Dapper PPC beta CDs yield blank screen on Graphite iBook

[Alan Dove]

I posted this as a comment in bug #32491, but then decided it's probably a separate issue:

On an iBook G3 Clamshell/Graphite, the Dapper PPC beta live CD gives me the splash screen, but then blanks the screen entirely a few moments into the startup. The screen never comes back after that, so I can't tell what's wrong. The video=ofonly trick doesn't fix it, and neither do any of the other boot-up options on the disk.

I'm now trying to install from the text installer CD of Dapper beta, and it doesn't look good. Everything was fine through the installation, until I rebooted into the new system. It came up with a blank screen. I did hear the drumbeat, at which point I entered my username and password and heard the Ubuntu chimes in reply, so the problem seeems to be limited to the video output. But that renders Dapper useless for the clamshell iBook.

Breezy installed fine on this machine.

[Jorge Perez Burgos (jorge-perez-adaptia)]

I've an ibook G3 500 mhz (dual usb). It happens to me the same thing, trying ubuntu dapper beta.

[Alan Dove (alan-dove)]

Update: The install CDs failed several additional attempts, too, so I resorted to reinstalling Breezy, then upgrading to Dapper Beta through the update manager. That worked on the clamshell iBook. It took several hours, but it did work. I'm now testing Dapper on that machine and will report any additional bugs in separate threads.

As this problem seems to affect the dual-USB model as well (see Jorge's comment), this should probably be upgraded to an "urgent" bug. G3 iBooks are very popular, and they have just reached the end of their Apple upgrades, so they're excellent candidates for Ubuntu.

[tommyr (tommy2005)]

On MY white G3 ibook dual USB the Live CD loads fine up until the final splash screen then the screen splits horizontally in 2 with 2 cursors, etc. and becomes unusable. I tried reporting the bug but for some reason I get an "error occured" message....

Tom

[Alan Dove (alan-dove)]

Tom:

Your note appeared on the forum, despite the error message, so I
don't know what triggered that. In any case, it's clear there's a
fatal bug in the Dapper installer on iBooks. I sure hope they address
that before the release next month.

Have you tried reinstalling Breezy Badger, then upgrading to Dapper
from within the system? That worked in my case.

           --Alan

--
Alan Dove, Ph.D.
<email address hidden>
917.273.0544
http://dovdox.com
Gizmo or Skype: alandove

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

Ian Jackson and I have prepared three CD images that we'd like you to test, in an attempt to narrow down what's going on with this bug. If you would be so kind, could you please download, burn, and boot each of these in turn and report the results to this bug? Each of them is based on an install CD image, but is stripped down to make it quicker to download and to make it impossible for the image to actually install anything. A successful result will get part-way into the installer and then fail trying to find the Release file; a failing result will probably fail as this bug report describes, or in some other way.

  http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~ian/d/dapper-install-powerpc-stripped.iso
    This is just a stripped-down version of yesterday's daily build.

  http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~ian/d/yaboot-test-ordinary.iso
    As above, but with yaboot rebuilt on our porting system "davis".

  http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~ian/d/yaboot-test-weird.iso
    As above, but with yaboot rebuilt on davis using gcc-3.3.

Thanks in advance!

[Alan Dove (alan-dove)]

Colin:

Okay, I'll do that as soon as I can. My wife is using that machine
right now, but as long as this procedure won't affect its current
setup, I may be able to do this over the weekend.

           --Alan

--
Alan Dove, Ph.D.
<email address hidden>
917.273.0544
http://dovdox.com
Gizmo or Skype: alandove

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

Yes, other than having to reboot, it will have no effect on your existing installation.

[Alan Dove (alan-dove)]

Colin:

Okay, I guess I got "successful" results for all three CDs: they all start
the text installer, and after letting me pick my language and keyboard, they
autodetect hardware, then fail with "Error reading release file."

As stated in the bug report, the Dapper Beta installer also flies through
the text-based installation without a hitch on the iBook. It's the first
reboot into Ubuntu proper that blacks out the screen.

Let me know if I can be of further assistance.

--
          --Alan

Alan Dove, Ph.D.
http://home.earthlink.net/~alanwdove

On 5/18/06, Colin Watson <email address hidden> wrote:
>
> Ian Jackson and I have prepared three CD images that we'd like you to
> test, in an attempt to narrow down what's going on with this bug. If you
> would be so kind, could you please download, burn, and boot each of
> these in turn and report the results to this bug? Each of them is based
> on an install CD image, but is stripped down to make it quicker to
> download and to make it impossible for the image to actually install
> anything. A successful result will get part-way into the installer and
> then fail trying to find the Release file; a failing result will
> probably fail as this bug report describes, or in some other way.
>

[Jon Dufresne (jdufresne)]

I believe you are experiencing the same bug as #40568 try adding the HorizSync to your X and see if it makes a difference.

[Alan Dove (alan-dove)]

Jond:

That could be right. Because I fixed the problem by another route
(reinstalling Breezy and then using Synaptic to upgrade to Dapper),
the problem no longer exists on my machine. I could try reinstalling
Dapper from the CD to duplicate the problem, and then attempt your
solution, but this machine is in use at the moment so that's not
practical. I hope someone else is able to sort this out and get it
fixed in the final release.

[tommyr (tommy2005)]

Alan,
   Hello and sorry for the delay, things have been crazy here. I am
running (trying to!) the LiveCD. Someone told me to try running
horizsync next time. I will try that. Thank you for replying and if
you hear anything new please drop me another line. I just got a
Macbook, I'll have to try it on that also next...

Regards,
Tom

On May 16, 2006, at 10:06 AM, Alan Dove wrote:

> Tom:
>
> Your note appeared on the forum, despite the error message, so I
> don't know what triggered that. In any case, it's clear there's a
> fatal bug in the Dapper installer on iBooks. I sure hope they address
> that before the release next month.
>
> Have you tried reinstalling Breezy Badger, then upgrading to Dapper
> from within the system? That worked in my case.
>
> --Alan
>
> --
> Alan Dove, Ph.D.
> <email address hidden>
> 917.273.0544
> http://dovdox.com
> Gizmo or Skype: alandove
>
> --
> Dapper PPC beta CDs yield blank screen on Graphite iBook
> https://launchpad.net/bugs/40973

"I tell ya, it's lonely at the top when no one's on the bottom." -
Rodney Dangerfield

[tommyr (tommy2005)]

Jond,
    Just tried the new release version and it works PERFECTLY on the
g3 ibook 500mhz machine without the horizsync switch!

Thank you so much for your reply.

Regards,

Tom

On May 24, 2006, at 9:31 PM, jond wrote:

> I believe you are experiencing the same bug as #40568 try adding the
> HorizSync to your X and see if it makes a difference.
>
> --
> Dapper PPC beta CDs yield blank screen on Graphite iBook
> https://launchpad.net/bugs/40973

Everything in Moderation - Except Laughter.

[ebricca (ebricca)]

well as said before the automatic x configuration for the iBook G3 Graphite / SE 466mhz
on the dapper desktop cd has a little bug .. it assigns to the hsync parameter a wrong value

to get it working open the apropriate file with "sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf"
and change the line containing HorizSync to "HorizSync 20-40" save the file
and restart x/gnome with ctrl-opt backspace

now the video shouldnt be distorted anymore :)

[Clive Darra (osde8info)]

see see https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/86066

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for yaboot (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]