Linux again in 2023

[sailorMH]

After introducing of RadeonHD v5 ( which first release not works with two gfx cards ) I cease the using of linux on my AmigaOne X1000 ( main card is Southerm Island, Tahiti chip ). In the same time my installation of Debian Sid on Powermac Quad was broken, so I am using long time linux AMD64 only.
Now Hans upgrade RadeonHD v5 and it works with more gfx cards and xeno74 helps me setup Mesa on my Pegasos 2. So it is the right time again start with linux on Powerpc 64 again.

And because Powerpc big endian linux had many issues, I have many questions about new installation:

1. are there any distro that can be installed from install/live ISO or USB? I found only Fienix, but have no success with boot USB ( I will post on Fienix topic later ).
Of course I can install all on Powermac + dd image to X1000, Powermac has better installer support. But direct installation is better.

2. which distros are up-to-date? Debian11? Some others? Or generally which is reccomended? In past I prefer Debian/Debian-based, and also Fedora, which was super stable and fast.

3. is Mesa 3D ppc big endian support still only upto r600 driver ( Northern Island )?

4. howto use Southern Island cards?
- is better to use radeon or amdgpu modesetting for 2D hardware accelation?
- is Mesa radeonsi still no go? Is possible to use software rasterizer?

5. I have issues with linux and PCIe switches - cannot boot, tested with ASM 2814 and ASM2824 types. Do have any experience with PCIe switches?
If I cannot fully use Southern Island card, I want put to in X1000 x8 slot PCIe switch x8 -> x4 + x4, and connect there NVME and Northern Island gfx.

[xeno74]

1. are there any distro that can be installed from install/live ISO or USB? I found only Fienix, but have no success with boot USB ( I will post on Fienix topic later ).

Musa was able to boot the Fienix installer.

Link: Fienix 6.0.1

2. which distros are up-to-date? Debian11? Some others? Or generally which is reccomended? In past I prefer Debian/Debian-based, and also Fedora, which was super stable and fast.

Fienix is our future. You can also use Void PPC but it is EOL.

3. is Mesa 3D ppc big endian support still only upto r600 driver ( Northern Island )?

4. howto use Southern Island cards?
- is better to use radeon or amdgpu modesetting for 2D hardware accelation?
- is Mesa radeonsi still no go? Is possible to use software rasterizer?

For Radeon SI, fbdev is better. Yes, it is possible to use the software rasterizer with fbdev.

Andreas Wolf has explained it very well.

> Working was only radeon (=r100) upto r600 (i.e. Northern Islands).

Yes, this hasn't changed. I think I may have been somewhat unclear. I'll try again:
Your statement that PPC BE Linux supports up to Northern Islands (= RV9xx) is correct. This is because it supports up to TeraScale 3 GPU architecture. What's a bit misleading though is to correspond this with the HD6xxx cards when ⅓ of HD7xxx cards are also supported, and even some of HD8xxx and R5 cards, because they use TeraScale GPUs.
The first sentence in my previous comment was more of a general statement that there is no general correspondence between card family (HDXxxx, Rx etc.), GPU family ("... Islands", R(V)Xxx) and GPU architecture (TeraScale 1-3, GCN1-5 etc.), of which only the last really determines (non-)support. This is illustrated by the fact that MorphOS supports not all of Northern Islands GPUs (namely only those of TeraScale 2 architecture, but not those of TeraScale 3).

> Next gfx generations needs radeonsi 3D driver, which not worked on Big endian.

Yes, this is because those GPU families starting with Southern Islands (= "R1000" internal name) use GCN architecture.

> Does it mean, that radeonsi now works with Big endian? Or are
> there some special BE driver? Pls, do you have link for some info?

No, no and no

[sailorMH]

4. howto use Southern Island cards?
- is better to use radeon or amdgpu modesetting for 2D hardware accelation?
- is Mesa radeonsi still no go? Is possible to use software rasterizer?

For Radeon SI, fbdev is better. Yes, it is possible to use the software rasterizer with fbdev.

Does it mean, that for SI cards not works even the kernel modesetting? I cannot found on internet how it is with big endian + radeon or amdgpu for SI card.
Because if radeon or amdgpu works here, it is enough for daily use, mesa 3d is only nice-to-have for games.
And you also mentioned fbdev - it is radeon fbdev ?

I thought ( according to this scheme https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ ... _stack.svg ) that radeon kernel module ( and maybe amdgpu ) works also for CGN 1+2, i.e SI too. Because it is the same code like for Northern Island cards. But of course, I can be wrong and SI have something which is not works.

So what, I have to test both radeon and amdgpu drivers and look what is work.
If not, frame buffer is sufficient only for shell, not desktop and I need second graphic card.

Andreas Wolf has explained it very well.

> Working was only radeon (=r100) upto r600 (i.e. Northern Islands).

Yes, this hasn't changed. I think I may have been somewhat unclear. I'll try again:
Your statement that PPC BE Linux supports up to Northern Islands (= RV9xx) is correct. This is because it supports up to TeraScale 3 GPU architecture. What's a bit misleading though is to correspond this with the HD6xxx cards when ⅓ of HD7xxx cards are also supported, and even some of HD8xxx and R5 cards, because they use TeraScale GPUs.
The first sentence in my previous comment was more of a general statement that there is no general correspondence between card family (HDXxxx, Rx etc.), GPU family ("... Islands", R(V)Xxx) and GPU architecture (TeraScale 1-3, GCN1-5 etc.), of which only the last really determines (non-)support. This is illustrated by the fact that MorphOS supports not all of Northern Islands GPUs (namely only those of TeraScale 2 architecture, but not those of TeraScale 3).

I read it yesterday - perfect explanation. But I have to read it three times Andreas is too fast for me .
From this point of view I have to check what is fastest TeraScale 3 single and dual-slot cards to obtain maximum from X1000.
Now I am using HD6670 - fastest single-slot Northern Island / TeraScale 2.

[sailorMH]

I have CFE a kernel booting question:

Root booting parameters root=LABEL=fienix + rootwait not works together. I can use root/dev/sdb4 instead, but I prefer permanent naming scheme.
Does somebody tested if works root=PARTUUID= ?

And inside X1000 CFE, is possible to read input from file? Or store env value from file? Because I don't want to type all UUIDs by hand
I know, at least I can use root=LABEL=fienix + rootdelay=x, but rootwait is nicer

[xeno74]

Root booting parameters root=LABEL=fienix + rootwait not works together. I can use root/dev/sdb4 instead, but I prefer permanent naming scheme.

You need an initial ramdisk for booting with a label and your partition needs a label.

You can find an initial ramdisk in the stable longterm kernel 5.10 package.

Download: linux-image-5.10.177-X1000_X5000.tar.gz

Add a label to a partition:

Code: Select all

tune2fs -L fienix /dev/sdb2

CFE commands:

IMPORTANT: Please connect the USB stick after you have reached the CFE with the f key.

1. Code: Select all

   CFE> setenv bootargs "root=LABEL=fienix rootdelay=5"

2. Code: Select all

   CFE> ramdisk -z -addr=0x24000000 -fatfs usbdisk0:initrd-5.10.img

3. Code: Select all

   CFE> boot -elf -noints -fatfs usbdisk0:vmlinux-6.4

[sailorMH]

thanks

[Hypex]

I just noticed this is a 5.x kernel. But the current kernels are 6.x. I tried to build a 6.3 ramdisk from a 5.6 kernel system and it failed to boot. I suspect this is because my Ubuntu system using 5.6 is too old to build a ramdisk to boot 6.3. The base system commands must be incompatible. The boot drops to an initramfs prompt after giving errors about not finding mount and other things.