Bug#369760: Video problems installing etch on oldworld PowerPC Mac (beige G3)

[Rick Thomas <rbthomas55@pobox.com>]

Package: debian-installer
Severity: Important

I've been trying to test install the "etch" daily netinst CD on an  
oldworld Mac (beige G3) and I can't get off first base because I  
can't get the video to co-operate.

I'm using the BootX bootloader under MacOS-9.2.2

Before I begin describing my problems, let me state that I was able  
to install "sarge" using just about any of the available combinations  
of video setting in BootX ("Force video settings" checkbox on or off,  
"No video driver" checkbox on or off, and any one of three settings  
for "More kernel arguments:" -- "video=ofonly", "", and  
"video=atyfb:vmode:17,cmode:8") (Does anybody know what the two video  
checkboxes translate into in terms of kernel arguments???)

The problem is that, no matter what I set for video options in BootX,  
using the "debian-testing-powerpc-netinst.iso" CD image from

	http://cdimage.debian.org/daily-builds/arch-latest/powerpc/iso_cd/

I get unreadable stuff on the screen during the part that should be  
kernel messages and evenutally it hangs.  I never get to the language  
chooser screen at all.

In some cases I get tiny unreadable green text which is duplicated  
between the left and right halves of the screen, followed by readable  
characters in white saying:

	Preparing boot params...
	Preparing BAT...
	pmac_init(): exit
	id mach(): done
	MMU: enter
	MMU: hw init
	hash: enter
	hash: find piece
	hash: done
	MMU: mapin
	MMU: setio
	MMU: exit

then it hangs.

In other cases (in particular with none of the BootX video checkboxes  
set and with kernel args set to "video=ofonly") I get a seemingly  
random collection of white dots on a black screen (nothing  
recognizable as potential kernel messages) and it hangs.


Is the ATI video driver compiled into the kernel on this CD?

Any help will be appreciated...

Thanks!

Rick


PS: Below is the output of lspci from this machine with sarge on it...

rick@debian:~$ ( lspci ; lspci -n ) | sort
0000:00:00.0 0600: 1057:0002 (rev 40)
0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: Motorola MPC106 [Grackle] (rev 40)
0000:00:0d.0 0200: 1186:1300 (rev 10)
0000:00:0d.0 Ethernet controller: D-Link System Inc RTL8139 Ethernet  
(rev 10)
0000:00:0e.0 0100: 1191:0009 (rev 06)
0000:00:0e.0 SCSI storage controller: Artop Electronic Corp ATP865  
(rev 06)
0000:00:0f.0 0604: 3388:0021 (rev 13)
0000:00:0f.0 PCI bridge: Hint Corp HB6 Universal PCI-PCI bridge (non- 
transparent mode) (rev 13)
0000:00:10.0 ff00: 106b:0010 (rev 01)
0000:00:10.0 ff00: Apple Computer Inc. Heathrow Mac I/O (rev 01)
0000:00:12.0 0300: 1002:4754 (rev 9a)
0000:00:12.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc 3D Rage  
I/II 215GT [Mach64 GT] (rev 9a)
0000:01:08.0 0c03: 1033:0035 (rev 41)
0000:01:08.0 USB Controller: NEC Corporation USB (rev 41)
0000:01:08.1 0c03: 1033:0035 (rev 41)
0000:01:08.1 USB Controller: NEC Corporation USB (rev 41)
0000:01:08.2 0c03: 1033:00e0 (rev 02)
0000:01:08.2 USB Controller: NEC Corporation USB 2.0 (rev 02)
0000:01:0b.0 0c00: 104c:8020
0000:01:0b.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments TSB12LV26  
IEEE-1394 Controller (Link)
rick@debian:~$