Bug 1031895

Summary: Fedora 20 Beta ppc64 is unable to boot to graphical installer with nouveau
Product: [Fedora] Fedora Reporter: Erik Larsson <catacombae>
Component: xorg-x11-drv-nouveauAssignee: Ben Skeggs <bskeggs>
Status: CLOSED EOL QA Contact: Fedora Extras Quality Assurance <extras-qa>
Severity: high Docs Contact:
Priority: unspecified    
Version: 20CC: airlied, ajax, bskeggs, dehua.yang
Target Milestone: ---   
Target Release: ---   
Hardware: ppc64   
OS: Linux   
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version: Doc Type: Bug Fix
Doc Text:
Story Points: ---
Clone Of: Environment:
Last Closed: 2015-06-29 12:59:16 UTC Type: Bug
Regression: --- Mount Type: ---
Documentation: --- CRM:
Verified Versions: Category: ---
oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team: --- Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:
Attachments:
Description Flags
dmesg output from first attempt to boot the Fedora 20 installer
none
dmesg output from second attempt to boot the Fedora 20 installer
none
lshw output from existing Ubuntu 13.10 (ppc w/ppc64 kernel) instance
none
lshw output from existing Ubuntu 13.10 (ppc w/ppc64 kernel) instance none

Description Erik Larsson 2013-11-19 05:24:01 UTC
Created attachment 825887 [details]
dmesg output from first attempt to boot the Fedora 20 installer

Description of problem:
When booting the install CD/DVD (netinst) of Fedora 20 Beta ppc64, nouveau throws a lot of error messages during boot, and when the grapical Anaconda installer attempts to start, the screen is just filled with garbage.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
20-Beta (ppc64)

How reproducible:
100%

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Boot Fedora 20 Beta ppc64 netinst image on a PowerMac 11,2 (PowerMac G5 Dual 2.3 GHz, late 2005).
2. Watch the error messages roll by after nouveau initialization.
3. Watch the Anaconda installer outputting garbage on the screen.

Actual results:
Error messages, unable to use X11/the Anaconda installer.

Expected results:
No error messages, Anaconda GUI installer usable.

Additional info:
Graphics card is a GeForce 6600, stock Mac model that came with the computer.

Comment 1 Erik Larsson 2013-11-19 05:24:41 UTC
Created attachment 825888 [details]
dmesg output from second attempt to boot the Fedora 20 installer

Comment 2 Erik Larsson 2013-11-19 05:28:13 UTC
Created attachment 825889 [details]
lshw output from existing Ubuntu 13.10 (ppc w/ppc64 kernel) instance

Comment 3 Erik Larsson 2013-11-19 05:33:05 UTC
Created attachment 825890 [details]
lshw output from existing Ubuntu 13.10 (ppc w/ppc64 kernel) instance

Fixed language (Swedish->English).

Comment 4 dehua.yang 2013-11-19 07:16:18 UTC
Similar case here. I booted Fedora 20 Beta PPC64 DVD successfully by OpenFirmware(CDROM doesn't boot) until the Anaconda started, there was no error appeared during the booting process. Then the screen was filled with colorful rectangles(white, green, purple and black) and stuck there. This may concern with Nouveau driver's acceleration, because I have same problem on Gentoo PPC64 when Nouveau acceleration is enabled.  My computer is Apple G5, PowerMac7,2, late 2003. The graphics card is GeForce 6800Ultra DDL.

Comment 5 Erik Larsson 2013-11-19 07:35:10 UTC
Here is a workaround to get you to the Anaconda graphical installer screen:

When you are in GRUB, select the first entry in the list and press 'e' to edit the entry before boot. Then add 'nouveau.noaccel=1' to the end of the line starting with 'linux'.

I.e. the line:
   linux /ppc/ppc${2}/vmlinuz  ro

Should look like this:
   linux /ppc/ppc${2}/vmlinuz  ro nouveau.noaccel=1

Comment 6 dehua.yang 2013-11-20 00:18:06 UTC
Thank you, Erik. Can I boot to a console, then launch Anaconda manually?

Comment 7 Erik Larsson 2013-11-20 05:48:53 UTC
(In reply to dehua.yang from comment #6)
> Thank you, Erik. Can I boot to a console, then launch Anaconda manually?

There's probably some way to do that, but I'm no expert on the Fedora boot process. Google might help you.
Why would you want to do this? If you need a console you have one available on virtual tty2 (Ctrl-Alt-F2).

Comment 8 dehua.yang 2013-11-21 02:10:45 UTC
Well, it seems I am more comfortable with a console. Many times graphics applications could lockup the system so hard, that I can't open anoher VT because the keyboard doesn't respond any more.
The Nouveau driver for PowerMac G5 could be a real problem with many current distributions. I tried Lubuntu 13.10 Powerpc Desktop also, I has the same problem  as Fedora 20 Beta and Gentoo PPC64. Nouveau acceleration doesn't work, it will lock the GPU up with many errors like:
ERROR nsource: LIMIT_COLOR nstatus: PROTECTION_FAULT
failed to idle channel 0xcccc0001 [Xorg[29747]]
DRM lockup - switching to fbcon
... ...
I really wish this problem could be ironed out soon.

Comment 9 dehua.yang 2013-11-22 12:33:01 UTC
I updated my system, now with:
kernel 3.12.1
mesa 9.2.3
nouveau 1.0.10
xorg-server 1.14.4
After I put option '"ShadowBF" "true"' in xorg.conf, the nouveau driver works with acceleration on gentoo ppc64.  In glxinfo it has "direct rendering: Yes", and no nouveau error in dmesg and Xorg.0.log. I'll try to boot Fedora 20 Beta with acceleration(without acceleration it boots successfully).

Comment 10 dehua.yang 2013-11-22 13:11:41 UTC
I just tried to boot Fedora 20 Beta DVD, the result is as following:
1). Using OpenFirmware with kernel command line "nouveau.noaccel=1" in grub, the DVD boots into Adaconda successfully.
2). When "nouveau.shadowfb=1" is used in grub, the problem persists.
Can't transfer ShadowFB param to nouveau driver by "nouveau.shadowfb" in kernel command line?

Comment 11 Erik Larsson 2013-11-22 14:09:01 UTC
(In reply to dehua.yang from comment #10)
> I just tried to boot Fedora 20 Beta DVD, the result is as following:
> 1). Using OpenFirmware with kernel command line "nouveau.noaccel=1" in grub,
> the DVD boots into Adaconda successfully.
> 2). When "nouveau.shadowfb=1" is used in grub, the problem persists.
> Can't transfer ShadowFB param to nouveau driver by "nouveau.shadowfb" in
> kernel command line?

No, the module params for nouveau are very few. I suggest you boot install media with 'nouveau.noaccel=1', install Fedora, boot from installed Fedora with 'nouveau.noaccel=1', fix up xorg.conf with the ShadowFB option and reboot without 'nouveau.noaccel=1'.
I haven't tried this, so it would be interesting to know if 3D acceleration can be made to work.

Comment 12 dehua.yang 2013-11-23 01:17:28 UTC
Thank you. I'll do as you suggested if we still have this glitch when Fedora 20 becomes GA.
Actually this is not HW acceleration by using ShadowFB. In Xorg.0.log there is "Using Shadow Framebuffer - acceleration disabled", so I still have a broken nouveau driver with acceleration. When using ShadowFB it seems the graphics operations are faster than that NoAccel option is enabled on my system. The 3D seems not supported, there is no difference in FPS when running glxgears in both situations(40fps in may case).

Comment 13 EMR_Fedora 2014-03-12 04:33:10 UTC
Erik Larsson your recommendation worked for me running Fedora 20 PPC 64-bit release on a Mac G5 with NVidia video card! Thanks! :)

Comment 14 Fedora End Of Life 2015-05-29 09:47:59 UTC
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Comment 15 Fedora End Of Life 2015-06-29 12:59:16 UTC
Fedora 20 changed to end-of-life (EOL) status on 2015-06-23. Fedora 20 is
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