(X)(L)ubuntu (MATE) 16.04 LTS

[xeno74]

ubuntu MATE 16.04 PowerPC with a 1080p video:

[Srtest]

LXQt on LXDE core system on an Ubuntu Xenial 16.04 installation.

The partition is BTRFS on a MBR partition table.

Warning! LXQt is an experimental desktop based on LXDE and Razor-qt.

Graphics card: R9 270 (southern islands) which means radeonsi and no hardware acceleration.

LXQt uses by default Openbox. I changed it to Kwin and when hardware acceleration becomes available it can be changed to Kwin-wayland and have everything run on Wayland. Now if only they would fix it...

* I'm adding again the SMplayer gui which can use MPV instead of MPlayer for your convenience.

An updated version of LXQt - now as a complete package with the entire metapackage available (that includes like every other distro/gui its own selections). I'm still using the one I installed on top of Lubuntu Minimal.

Weaknesses: the various features are not there yet. They tried implementing stuff from all over and it can use quite a lot of optimization and expansions to the gui, albeit I've been using it without 3D or proper Glamor support for Power platforms users.

Strengths: surprisingly stable and on a BTRFS partition! also it is a complete package and as bonus you can use the Kwin window manager without installing everything that goes with it while of course it burdens the system somewhat because of crippled graphics drivers on the R9-270. Even so the performance is pretty good considering and you can watch movies in a window if you have to and browsing is almost unaffected (which might also be related to the state of Firefox on Linux)

* LXQt didn't make it to Lubuntu 16.04 (LTS) as Lubuntu-Next so you will have to install it after the initial net installation and choose it in the logon manager which for LXQt should be SDDM.

_____________________________

Finally with the 4.4.3 kernel I was able to move beyond 4.3, as 4.5 broke btrfs for me (ext4 works). Still no working hardware acceleration and testing the different configs almost ruined my installation because something is very sensitive to changing radeon to amdgpu and vice versa so I needed to go fbdev to be able to logon with the normal sw renderer.

[kilaueabart]

Spectre660 updated the ubuntu MATE 16.04 PowerPC ramdisk for the 4.4.3 kernel as well as the 4.1.18 Kernel.

Download: initrd-4.1.18_ubuntu-mate_16.04-ppc64-2.gz (I propose to download it with a right click on the link and then with the menu point "Save target as" or something like this.)

Looks like something I want, so I made my first try tonight, following the instructions I printed out for the earlier one I was able to install last week.

All seemed to be going well until step 22. After step 21 I got

--------------| Starting up the partitioner |--------------------
red red red red red blue 45% blue blue blue blue blue
scanning disks ...

I let this go for over five minutes, though nothing seemed to be happening, then hit the reset button and booted my first version of 16.04, to report. I am going to try it one more time tonight, but in the past retires have generally gotten me the same results.

[xeno74]

Looks like something I want, so I made my first try tonight, following the instructions I printed out for the earlier one I was able to install last week.

All seemed to be going well until step 22. After step 21 I got

--------------| Starting up the partitioner |--------------------
red red red red red blue 45% blue blue blue blue blue
scanning disks ...

I let this go for over five minutes, though nothing seemed to be happening, then hit the reset button and booted my first version of 16.04, to report. I am going to try it one more time tonight, but in the past retires have generally gotten me the same results.

Hi Kilaueabart,

Many thanks for testing the installation again.

With which kernel did you test? This installation initrd works only with the 4.4.3 kernel as well as the 4.1.18 kernel.

Which graphics card is installed in your AmigaONE X1000?

Spectre660 has released a new installation initrd for testing.

Download: initrd-4.1.18-4.4.3_ubuntu-mate_16.04-ppc64-3.gz (I propose to download it with a right click on the link and then with the menu point "Save target as" or something like this.)

This new installation initrd also works only with the 4.4.3 kernel as well as the 4.1.18 kernel.

@All

Please test the new installation initrd with Radeons HD7xxx and newer.

Cheers,

Christian

[mechanic]

Had some time so I gave 4.4.3-jm a try on Mintppc and it works just fine.

EDIT: Oops! Spoke to soon. My GL screensavers don't actually work. They display only static images.

[mechanic]

Looks like there have been some updates to the radeon drivers for the bonaire cards.
I did not see these in the 4.1.18 config file. (and I don't know where they are available.)

Notice the sdma1.bin and the lowercase _uvd for example.


HD7790, R7 260, R7 260X, R7 360

radeon/bonaire_ce.bin radeon/bonaire_mc.bin radeon/bonaire_me.bin radeon/bonaire_mec.bin radeon/bonaire_pfp.bin radeon/bonaire_rlc.bin radeon/bonaire_sdma1.bin radeon/bonaire_sdma.bin radeon/bonaire_smc.bin radeon/bonaire_uvd.bin radeon/bonaire_vce.bin

I have no idea if there are more. (?)

The R9 cards should be using things like amdgpu/tonga_ce.bin amdgpu/tonga_mc.bin amdgpu/tonga_me.bin etc..

What a mess.

[vox]

Looks like there have been some updates to the radeon drivers for the bonaire cards.
I did not see these in the 4.1.18 config file. (and I don't know where they are available.)

Notice the sdma1.bin and the lowercase _uvd for example.


HD7790, R7 260, R7 260X, R7 360

radeon/bonaire_ce.bin radeon/bonaire_mc.bin radeon/bonaire_me.bin radeon/bonaire_mec.bin radeon/bonaire_pfp.bin radeon/bonaire_rlc.bin radeon/bonaire_sdma1.bin radeon/bonaire_sdma.bin radeon/bonaire_smc.bin radeon/bonaire_uvd.bin radeon/bonaire_vce.bin

I have no idea if there are more. (?)

The R9 cards should be using things like amdgpu/tonga_ce.bin amdgpu/tonga_mc.bin amdgpu/tonga_me.bin etc..

What a mess.

On Radeon 6870: Net installer works with 4.18 kernel, but only with init.gz file from the kernel archive,
Sadly, it doesn`t boot to GUI even with manual add on of mate desktop (amiga welt.de trick)
Login refreshes so fast its impossible to login

Havent tried the x file replacement

[kilaueabart]

Hi Kilaueabart,

Many thanks for testing the installation again.

With which kernel did you test? This installation initrd works only with the 4.4.3 kernel as well as the 4.1.18 kernel.

It is 4.1.18, the same as apparently comes in the initrd file. I have just put 4.4.3 on my CF card, except its name there is "vmlinux-4.4.3-jm." Does that "-jm" mean I did something wrong?

Which graphics card is installed in your AmigaONE X1000?

Radeon HD 5450. Maybe I should shop for something over 7000? Most graphics cards I have seen online look too fat for the space available.

I really like last week's 16.04 and I bet I'd like the new one even more.

[xeno74]

It is 4.1.18, the same as apparently comes in the initrd file. I have just put 4.4.3 on my CF card, except its name there is "vmlinux-4.4.3-jm." Does that "-jm" mean I did something wrong?

No, you didn't something wrong. "-jm" is the author name.

Radeon HD 5450. Maybe I should shop for something over 7000?

No, you don't need to buy a new graphics card. Your graphics card supports hardware 3D acceleration and a Radeon HD7xxx and newer graphics cards don't support hardware 3D acceleration.

Did you test the installation with the latest installation initrd?

Download: initrd-4.1.18-4.4.3_ubuntu-mate_16.04-ppc64-3.gz

Looks like there have been some updates to the radeon drivers for the bonaire cards.
I did not see these in the 4.1.18 config file. (and I don't know where they are available.)

Notice the sdma1.bin and the lowercase _uvd for example.


HD7790, R7 260, R7 260X, R7 360

radeon/bonaire_ce.bin radeon/bonaire_mc.bin radeon/bonaire_me.bin radeon/bonaire_mec.bin radeon/bonaire_pfp.bin radeon/bonaire_rlc.bin radeon/bonaire_sdma1.bin radeon/bonaire_sdma.bin radeon/bonaire_smc.bin radeon/bonaire_uvd.bin radeon/bonaire_vce.bin

I have no idea if there are more. (?)

The R9 cards should be using things like amdgpu/tonga_ce.bin amdgpu/tonga_mc.bin amdgpu/tonga_me.bin etc..

What a mess.

You're really right. It's a mess. I can add the new firmwares but I'm not really sure if the new firmwares work correctly. What a mess. Thanks for the hints.

[xeno74]

FYI: There is an issue with the downloaded components while the installation of ubuntu MATE with the initrds. Spectre660 will release some installation ISOs. These ISOs will have the correct working components for installing ubuntu MATE 16.04.