0 lr 0fbf10bc code 30001
nouveau 0000:f0:10.0: DRM: Pixel clock comparison table not found
gnome-session-f[818]: unhandled signal 11 at 00000000 nip 0fbf10c0 lr 0fbf10bc code 30001
nouveau 0000:f0:10.0: DRM: Pixel clock comparison table not found
gnome-session-f[915]: unhandled signal 11 at 00000000 nip 0fbf10c0 lr 0fbf10bc code 30001
nouveau 0000:f0:10.0: DRM: Pixel clock comparison table not found
gnome-session-f[1009]: unhandled signal 11 at 00000000 nip 0fbf10c0 lr 0fbf10bc code 30001
nouveau 0000:f0:10.0: DRM: Pixel clock comparison table not found
gnome-session-f[1102]: unhandled signal 11 at 00000000 nip 0fbf10c0 lr 0fbf10bc code 30001

[And it continues until I shut the mac down]
I'm getting that this is an issue with the graphic card (Nvidia GeForce FX5200 Ultra 64MB) but the solutions I found (like http://powerpcliberation.blogspot.fr/20 ... ation.html) assumer that the workaround
"Linux nouveau.noaccel=1"
worked, and then change system setting when the boot is complete.

Is this an issue with Gnome ?

Ermaxx
Posts: 7
Joined: 2017-06-08 15:01

Re: Installing Debian on an iMac G5

#13 Post by Ermaxx »

Ermaxx wrote:So, following what I found there https://wiki.debian.org/PowerPC/FAQ#How ... working.3F

I typed "Linux nouveau.noaccel=1" in the second yaboot prompt
It doesn't freeze anymore but it adds these lines again and again while the screen is flickering:
nouveau 0000:f0:10.0: DRM: Pixel clock comparison table not found
gnome-session-f[536]: unhandled signal 11 at 00000000 nip 0fbf10c0 lr 0fbf10bc code 30001
nouveau 0000:f0:10.0: DRM: Pixel clock comparison table not found
gnome-session-f[629]: unhandled signal 11 at 00000000 nip 0fbf10c0 lr 0fbf10bc code 30001
nouveau 0000:f0:10.0: DRM: Pixel clock comparison table not found
gnome-session-f[722]: unhandled signal 11 at 00000000 nip 0fbf10c0 lr 0fbf10bc code 30001
nouveau 0000:f0:10.0: DRM: Pixel clock comparison table not found
gnome-session-f[818]: unhandled signal 11 at 00000000 nip 0fbf10c0 lr 0fbf10bc code 30001
nouveau 0000:f0:10.0: DRM: Pixel clock comparison table not found
gnome-session-f[915]: unhandled signal 11 at 00000000 nip 0fbf10c0 lr 0fbf10bc code 30001
nouveau 0000:f0:10.0: DRM: Pixel clock comparison table not found
gnome-session-f[1009]: unhandled signal 11 at 00000000 nip 0fbf10c0 lr 0fbf10bc code 30001
nouveau 0000:f0:10.0: DRM: Pixel clock comparison table not found
gnome-session-f[1102]: unhandled signal 11 at 00000000 nip 0fbf10c0 lr 0fbf10bc code 30001

[And it continues until I shut the mac down]
I'm getting that this is an issue with the graphic card (Nvidia GeForce FX5200 Ultra 64MB) but the solutions I found (like http://powerpcliberation.blogspot.fr/20 ... ation.html) assumer that the workaround
"Linux nouveau.noaccel=1"
worked, and then change system setting when the boot is complete.

Is this an issue with Gnome ?
I did the exact same thing with Mate and it worked, thank you for your help !

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