making X work on 466MHz iBook


Subject: making X work on 466MHz iBook
From: Steve "Loco3KGT" Gula (loco3kgt@creepingdeath.com)
Date: Tue Apr 10 2001 - 16:06:38 MDT


general support for the iBook is lacking, I've tried numerous times but after
about 4-5 hours yesterday I got X working. Here's what I did :

rsync a new kernel from ppc.linuxcare.com :
su root
cd /usr/src
mkdir linux-pmac-stable
cd linux-pmac-stable
rsync -avz --delete ppc.linuxcare.com::linux-pmac-stable .

you can use my .config but I don't guarantee that it has support for
everything.

http://www.creepingdeath.com/linux/files/iBook.config
put it in /usr/src/linux-pmac-stable and rename it to .config

compile a new kernel and make sure it works in general. I append the
following :
append="video=aty128fb:vmode11,cmod:24"
download XFree86 4.0.2 source and XF4.0.3 patches
apply the 4.0.3 patches to the 4.0.2 source
make World
rm -rf /usr/X11R6
make install

put the following XF86Config in your /etc/X11/ directory :
http://www.creepingdeath.com/files/linux/XF86Config.iBook
rename it to XF86Config

note it uses fbdev (framebuffer) as opposed to r128. I have yet to convince
XF to create a r128 or ati module so I can't get that to work. However, I'm
having zero problem with this. I can't say I'm noticing any speed differences
that I can _directly_ attribute to fbdev, on the otherhand I've never seen a
iBook running 24bpp in X either (not the 466MHz SE DVD/Firewire/blah version).

I don't know the current status of iBook support in YDL (I'll be honest, I'm
using linuxppc Q4 2000, and it has yet to impress me, enlightenment won't
work at all left as it is installed by default). Last time I tried YDL is was
a pita to get working (and it was with lppc).

If anyone has any questions/comments/corrections, please respond to this
thread. Sole reason I'm posting this is so some poor soul doesn't have to go
through the same hell I did to make this work.

-- 
--Steve "Loco3KGT" Gula



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