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Date:      Sun, 31 Aug 2014 02:02:19 -0700
From:      Mark Millard <markmi@dsl-only.net>
To:        freebsd-ppc@freebsd.org
Subject:   10.0-stable PowerMac G4 boot SSD has X11/xfce4 failing but they work when that SSD boots a PowerMac G5
Message-ID:  <4D86DDCB-FF04-4EA2-9703-8B74BBF31C7E@dsl-only.net>

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The following eventually reports that moving a PowerMac G4 FreeBSD boot =
SSD to a PowerMac G5 and booting from it makes X11 with xfce4 go from =
not working to working. (No other changes are involved.)


Earlier when trying the "/dev/mem instead of /dev/console for =
memory-mapping frame buffers in X11 on PowerPC" testing I had reported =
that I was unable to get to the point of a reasonable test on PowerMac =
G4's, including for NVIDIA. =
(http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-ppc/2014-July/007124.html)

> PowerMac G4 (3,6), GeForce4 Ti 4600: UI hangs during the initial xfce4 =
"welcome" screen update, frequently without the background being =
finished. What is displayed seems fine as far as it got. Can still =
Option-Fn just fine to get back to VTn and use it.

The "PowerMac G4 (3,6), ATI Radeon 9000/PRO If (AGP/PCI)" was far worse =
off for as much as I tested back then: random varying garbage displayed =
and it ignored my input after attempting to switch back to to a VTn. =
Forced power switch based shutdown.

Now that I've access to the Power Mac's again I experimented more with =
"PowerMac G4 (3,6), ATI Radeon 9000/PRO If (AGP/PCI)" and I managed to =
make it work better then what I reported before. Avoiding DRI (use =
NoAccel or use "False" for DRI) makes the Radeon behave the similar to =
the NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4600 as indicated above. The difference is that =
the VTn stays black when I switch to it. But it does take what I type =
and executes the commands, such as reboot. (Yep: still syscons.)

In both G4 contexts the Xorg.0.log that results appears to have no =
information indicating any failure. Of course in each case =
/etc/X11/xorg.conf was generated (-configure) for the card in use, but =
with NoAccel in use.

The SSD has:

FreeBSD FBSDG4S0 10.0-STABLE FreeBSD 10.0-STABLE #0 r268571: Sun Jul 13 =
05:15:31 UTC 2014     root at =
grind.freebsd.org:/usr/obj/powerpc.powerpc/usr/src/sys/GENERIC  powerpc



BUT...

Now switching that SSD to a G5 PowerMac and booting from it: PowerMac G5 =
(7,2), Radeon 9800PRO NH (AGP)

Using the same Radeon /etc/X11/xorg.conf (with NoAccel enabled or with =
"False" for DRI in each context): X11 with xfce4 works fine!=20

Even switching to a VTn works fine on the G5 PowerMac: it is displays =
correctly instead of ending up with a black screen.



The generated -configure xorg.conf.new is the same for the two Radeon =
contexts. But in each case I need to pick an option that disables DRI =
use in order to get reasonable behavior.

Without NoAccel/"False"-for-DRI for the G5: text does not display =
correctly and if composite is enabled with shadows then the shadowing is =
messed up. Bit/Byte order/alignment issues when accelerated?

The Radeon 9000 with DRI enabled gets a Xorg.0.log report that =
r200_dri.so is not found and the Radeon 9800 with DRI enabled gets a =
report that r300_dri.so is not found. (As is probably expected in each =
case.) So the behaviors are examples of the error handling for "not =
found".



Mac OS X 10.4 works fine in all the PowerMacs involved: no evidence of =
problems.


=3D=3D=3D
Mark Millard
markmi at dsl-only.net




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