Debian 8 "Jessie" on Apple iBook G4

Someone kindly gave me an iBook G4, the latest model before Apple switched over to Intel processors and started to make MacBooks. (See here for information and specifications.)

This iBook (14-inch "Snow," released July 2006, featuring a Radeon graphics chip) is model A1134 (order number M9848LL/A).

Its motherboard includes the PowerPC processor (an initialism for Performance Optimization With Enhanced RISC – Performance Computing). So the selection of suitable current operating systems is limited.

Already, the iBook was running Debian 7 ("Wheezy"). However, that release reached end of life April 26, 2016. Also, I wanted to update Wheezy's version of Firefox. So, I thought I would try to upgrade it to Debian 8 ("Jessie").

The upgrade to Jessie went fairly smoothly, except for one problem. (Presumably, you'll also experience the same problem, if you do a fresh install on an iBook.)

By default, Jessie's Xorg detects the iBook's Radeon graphics chip, and thus selects the Xorg Radeon X-Windows driver. However, it assumes—without verifying this—that the chip will handle 3D graphics (OpenGL/DRI2). Something about this hangs the iBook.

I found two ways of handling this problem.

1. Tell Xorg not to use hardware acceleration with the Radeon driver; or
2. Tell Xorg to select the "modesetting" driver instead.

Now, generally speaking, you can access the iBook's virtual terminals by pressing (simultaneously) fn-ctrl-alt-F1 (or F2, F3, F4, F5, or F6). (This requirement to press 'fn' wasn't obvious to me—at first.)

Also, if necessary, you can access the iBook's command line by:

1. The second time the Yaboot loader pauses, type 'Linux init=/bin/bash';
2. Type 'mount -no remount,rw /';
3. (Here's where you type whatever you want); and
4. Type 'exit'.

You can determine the graphics chip you have by typing 'sudo lspci -v'.

Then, per Debian's Xorg wiki page, do the following steps:

1. Stop your display manager (e.g., gdm3) by typing 'sudo /etc/init.d/gdm3 stop';
2. Type 'sudo Xorg -configure';
3. Type 'sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf'.

Under the "Device" Section, either:

1. Uncomment Option Accel, and change its value to "False" (including the quotes); or
2. Change Driver to "modesetting" (including the quotes).

BTW, I successfully used display manager lightdm and desktop environment lxde.

Copyright (c) 2017 Mark D. Blackwell.