Newbie with Power Mac G5.

[Brian D. Carlstrom]

Brian Durant writes:
 > On 5. feb 2006, at 0.57, Brian D. Carlstrom wrote:
 > 
 > > does "uname -r" report kernel version 2.6.15-1.1830_FC4? this is the
 > > latest "updates" kernel.
 > 
 > The thermal and fan control seem to be working.
as expected in 2.6.15, although this is a major hurdle to be across in
my opinion.

 > No problems with working in X as long as the sound is off,  

again, video is another major hurdle. YDL 4.1 says it doesn't work for them:
    http://www.terrasoftsolutions.com/support/hardware/breakdown/index.php?hw_cat_id=5
I still have some G5 PowerMac's that won't work with their Apple
monitors. 

As far as sound goes, you did say you had an updated ALSA package, no
luck with that?

 > but as soon as I try to log out, the system freezes. I have also  
 > noticed that if I am working in the command line before running  
 > "startx", I have to be very careful when using the backspace key. If  
 > I go too far, I get the "ata1: command 0x35 timeout, stat 0x50  
 > host_stal 0x4 hda lost interrupt mpic_enable_irq timeout" problem.  

well, this seems to be the major remaining hurdle. some people were
saying that the sound was the problem, saying to disable artsd and esd:

    http://www.suseforums.net/index.php?showtopic=19034
    http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-89712.html

that seems to be a little suspect to be but who am I to say.

 > The /etc/yaboot.conf seems to have been updated for the new linux
 > kernels that were installed. I added a line "default=2.6.15-1.1830_F"
 > in yaboot.conf,n

I don't think that is necessary. In my experience, confirmed in the
yaboot.conf man page, the first one in the file is the default, and that
is where updates place new kernels.

 > but at the OpenFirmware  
 > prompt at startup I can't just type in "runlevel 3" to make sure that  
 > the default kernel doesn't boot into X automatically as the system  
 > freezes when I get a normal graphic login.

you can change the default runlevel in /etc/inittab from 
     id:5:initdefault:
to
     id:3:initdefault:

also, you might want to try using something like the "yumex" GUI instead
of the "yum" command line since the problem seems terminal related
somehow. of course, you'd have to use yum to install it. I would do "yum
-y install yumex", perhaps from some "run command" GUI to avoid the
terminal that seems to be plaguing you. I think up2date is going in FC5
if its not gone already.

-bri