I have been running Gentoo for about a month on a G4/400Mz Newworld PowerMac audi root # cat /proc/cpuinfo processor : 0 cpu : 7400, altivec supported temperature : 23-25 C (uncalibrated) clock : 400MHz revision : 2.9 (pvr 000c 0209) bogomips : 794.62 total bogomips : 794.62 machine : PowerMac3,3 motherboard : PowerMac3,3 MacRISC2 MacRISC Power Macintosh detected as : 65 (PowerMac G4 AGP Graphics) pmac flags : 00000004 L2 cache : 1024K unified memory : 256MB pmac-generation : NewWorld It is quite stable EXCEPT when I do emerge! In particular, 99% of the time it will hang the console when I do a simple "emerge --sync". This is never during the rsync part, but during the updating-cache part (metadata stage, I guess you call it). I have found I can work around the problem by keeping ssh going and doing the emerge work from there, but it's a poor work around because when emerge hangs the the console, it blanks the screen and it is not "unblankable." Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. On PPC Gentoo machine with Kernel 2.6.10-gentoo-r6 built using Genkernel 2. emerge --sync Actual Results: The display (Apple Studio Display--CRT) blanks and the front power button on the display turns orange, I believe indicating that it has lost a signal. The optical mouse's light is still on. Pressing any button on the keyboard does not "wake up" the display. However, if I have a ssh remote seesion going, I often (guessing 80% of the time) can continue using the machine. Expected Results: Obviously, finished the emerge. This bug has been discussed somewhat in the forums, where it appears someone else may have a similar problem, see http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-46428-highlight-.html audi root # emerge --info Portage 2.0.51.19 (default-linux/ppc/2004.3, gcc-3.4.3, glibc-2.3.4.20041102-r1, 2.6.10-gentoo-r6 ppc) =============================================================== == System uname: 2.6.10-gentoo-r6 ppc 7400, altivec supported Gentoo Base System version 1.4.16 Python: dev-lang/python-2.3.5 [2.3.5 (#1, May 2 2005, 22:24:10)] dev-lang/python: 2.3.5 sys-apps/sandbox: [Not Present] sys-devel/autoconf: 2.59-r6, 2.13 sys-devel/automake: 1.5, 1.6.3, 1.8.5-r3, 1.7.9-r1, 1.4_p6, 1.9.5 sys-devel/binutils: 2.15.92.0.2-r8 sys-devel/libtool: 1.5.16 virtual/os-headers: 2.6.8.1-r4 ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="ppc" AUTOCLEAN="yes" CFLAGS="-O2 -mtune=G4 -maltivec -mabi=altivec -fno-strict-aliasing -pipe" CHOST="powerpc-unknown-linux-gnu" CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/kde/2/share/config /usr/kde/3.3/env /usr/kde/3.3/share/config /usr/ kde/3.3/shutdown /usr/kde/3/share/config /usr/lib/X11/xkb /usr/share/config /var/qmail/control" CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/gconf /etc/terminfo /etc/env.d" CXXFLAGS="-O2 -mtune=G4 -maltivec -mabi=altivec -fno-strict-aliasing -pipe" DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles" FEATURES="autoaddcvs autoconfig ccache distlocks sandbox sfperms strict" GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://ftp.du.se/pub/os/gentoo http://ds.thn.htu.se/linux/gentoo http:// mirror.pudas.net/gentoo ftp://mirror.pudas.net/gentoo" MAKEOPTS="-j2" PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages" PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp" PORTDIR="/usr/portage" SYNC="rsync://rsync.nl.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage" USE="ppc X alsa berkdb bitmap-fonts crypt cups dvd emboss esd fam font-server fortran gdbm gif gnome gpm gtk gtk2 imlib ipv6 jpeg kde kerberos libwww motif mp3 mpeg ncurses nls oggvorbis opengl pam pdflib perl png python qt readline spell ssl tcpd tiff truetype truetype-fonts type1-fonts unicode xml2 xmms xprint xv zlib userland_GNU kernel_linux elibc_glibc" Unset: ASFLAGS, CBUILD, CTARGET, LANG, LC_ALL, LDFLAGS, LINGUAS, PORTDIR_OVERLAY
What makes you think it is a GRP bug? Have you tried the 2005.0 GRP? Are you sure thi sisn't just a normal bug and should be assigned appropriately elsewhere?
*** Bug 92371 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
(In reply to comment #1) > What makes you think it is a GRP bug? Have you tried the 2005.0 GRP? > > Are you sure thi sisn't just a normal bug and should be assigned appropriately elsewhere? Interesting question. I really have no idea which section of Gentoo's bugzilla to submit the bug. I figured you could re-assign it at will if you thought the categorization was wrong. My thinking was that emerge is part of the basic Gentoo system so GRP seemed appropriate. Feel free to re-assign the categorization as you see fit. Of course, fixing the bug would be even better :-)
Yeah... I can't fix it... I'm not a portage dev... reassigning...
Try turning off power management in the kernel. This isn't a portage thing. It sounds like linux is blanking or turning off the screen after you haven't physically touched the machine for a while and you are unable to wake it up. Try `setterm -blank 0` before running emerge sync as well.
Originally, I too figured it was a power management issue. However, that fact that when it happens it even kills remote ssh sessions sometimes (it even powered down the machine one time!) makes it clear is it not *just* blanking the screen. I give some examples of what the machine was doing when the crashing occurred in the discussion forum thread mentioined <http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t -46428-highlight-.html>. In brief, a portageq/emerge/ebuild was 99% of the time going on. When I happened to be around to see it in person, I can say I suspect it was in the step "Regenerating /etc/ ld.so.cache...". I'm sorry to say I am running Fedora Core 4 Test 3 on the machine now (no instability) because I couldn't take the instability of Gentoo. I'd prefer to run Gentoo on the PPC, as I do on other non-PPC machines, but until I can get a Gentoo LiveCD to boot on it (see bug 87650), or more stability, I will have to leave you with the evidence previously provided. Hope you can find something. I am willing to try testing again IF you get a bootable LiveCD that works. Best regards, /Mike (In reply to comment #5) > Try turning off power management in the kernel. This isn't a portage thing. It > sounds like linux is blanking or turning off the screen after you haven't > physically touched the machine for a while and you are unable to wake it up. > Try `setterm -blank 0` before running emerge sync as well.
I'll ignore the "instability of gentoo" comment and pass this on to PPC whom might have experienced apparent hardware issues like this in the past.
Please don't take my comment the wrong way. I would LOVE to have Gentoo running on my PPC. It seemed very promising when I tried it under 2004.3. I took the time to write a bug report to help improve Gentoo. Best of luck. If there is anything I can do to help, please let me know.
If you're still running redhat, could you try creating a gentoo chroot within your install? I'd be interested to know if that locks up as well. I'm also wondering if a different kernel version would have helped. I do know of others who have installed fine on their Sawtooth G4's so I'm not sure what else to suggest.
Please reopen the bug if you try it again and still have a problem.
No reply.
