I'm having fun getting Ubuntu going on an old PowerPC G4 iMac with integrated nVidia grahics - Geforce 2 MX / NV11.
(Fun of course is the goal, as the likelihood of this old system being useful is quite low, but hey.)
I successfully installed Ubuntu using the mini-ISO installation method, and opted for the Xubuntu desktop, as I've had success with Xfce on Intel PCs with NV10-series video hardware. (Not with nouveau, but with nVidia's old proprietary drivers which obviously aren't available for PPC.)
I am able to log in to a shell with the yaboot arguments Linux nomodeset single
as recommended by numerous FAQs out there. If I don't put nomodeset
in the argument, I get the psychedelic lava-lamp color-cycling-of-doom crashout.
dmesg
tells me that nouveau crashes out during boot (after looping 103 times):
nouveau E[ DRM] GPU lockup - switching to software fbcon
My questions:
1) I know that the hardware should be OK for Xfce based on my PC-world experiences with Xubuntu and NV10-series hardware. Is is possible to finagle/tweak nouveau to 'work' with my NV11 chipset and Xfce? (Most online guides say 'no, just use nv
, and I never had luck on PC getting Nouveau going on NV10 hardware without significant display issues)
2) If nouveau cannot be made to work, can the nv
driver be successfully compiled and used on 14.04 with Xfce?
3) Should I stop wasting time and simply downgrade to Ubuntu 12.04? Many sources claim that this works 'best' out of the box, and nv
can be made to work under this O/S.