Yesterday I met with the brother of Doffo and exchanged some of my Classic Amiga gear for his Quad G5 PowerMac with Radeon x1950 video card and MorphOS license. To test it as soon as I got home, I set it up using my 42 inch TV and was happy to see it boot up almost silently to a 24bit 1920 x 1080 Ambient screen. It only has the base MorphOS3.13 installation, so I'll need to install the software I want, but I think I will also try to set up a triple boot, with MacOSX 10.5.8, and one of the PPC Linux distros. Can anyone give me advice on the best way to do that, and recommend the best Linux distro that you prefer? Also, what is the best web browser to run while using Linux on this machine? I hope I can find my Final Cut Pro installation CD/DVD's. I'll try searching the forum threads here, and the official MorphOS website, for how to change the name on the MorphOS license key. I wonder if they have to send me a new key, or if I can edit it myself?

Thanks Doffo for making this trade happen, even though we had obstacles in meeting each other.

Edit: Is the Chrysalis Pack available for MorphOS3.13, and is it (mostly) bug free, or should I search and download only the software and games that I will actually use?

[ Edited by amigadave 24.08.2020 - 09:53 ]

Chrysalis3.13 is available since february, so i guess it is matured.
https://www.morphos-storage.net/?page=Chrysalis

Congratulations!
Very nice machine. I have MorphOS, MacOSX and Debian Sid here.
You can use at least these recent linuxes: DebianSid, fienix (http://fienixppc.blogspot.com/), MintPPC (http://mintppc.nl/)

I started installation with MacOSX and other systems later. After installation of OSX use only one disktool (or gparted or hdconfig ) mixing of these tools can result in incorrect partition sizes. If you brave enough, you can prepare all partitions with OSX diskutil only.

The simplest way of triple boot selection is powermac graphical early startup(alt). The second is edit grub config (or yaboot config if you use it)
I remember that the latest debian Sid install image not works, you have to use older - I look at home which version works with grub nearly out of the box (the only thing which you have to do manually is to bless grub - after this it is visible on early startup.

Is Your graphics card X1950 PC flashed? If yes, it can work for all OSes. If you have original X1900 G5 edition, it doesn't work with linux (no accel). In this case you can use second card (HD6670 is one of the best 1slot with accel) and make custom xorg.conf. I can send it if you are interested.

Web browser I use Arctic fox from repo.powerprogress.org

And about Chrisalis - it is very nice collection, I cannot see any bug, but me personally install only parts of it, not whole Chrysalis pack.

Glad you are happy with the G5 Quad. I wish I could of at least met you to say Hi, but it seemed like things on my side were so busy that the time to do it would be next to impossible. I will get to meet you some day. My brother you met used to play some games on the Amiga, but he isn't like I am with the Amigas. :) Again, thanks! The sad thing is, I won't be able to use them until next year..... LOL! :P Least they are in a safe place...

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You might give Void Linux (klick) a try. It's a rolling release distro, constantly getting updates with latest software. So you get e.g. Firefox 79, LibreOffice 7, ... too. There's a list of the available packages on the homepage, also a FAQ. The isos boot straight into desktop, the text-based installer is not too complicated. I use Firefox or Epiphany for browsing on the G5, simply "'cause it works".

Thanks for the replies and suggestions.

I'm going to add a 2nd hdd, or more probably, a SSD, to the 1tb hdd that this PowerMac came with from Doffo. I will install MacOSX on the 1tb hdd, and choose a Linux distro to install along side of MorphOS on the SSD, or 2nd hdd. That way I hope to avoid MacOSX messing up my MorphOS and Linux partitions, and I'll just use the Mac firmware early boot selector to choose which OS to boot into. I don't really want to get into some other boot loader, unless it is extremely easy to install and set up.

For those of you who are running MorphOS on a Quad G5 PowerMac like mine, what CPU temp are you seeing, and what is an acceptable range? In the two test sessions I have run so far, I am seeing 69 to 76 degrees C, which seems a bit hot to me.

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I will have to dig up some temps for ya. I was comparing them with someone else who has a 2.7 GHz G5, and that G5's temps after the rebuild were much much lower. Give me a moment.. :)

Now I cant find the thread, imagine that. I believe your max temp of 76 was the person I was talking to's idle temperature without actually doing anything. Play a 720p video for awhile or at least do something so it utilizes the cpu more to see what its maxing out at. For what its worth, I left a 720p video playing overnight, and it was still playing the next day. :) Least it kept the CPU under load and temps were still good.

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Sounds like you are new to G5 PowerMac? Default cooling for a G5 Dual 2.7Ghz is 88c, and it is hard to maintain that. 69c to 76c? You are doing fine.

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If you have separate SSD/HDD for MorphOS+Linux, you can use SiI3132 PCI Express SATAII controller.
It don't reach full SATAII speed (300MB/s) but only cca 250MB/s - i.e PCIe-v1 x1 speed, still it is far better then internal disk.

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I am curious which PCIe you use? I did try one with a SiL3132 chipset but MorphOS didn't like it (though Linux did).

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No, not really that new to G5, but haven't used my other 2.7GHz G5 PowerMac in a long while, because I need to rebuild the liquid cooling system, so I had forgotten what the acceptable temp range for G5 systems is. Thanks for the answer.

@Doffo, thanks for looking for the thread, but no need to now.

@Sailor, thanks for the advice about adding a PCIe SATA controller, I might look for one.

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On my G5 Quad I don't use SiL3132 controller yet.
I have on internal SATA: OSX HDD, MOS SSD
Marwell discovery SATAII controller: Debian SSD

Currently I don't use G5 much for MOS - so it is not optimized yet. I have problem with PCIe NIC - after several days ( and registration of MOS ) it stops work under MOS. Other card works, but without registration, of course.
I will wait for next MOS release, then will solve the nic/registration and after that I will play with controllers.

But here is SiI3132 PCI Express SATA controllers listed as MOS compatible.

Is it possible to run OSX/MOS/Linux directly from the SSD connected to Sil3132 ?

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Yes - if you have working Sil3132 with MOS (with better luck than ernsteiswuerfel).
But you have to place booting image to separate partition, visible by OF of computer - i.e. on SATAI internal storage in case of G5 PCIe - MOS installer do it for you.
I have similar configuration on my Peg2 - boot.img is on IDE CFcard, and whole system on PCI SiI3114 controller + SSD.

Linux for sure works - again, grub or yaboot must reside on OF-readable partition.

OSX probably no - you must have driver for it, and I don't know if it exists for ppc OSX. And even if you find the driver - again you have to separate kernel + drivers to OF-readable partition and rest of the system to SATA2 drive.

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It really is crazy hot, but that's the range on the 2.7. It took me a long time to accept that. I used the new thermal control in MorphOS to bring it down to the ~79C range (with louder fans obviously) for a while, but it is back up to ~88 again. Seems I need to give my LCS some TLC also

[ Edited by redrumloa 31.08.2020 - 13:37 ]

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I am confused? I thought a PC flashed (ie standard) X1950 would NOT display the early startup screens? If it does, what is the point of using a flashed card anyway? Would ANY X1950 work (ie GT, Pro, XTX) for all 3 as I'd like to run all 3 and have a visible boot menu!

This is a little misunderstanding.
"Is Your graphics card X1950 PC flashed?" means PC card flashed with Mac ROM.

Standard PC cards without flashing not works with OF.
But standard PC cards without flashing can work inside Mac with MorphOS or linux - it assumes to have other Mac card for OF.

Thanks, but is it possible to boot to another boot selector with a NON-flashed card (Standard PC)? Like to Grub and then from Grub to Linux/MOS/OSX? If so, I can get a cheap X1950 and be happy and not bother with another Mac card for OF as I wont need OF

My Power Mac G5 AGP doesn't boot with X1950 pro.
Is it possible to boot MorphOS with X1950 (PC ROM)?

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Grub and Yaboot work, but also use the OF console as display. So if you want a boot selector you need a Mac-flashed card anyway.

Just tried booting PM G5 with 6600GT with PC-stock-X1950 card. OSX obviously boots fine but even in Leopard, OSX does not see the X1950 so it looks like I may as well flash another card to X1900Mac and install a better card for Linux since earlier post says X1900Mac doesnt accelerate on Linux?

You might discover that the card no longer works / has issues when using it under MorphOS after you've flashed it with a Mac firmware. If you intend to use MorphOS, better keep its firmware as-is.

> Just tried booting PM G5 with 6600GT with PC-stock-X1950 card.
> [...] even in Leopard, OSX does not see the X1950

Yes, OSX has the same limitation as the OpenFirmware in this regard.

So, I'd need to run OSX with the 6600GT and MOS with the X1950 (will a X1950GT work?) but are either any good in Debian Linux?

Just trying to get a good setup for my new G5 Quad. I have a flashable X1900 as well (for OSX) and better cards like K2000 Quadro (for Linux) but if a PC X1950GT works for MOS and works well for Linux then that would do me?