Attachment #61370 for bug #95800

View | Details | Raw Unified | Return to bug 95800 | Differences between
Collapse All | Expand All




<!DOCTYPE guide SYSTEM "/dtd/guide.dtd">

<guide link="/doc/en/gentoo-ppc-faq.xml">

<title>Gentoo Linux/PowerPC Frequently Asked Questions</title>

<author title="Editor">
  <mail link="rajiv@gentoo.org">Rajiv Manglani</mail>
</author>

<author title="Editor">
  <mail link="pylon@gentoo.org">Lars Weiler</mail>
</author>

<author title="Editor">
  <mail link="sejo@gentoo.org">Jochen Maes </mail>
</author>

<author title="Editor">
  <mail link="josejx@gentoo.org">Joseph Jezak</mail>
</author>

<abstract>
This FAQ is a collection of questions and answers collected from the
gentoo-ppc-dev mailing list and from IRC -- if you have any questions (or


<license/>

<version>1.18</version>
<date>2005-05-11</date>


<chapter>

<title>Installation</title>
<section>

<title>
How do I verify with Mac OS X the downloaded ISO is not corrupted?
  corrupted? 
</title>
<body>

<p>
First be sure you did not mount the ftp server with <e>Finder</e> and then copy
the file with drag'n'drop.  This will corrupt the ISO.  Instead, use <c>curl</c>
(with <c>curl -O http://path/to/iso</c>).
http://path/to/iso</c>).
</p>

<p>


</body>
</section>

<section>
<title>Can I dual-boot Gentoo Linux and Mac OS X?</title>
<body>

<p>
Yes you can! In fact, <e>yabootconfig</e> will automatically detect
and setup <path>/etc/yaboot.conf</path> with Linux, Mac OS X and even
classic Mac OS (see the 
<uri link="/doc/en/handbook/handbook-ppc.xml?part=1&amp;chap=10">Gentoo Handbook
</uri> for details on yabootconfig). The trick is in how you partition your hard
drive. Before installing Gentoo, startup with the Mac OS X Install CD. Use the 
<c>Disk Utility</c> to partition the drive in your machine into two or three 
partitions.  Alternatively, use <c>parted</c> from the recent LiveCD, since that
can handle HFS and HFS+ partitions.  Parted is also able to shrink a partition 
so you don't need to delete your existing install. The first partition should 
be big enough to contain all your Linux partitions (root+swap+/home etc.). The 
format of this partition does not matter.  The second partition should be for 
OS X.  The third (and optional) partition should be for classic Mac OS. It is 
needed only if you want to put Mac OS 9 on a separate partition.
you want to put Mac OS 9 on a separate partition.
</p>

<note>

When you get to the section on partitioning, use <c>mac-fdisk</c> to 
<e>delete</e> the large partition you created for Gentoo. In its place, 
create a bootstrap partition, root, swap, and any other partitions you 
wish to use with Gentoo.
</p>

<p>

bootstrap partition.
</p>

<note>
If yabootconfig does not detect your MacOS partitions, you can manually add 
them to your yaboot.config.  See the example yaboot.conf in the 
<uri link="/doc/en/handbook/handbook-ppc.xml?part=1&amp;chap=10#doc_chap_pre6">
handbook</uri> for details.
</note>

</body>
</section>

<section>
<title>
I have an early NewWorld Mac such as the Blue and White G3.  It should be
compatible with the LiveCD, but on boot it returns an "Unknown or corrupt
filesystem" error.
</title>
<body>

<p>
As a workaround, boot into Open Firmware by holding down the Apple + Option +
O + F keys on startup.  When the prompt appears, type:
</p>

<pre caption="Early NewWorld Mac Open Firmware work around">
<i>boot cd:,\\yaboot</i>
</pre>

<p>
The CD should load as expected afterwards.  Thanks to John Plesmid for this
workaround.
</p>

</body>
</section>

<section>
<title>
I have an OldWorld Macintosh and need to use BootX. However, I am having trouble
opening the BootX installer archive. What can I do?
</title>
<body>

<p>
You will need a new version of <e>StuffIt Expander</e> to open the archive. 
You can 
<uri link="http://www.stuffit.com/expander/download.html">download it</uri>
for free.
</p>

</body>
</section>

<section>
<title>
Is it possible to boot Gentoo Linux on an OldWorld machine without Mac OS? I 
would like to have a Mac OS-free machine.
</title>
<body>

<p>
If you have a lot of time to experiment, you could try 
<uri link="http://penguinppc.org/projects/quik/">Quik</uri>. <e>Quik</e> is a
bootloader for OldWorld PPC machines. If your machine uses <e>BootX</e>, you can
use <e>Quik</e>; if it uses <e>yaboot</e>, you can't.  <e>Quik</e> can be
incredibly difficult to install, but the end result is somewhere between "neato"
and "breathtaking" because Mac OS does not have to load. Think yaboot on speed.
end result is somewhere between "neato" and "breathtaking" because Mac OS
does not have to load. Think yaboot on speed.
</p>

<p>
Be sure to read the <uri
link="http://penguinppc.org/projects/quik/quirks.shtml">Quik quirks
page</uri> for help getting your Old World PPC booting with Quik. The
"<uri link="http://www.netbsd.org/Ports/macppc/models.html">NetBSD/MacPPC Model
Support</uri>" documents various OpenFirmware versions for various Apple and 
clone PowerPC machines and is also a helpful reference.
Quik - Direct Booting for Older PowerMacs</uri>". "<uri
link="http://www.netbsd.org/Ports/macppc/models.html">NetBSD/macppc
Model Support</uri>" documents OpenFirmware versions for various Apple
and clone PowerPC machines.
</p>

<p>


</body>
</section>

<section>
<title>
I have a Beige G3 machine. Can I install Gentoo Linux/PPC on a second IDE hard 
drive?
</title>
<body>



</body>
</section>

<section>
<title>
  When I try and install Gentoo on my PowerBook or iBook the internal


</body>
</section>

<section>
<title>
I have a revision A or B iMac.  I've replaced the hard drive with a larger one
and now I can't boot into anything!
</title>
<body>

<p>
There is an 8GB limit for the root partition on these machines.  Ensure that
your root partition is less than 8GB and it should work as expected.  This also
applies to OS X and later versions of OS 9.
</p>

</body>
</section>

<section>
<title>
My /etc/fstab file has /dev/BOOT in it. Do I need to setup this line for my 
bootstrap partition?
</title>
<body>

<p>
No. If you are not running a separate boot partition (<path>/boot</path>) then 
you do not need this line and can safely just delete it from 
<path>/etc/fstab</path>.  The bootstrap partition is <e>not</e> 
<path>/boot</path> and is not related in anyway. In general, PowerPC machines 
do not need a separate <path>/boot</path> partition, and the bootstrap partition
should not be mounted.
</p>

</body>
</section>

<section>
<title>
When I rebooted, yaboot didn't work! Now, I'm stuck. How can I fix this?
</title>
<body>

<p>
It's probably just a misconfigured yaboot.conf.  The easiest way to fix 
this is to boot the LiveCD again, mount your gentoo partition and check 
yaboot.conf for errors.  You'll also need to run 
<c>ybin -v -C /mnt/gentoo/etc/yaboot.conf</c> to update the boot loader once
you have finished.  This can all be done without chrooting back into your
install.
</p>
  
<note>
If you <e>really</e> just need to get back to OSX, try holding down the
Option key on startup.  This should give you a graphical selection of
bootable disks.  Chose OSX and remember to fix your boot problems later.
</note>

</body>
</section>

<section>
<title>
Installation is now complete. However after rebooting, I am getting
different characters than the keys I press on my machine's keyboard. What
should I do?
</title> 
<body>



</body>
</section>

<section>
<title>
I only have one mouse-button.  How can I make use of the second and third one, 
since ctrl-button does not work?
</title>
<body>

<p>
There is no way to use ctrl-button like on Mac OS X, but you can map just about
any key or combination of keys to emulate the second and third mouse-button.  
The values can be obtained with the command line utility <c>showkey</c> from the
console.  Note that this program does not work as expected from X and should 
only be run from the console.  In addition to having the kernel configuration 
settings from the previous section, you will also need to set the mouse button
values in <path>/etc/sysctl.conf</path>.  Here is an example using F11 and F12:
<path>mouse_button3_keycode</path>.  To keep the settings after reboot,
write them to <path>/etc/sysctl.conf</path>.  Here is an example using
F11 and F12:
</p>

<pre caption="Mouse button emulation with F11 and F12">

</pre>

<p>
Other commonly used keycodes are 125 (The Apple key) and 96 (The Keypad Enter).
</p>

<note>
The easiest way to activate these settings it to reboot after changing them.
</note>

</body>
</section>

<section>
<title>
Installation is now complete. However, after my machine boots into
Gentoo and I try to emerge anything, I see errors saying it cannot 'stat'
a file. What is wrong?
</title>
<body>


</chapter>

<chapter>

<title>Laptop Support</title>

<section>
<title>
How do I enable the full processor speed on my PowerBook while running Linux?
</title>
<body>

<note>
Most (if not all) processors should now work at the correct speed with modern 
kernels.  If you still have this problem, you should upgrade to the latest 


</body>
</section>

<section>
<title>
I'm running Gentoo on a PowerPC laptop. What packages should I
install to enable laptop-specific functionality?
</title>
<body>

<p>
There are four main packages you will need to install.
</p>

<ul>

    and various other preferences.
  </li>
  <li>
    <e>cpudyn</e> allows cpu speed scaling for longer battery life. Other
    packages also provide the same functionality, such as <e>powernowd</e>,
    <e>cpufreqd</e> and <e>speedfreq</e>.
  </li>
</ul>


</pre>

<note>
You should edit <path>/etc/pbbuttonsd.conf</path> to better suit your needs.
The behaviour of the Fx-keys can be controlled here as well as many sleep
options.  To switch the Fx-keys to the OSX behaviour, set KBDMode to fkeyslast.
You can turn off touchpad tapping by setting TPMode to notap.  Many other 
options are available, see man pbbuttonsd.conf for details.
</note>

<p>


</body>
</section>

<section>
<title>How can I configure my machine's Airport or other Wi-Fi card?</title>
<body>

<p>
Make sure you have support for the airport card compiled into the kernel, or 
compiled as a module and loaded. Changing the wireless settings is accomplished
using iwconfig.  This is part of the <c>wireless-tools</c> package.
<c>wireless-tools</c> package.
</p>

<p>


</body>
</section>

<section>
<title>Will the internal modem in an iBook2 or PowerBook work?</title>
<body>

<note>
Unless you have purchased a key from Linuxant, this driver will only work at
14.4 and will not support FAX.
</note>

<p>
Emerge <c>net-dialin/hcfusbmodem</c> which will provide
<path>/dev/ttySHCF0</path>.  Then set up ppp like usual.  Further


</body>
</section>

<section>
<title>Does sleep work on my iBook/PowerBook?</title>
<body>

<p>
Sleep (suspend to ram) works very well on all G3 iBooks and TiBooks.  Recently,
a kernel patch has been released that adds sleep support for G4 iBooks and 
Radeon based AlBooks.  If you have one of these laptops, use 
vanilla-sources-2.6.12 or gentoo-sources 2.6.11 for built in support.
be included with vanilla-sources-2.6.12.
</p>

<note>
Note that the 12" PowerBook is not yet supported due to its nVidia chipset.
</note>

</chapter>

<chapter>

<title>Applications</title>

<section>
<title>
I can't emerge a package, and get an error about it being masked.  What should I
do?
</title>
<body>

<p>
There are two common reasons why a package will not emerge: either it hasn't
been tested on PPC or it has been tested, but hasn't yet been marked stable.
</p>

<p>
If your package hasn't yet been tested on PPC, youll need to first mark the
ebuild with the ppc keyword.  This is done using the ekeyword tool which is 
part of the gentoolkit-dev package.  To mark the ebuild ppc:
</p>

<pre caption="Adding the ppc keyword to app-foo/bar">
$ ekeyword ppc /usr/portage/app-foo/bar/bar-1.0.ebuild
</pre>

<p>
Once the ebuild has been keyworded, you can now emerge it as usual.  Test the
application and if it works, <b>please</b> report it as a bug so one of the 
developers can add the keyword.
</p>

<note>
This change will only last until the next sync.  If you need a more permanant 
fix, you can maintain a portage overlay.  See the portage documentation for 
more information.
</note>

<p>
If your package already has the ~ppc keyword, you have two options.  Either
follow the above instructions and replace the ~ppc keyword with ppc, or you can
use /etc/portage to unmask the specific package.
</p>

<pre caption="Using /etc/portage to unmask app-foo/bar">
$ echo "=app-foo/bar-1.0 ~ppc" > /etc/portage/package.keywords
</pre>

<note>
If the /etc/portage directory does not exist, make sure to create it first.
</note>

<p>
Now emerge the package as normal.  Once you're sure the app is stable, <b>please
</b> report this as a bug so the developers can add the keyword.
</p>

</body>
</section>

<section>
<title>Does Gentoo/PPC have support for Flash?</title>
<body>

<p>
Well, not really. Macromedia has not supplied a linux/ppc binary and open source
implementations are incomplete and buggy at this time.  Two projects working on
this problem are <uri link="http://gplflash.sf.net">gplflash2</uri> and 
<uri link="http://swfdec.sf.net">swfdec</uri>, so check there for more 
information. A possible workaround for now is to use qemu (an x86 emulator)
to run the Macromedia Flash Player 6 stand alone player.  This process was
described on the forums: 
<uri>http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=117774</uri>
</p>

</body>
</section>

<section>
<title>Does Gentoo/PPC have a Java plugin?</title>
<body>

<p>
No, not at this time.  The older java plugin is no longer compatible with the
new Mozilla plugin system and a new plugin has not yet been written.
</p>

</body>
</section>



</body>
</section>

<section>
<title>
How can I enable Direct Rendering (DRM) on rage128 or radeon cards?
</title>
<body>

<p>

ati or your specific driver (r128 or radeon).  Also check that the
DRI extension is loaded and not commented out.
</impo>

<note>
There currently isn't any DRI support for the R300/R400 chipsets, a project has
been started at <uri>http://r300.sourceforge.net</uri>. nVidia chipsets are also
mostly unsupported on PPC, there is basic 2D acceleration provied by the nv 
driver, but no 3D acceleration.
</note>

</body>
</section>

<section>
<title>
I recently emerged Xorg, but when using it, my international
keyboard layout does not work correctly. The main keys work fine but I am
unable to compose special characters like the "at" sign. The startx output
says something like "could not load keymap, falling back to default
keymap". What is wrong?
</title>
<body>



</body>
</section>

<section>
<title>
When using OpenGL DRI or playing movies, the system sometimes freezes hard 
unexpectedly. What can I do?
</title>
<body>


extensions included with the newer X.org releases.  Please disable
these extensions if you're having problems. 
</p>

</body>
</section>

<section>
<title>How do I get sound playback working?</title>
<body>

<p>
There are two approaches to sound on modern kernels: OSS or ALSA.  OSS is the 
older of the two options and has been depreciated, but still functions well for
many older Macs.  ALSA is the newer method and will continue to be supported in 
the future.  We recommend that you use ALSA unless you have problems.
problems.
</p>

<note>

</p>

<note>
If you are using a G5 or a mac-mini, you should follow the Gentoo ALSA
configuration guide to install the latest version of the ALSA drivers instead of
the versions supplied by the kernel.
</note>

</body>
</section>

<section>
<title>Sound setup with ALSA</title>
<body>

<p>
For ALSA, we'll set up both the regular ALSA drivers and the OSS emulation
layer so that we can still use legacy OSS only programs.  In <c>make 

Device Drivers - Sound ---&gt;
&lt;*&gt; Sound card support
    Advanced Linux Sound Architecture ---&gt;
    &lt;&nbsp;&gt;   PowerMac DMA sound support
      &lt;*&gt; Advanced Linux Sound Architecture
      &lt;*&gt; Sequencer support
      &lt;*&gt; Sequencer dummy client

<section>
<title>Sound setup with OSS</title>
<body>

<note>Again, only use this if you're not using ALSA.</note>

<p>
In <c>make menuconfig</c> you'll need to select:
</p>


</body>
</section>

<section>
<title>How do I play Audio CDs?</title>
<body>


</body>
</section>

<section>
<title>Can I run Mac OS 9 or Mac OS X under Gentoo Linux?</title>
<body>

<p>
Yes, as long as your are running Gentoo Linux on PPC hardware, you can use <uri
link="http://www.maconlinux.org/">Mac-on-Linux</uri> which allows you to run an
instance of OS 9, OS X or Linux as a process on Linux. Simply <c>emerge mol</c>
to install this package. MOL supports Mac OS 7.5.2 to 9.2.2, as well as any 
version OS X except Tiger (support is currently in progress). It can be run from
a console framebuffer or run in a window on X.
</p>

<note>
To run MOL fullscreen, you'll need to compile MOL with the fbcon use flag 
enabled and run it in a console framebuffer.
</note>

<p>
For networking and sound you should install the drivers in the folder
<path>MOL-Install</path> on your Mac OS X-Desktop.  If errors with
networking occur, make sure you have the following kernel options
enabled:

<section>
<title>Can I access my ext2/ext3 partitions from OSX?</title>
<body>

<p>
OSX can support the reading and writing of ext2/ext3 partitions by using the 
kernel extension provided by the <uri link="http://sourceforge.net/projects/ext2fsx">ext2fsx project.</uri>
</p>

<note>
When using MOL, you cannot access a partition that is currently being used by
Linux.
</note>

</body>
</section>

<section>
<title>Which Portage USE flags do not work on PowerPC machines?</title>
<body>

<p>
If you're using an old flat profile, (depreciated, pre 2005.0) look at 
<path>/etc/make.profile/use.mask</path> for a list.
</p>

<p>
If you're using a cascaded profile, (2005.0 and onwards) look at 
<path>/usr/portage/profiles/default-linux/ppc/use.mask</path> for a list.
</p>

</body>
</section>

<section>
<title>How can I set up distcc with my x86 box?</title>
<body>

<p>
If you've got another faster computer, you can set up distcc to compile binaries
for your slower ppc processor.  It's better to do as much building as possible

<uri>http://dev.gentoo.org/~vapier/CROSS-COMPILE-HOWTO</uri>
<uri>http://www.sable.mcgill.ca/~dbelan2/crossdev/crossdev-powerpc-i686.html</uri>
</p>

</body>
</section>

<section>
<title>Why does gcc keep segfaulting during ebuilds?</title>
<body>

<p>
If gcc segfaults during ebuilds, this probably isn't a bug with gcc and isn't
even a problem with your hardware.  Most of the time this problem is due to

<pre caption="Check if preempt is enabled">
$ <i>grep PREEMPT /usr/src/linux/.config</i>
</pre>

<p>
If returns: "# CONFIG_PREEMPT is not set", then you should report the 
segfault as a bug.
</p>

<p>
If it returns: "CONFIG_PREEMPT=y", then you'll need to disable it and rebuild
your kernel.

</chapter>

<chapter>

<title>Resources</title>

<section>
<title>Can I buy a CD of Gentoo Linux/PPC?</title>
<body>

Return to bug 95800