Fienix - New PowerPC Distro

[daz]

Wouldn't boot to a desktop on first reboot, just a white screen with lots of random coloured dots on. Needed to switch to the primary console (ctrl-alt-f1) login then run startx. I see a lot of radeon errors in dmesg - which don't appear with the Mate install I have. I'll try some other kernels to see if that fixes the problem.

This turned out to be the RadeonSI+glamor on BE systems bug. I've copied the xorg.conf file from my Mate install and now it boots normally, although as this uses fbdev it's not very fast.

I'll have a play and see if there are configs using radeon I can get to work, but until radeonsi works on BE I expect to fail.

Regards
Darren

[xeno74]

Hi Kilaueabart,

First, please use the commands that Darren suggested to you. usb storage, ls usb 0 ....

find out the numbers by entering the command 'usb storage' at the uboot prompt. (after you've run usb reset) As long as they aren't the same kind of USB device you should be able to work out the numbers to use from the list you get. Also you can use 'ls usb 0' or 'ls usb 1' to list which files are on which device.

If you know the correct number of your USB stick, then you can use it in the commands below. For example usb 0:1.

sdc 8:32 1 29.8G 0 disk
├─sdc2 8:34 1 29.7G 0 part /media/bart/FIENIX
└─sdc1 8:33 1 128M 0 part /media/bart/CYRUSBOOT

I think sda and sdb are hard disks so sdc is the first USB stick.

Please try the following commands in U-Boot:

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setenv bootargs root=/dev/sdc2 rootdelay=5

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fatload usb 0:1 1000000 uImage-4.18

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fatload usb 0:1 2000000 cyrus_p5020_eth_poweroff.dtb

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bootm 1000000 - 2000000

You can also boot with a label. You have to copy the uInitrd to /dev/sdc1 (/media/bard/CYRUSBOOT). You can find an uInitrd and the associated kernel in the latest kernel packages.

Download stable kernel 4.19.3: vmlinux-4.19.3-AmigaOne_X1000_X5000.tar.gz

Download latest test kernel 4.20-rc6: vmlinux-4.20-rc6-AmigaOne_X1000_X5000.tar.gz

For example for the kernel 4.19.3:

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setenv bootargs root=LABEL=FIENIX rootdelay=5

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fatload usb 0:1 1000000 uImage-4.19

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fatload usb 0:1 1c00000 cyrus_p5020_eth_poweroff.dtb

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fatload usb 0:1 2000000 uInitrd

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bootm 1000000 2000000 1c00000

Good luck!

Cheers,
Christian

[xeno74]

Preparing a USB stick for Fienix: https://fienixppc.blogspot.com

[kilaueabart]

sdc 8:32 1 29.8G 0 disk
├─sdc2 8:34 1 29.7G 0 part /media/bart/FIENIX
└─sdc1 8:33 1 128M 0 part /media/bart/CYRUSBOOT

I think sda and sdb are hard disks so sdc is the first USB stick.

I only have the one hard disk that came with the machine.

Please try the following commands in U-Boot:

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setenv bootargs root=/dev/sdc2 rootdelay=5

Yes, it had occurred to me that would be the thing to do. But then a new problem! sdc and sdd keep switching with each other! When I tried sdc2 I got an old thumbdrive version of REMIX. So I switched to sdd2, and again the old REMIX! Getting ready for a new try, and spending a bit of time on "ls usb (#)" and "usb storage" I discovered that the drive had lost contact. I reinserted it, did another reset, more "usb storage," and the next time I tried (sdc? sdd? I don't remember) I was delighted to see "Welcome to FIENIX" flash by in the messages after the one about usb drive. But what I ended up with that time was a screenful of a green and purple cloth-like design with a text cursor in the middle. When I moved the cursor, it turned into an arrow. I moved it back to screen center, typed on the keyboard and it disappeared for a while. Maybe waiting for a password, I thought. So I went back to 16.04 and looked at the Fienix installation and boot notes. No password!

I'm in REMIX now, and lsblk says FIENIX is sdd2.

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fatload usb 0:1 1000000 uImage-4.18

That fails, because there's no 4.18 in wherever usb 0:1 targets. But I switched to uImage-4.20, which usb 0:1 always finds for MATE and REMIX.'ll

I'll try the label approach as soon as I get 4.20-rc6 set up. Thanks.

[xeno74]

Kilaueabart,

Please connect only the Fienix USB stick and disconnect all other sticks and try it with the following commands again.

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setenv bootargs root=/dev/sdb2 rootdelay=5

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fatload usb 0:1 1000000 uImage-4.18

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fatload usb 0:1 2000000 cyrus_p5020_eth_poweroff.dtb

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bootm 1000000 - 2000000

Thanks,
Christian

[caseycullen]

Alephone engine and the games relying upon it (Marathon, RubiconX, etc.) should be fixed.
Some packages were broken by updates after I had successfully installed/configured them. I'll have to watch this more carefully. I should have Darkplaces, SMPlayer, and Gimp working again this week.
Let me know if you run into anything else.
-Casey

Casey some feedback.

Midori -As explained can play Youtube via VLC but VLC may crash after playing a number of files, if the 2 fixes are reapplied all is good again, I suspect this is just a cache issue. If you don't play videos it appears to be pretty stable.

Printing - Cups was installed with your image so I used the web interface (using Midori) to configure my printer. I have a canon Pixma MG6675 but none of the provided drivers work properly so instead I use a generic driver with IPP everywhere (included in the drop down driver section), my printer runs fine and is available to out put programs like LibreOffice.

http://localhost:631/printers/

Not working:
Mplayer (cannot select appropriate codecs)
MPV
SMTUBE
SMPlayer
Gimp
Blender

A number of programs cannot be installed because of dependencies including Alephone, Darkplaces, Marathon, Retroblazer and a few others. From some of your screenshots it appeared you have some of these running? I'll start to catalogue what runs (and there is a lot) and what doesn't. That may give you a starting point should you tackle sorting some of the issues.

I'll say it again though great work, nice to have updated software available to us.

[caseycullen]

I'm really glad you like the design.
Good catch, I'll include the theme config in /etc/skel. I already have some configuration files in there and the theme should be also.
-Casey

Hi Casey,

I love the design of Fienix! I created a new user on Fienix yesterday. It works without any problems but this user has only the Debian default MATE theme.

Could you please copy the home directory of the user fienix to /etc/skel? The directory /etc/skel/ (skel is derived from the “skeleton”) is used to initiate home directory when a user is first created.

Thanks,
Christian

[acefnq]

Casey
Can confirm Alephone (Marathon1 and 2) all work again. Thanks for your efforts. Any chance of getting KMahjongg working? Perhaps a lond shot but it is what relaxes me -:)

Great work

Allan

[kilaueabart]

Kilaueabart,

Please connect only the Fienix USB stick and disconnect all other sticks and try it with the following commands again.

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setenv bootargs root=/dev/sdb2 rootdelay=5

etc.
Christian

万歳! I am impressed! Fortunately I found out how to connect to my MATE Documents where I had stored the last password Hyperion gave me, or I woould not have been able to write this reply from Fienix.

It looks like the linux I've been dreaming of, except a bit slow. That is I assume because it's running from a USB drive, and when I can get it on hard disk it will be quicker? I love it that Firefox doesn't keep scolding me to upgrade.

I don't think there is a chance it would work, but I'm going to try setting up a new HD partition with Media Toolbox, then format it with GParted.

[kilaueabart]

It looks like the linux I've been dreaming of, except a bit slow. That is I assume because it's running from a USB drive, and when I can get it on hard disk it will be quicker? I love it that Firefox doesn't keep scolding me to upgrade.

I don't think there is a chance it would work, but I'm going to try setting up a new HD partition with Media Toolbox, then format it with GParted.

Well, it did work. I'm now booting from /dev/sda7. But it has not gotten faster. Incredibly slower! It took about half an hour to do this edit!

(Later) Oh, oh! I've had this problem before but I don't remember how I fixed it. I got out of Fienix when it told me I had 0 bytes of usable space left. Back in MATE (also unusually slow!) GParted tells me /dev/sad7 AKA FIENIX has a Size of 100.95 GiB, with 6.47 GiB Used, and 16.83 MiB Unused. What's going on?