video driver for nvidia card on iMac G4?

[fb]

Hi guys,

Anyone with a relatively old mac and nvidia card?
I had dri and glx enabled through x11-drm with the
nv driver. However nv has disappeared from x11-drm
and there is no option for it in the kernel.
I tried nouveau from the x11 overlay but I just got
a red screen and the machine lock itself if you try
to change terminal once x is started.
Does anyone with a similar set up has glx enabled?
(I just need glx - software rendering instead of hardware
is fine that's what I used to do).
Anyone had more luck with nouveau?

Thanks.

[chithanh]

Without any details about your hardware and setup, one can only speculate.

Make sure you have x11-base/nouveau-drm installed properly and the nouveau kernel module is loaded before starting X. Also some cards suffer from chipset family misdetection (fdo bug 14393), you may want to try the patch which is attached to that bug.

AFAIR, the nv drm was never used for anything at all, especially not by the xf86-video-nv driver.

[fb]

Without any details about your hardware and setup, one can only speculate.

Make sure you have x11-base/nouveau-drm installed properly and the nouveau kernel module is loaded before starting X. Also some cards suffer from chipset family misdetection (fdo bug 14393), you may want to try the patch which is attached to that bug.

AFAIR, the nv drm was never used for anything at all, especially not by the xf86-video-nv driver.

Thanks for the head up. I definitely need to review the bug as it is spot on my hardware.
(NV11 - GeForce2 MX/MX 400). I didn't mention the hardware as usually the range is rather limited
on the ppc forum and I thought everyone here would know. Using xorg-server-1.5.x at the moment.
I was convinced you needed x11-drm for enabling glx - I was obviously wrong.
I may experiment further with the nouveau driver however and move to xorg-server-1.6.x
and see what happens with that. Is the unsupported gallium only available in xorg-server-9999?

[chithanh]

For 2D and xv acceleration, the following packages should be sufficient:

Code: Select all

>=x11-base/xorg-server-1.5.3
>=x11-libs/libdrm-9999 # from x11 overlay
x11-base/nouveau-drm # from x11 overlay
x11-drivers/xf86-video-nouveau # from x11 overlay

If you want the experimental Gallium3D code, you need

Code: Select all

>=media-libs/mesa-9999 # from x11 overlay

built with USE="gallium" and VIDEO_CARDS="nouveau". I have not found it very stable however, so you may want to stick with the software rasterizer for now. In the Gentoo Wiki there are detailed instructions.

[fb]

For 2D and xv acceleration, the following packages should be sufficient:

Code: Select all

>=x11-base/xorg-server-1.5.3
>=x11-libs/libdrm-9999 # from x11 overlay
x11-base/nouveau-drm # from x11 overlay
x11-drivers/xf86-video-nouveau # from x11 overlay

If you want the experimental Gallium3D code, you need

Code: Select all

>=media-libs/mesa-9999 # from x11 overlay

built with USE="gallium" and VIDEO_CARDS="nouveau". I have not found it very stable however, so you may want to stick with the software rasterizer for now. In the Gentoo Wiki there are detailed instructions.

OK, so where do I report problems about nouveau.
I pretty much started with libdrm-9999, nouveau-drm and xf86-video-nouveau from x11 overlay
with unsatisfactory results - Permanent red screen and looking when trying to switch vt.
I am happy to provide logs.
Should I send my stuff directly to the nouveau team on freedesktop.org or are you interested in it?

[chithanh]

The best place to report problems would be http://bugs.freedesktop.org/ or the #nouveau IRC channel on freenode.

[gringo]

so where do I report problems about nouveau.

upstream i guess, i don´t know if anyone here at gentoo takes care of this stuff. I reported problems too ( although this was in x86 world, not ppc).
Do you have troubles with and without gallium ? I mention this because it was more stable without gallium here.

cheers

[fb]

so where do I report problems about nouveau.

upstream i guess, i don´t know if anyone here at gentoo takes care of this stuff. I reported problems too ( although this was in x86 world, not ppc).
Do you have troubles with and without gallium ? I mention this because it was more stable without gallium here.

cheers

Hi Gringo,

Ii tried both and didn't see any differences. I think one of the problem is that my screen is
misdetected. My LCD screen is treated like a CRT but that doesn't explain the red screen
and vt switching problem.

Will look at bugs at freedesktop.org

Cheers.

[gringo]

you can also try contacting Donnie Berkholz or Hanno Boeck who apparetly are the x11 gurus here at gentoo as far as i know.
Maybe they can enlighten you about the Monitor missbehaviour too.

cheers

[bocacorazon]

I added the x11 overlay to try nouveau, and I get :

- x11-drivers/xf86-video-nouveau-9999 (masked by: missing keyword)

Tried with ppc and ~ppc with the same results.
What am I missing (besides the keyword:)?

[fb]

I added the x11 overlay to try nouveau, and I get :

- x11-drivers/xf86-video-nouveau-9999 (masked by: missing keyword)

Tried with ppc and ~ppc with the same results.
What am I missing (besides the keyword:)?

Neither ppc or ~ppc is in the ebuild. I am not on my
ppc machine right now but putting:
x11-drivers/xf86-video-nouveau **
in your package.keywords will work.

[bocacorazon]

Thanks fb for your response.

I added

=x11-drivers/xf86-video-nouveau-9999 ~ppc
=x11-base/nouveau-drm-99999999 ~ppc

to /etc/portage/package.keywords

but emerge still complains about the missing keyword.
I know it is reading what I added, because if I misspell the above lines emerge complains about a bad atom.

The question is "where do I put the package.keywords"? Is there a place on the overlay tree that I should do it in?
I realize this might be a questions on an overlay forum, but since people in this thread must have done this at some point, I'll ask it here.
Thanks in advance.

[fb]

Thanks fb for your response.

I added

=x11-drivers/xf86-video-nouveau-9999 ~ppc
=x11-base/nouveau-drm-99999999 ~ppc

to /etc/portage/package.keywords

but emerge still complains about the missing keyword.
I know it is reading what I added, because if I misspell the above lines emerge complains about a bad atom.

The question is "where do I put the package.keywords"? Is there a place on the overlay tree that I should do it in?
I realize this might be a questions on an overlay forum, but since people in this thread must have done this at some point, I'll ask it here.
Thanks in advance.

I understood what you did. Those live ebuild do not usually come with any
keywords so only people who know what they are doing use them. So in
/etc/portage/package.keywords put:

Code: Select all

x11-drivers/xf86-video-nouveau **
x11-base/nouveau-drm **

and I really mean '**' which is an universal enabler.

[bocacorazon]

Thanks, fb
I added the ** to the package.keywords and it's emerging now...
We'll see what comes out of it.

[fb]

Thanks, fb
I added the ** to the package.keywords and it's emerging now...
We'll see what comes out of it.

I just checked the ebuild and you could have used
~x86 or ~amd64 instead of **. I know you are on ppc but you can put that kind
of stuff in package.keywords, especially if you want to test something that is not
available on, or keyworded for, ppc.