12" PowerBook G4 867MHz - Xorg doesn't work

S

shifuimam

I've just finished installing FreeBSD on an old 12" PowerBook G4 867Mhz. Full hardware details are available here for reference. The relevant bits:

  • CPU: PowerPC 7455
  • GPU: Nvidia GeForce 420 Go (32MB VRAM)
  • Trackpad: ADB (not USB - confirmed)
We've compiled xorg and everything is there, but launching it via startx just displays a black screen. Using Xorg -retro does display the generic X11 screen - a gray background with an X-shaped cursor in the middle. The cursor does not move.

Upon killing X and going back to a command window does show a couple errors, but they seem only to be related to the ADB internal trackpad:

Code: 
(EE) xf86OpenSerial: Cannot open device /dev/ums0
(EE) product 0x1000: cannot open input device
(EE) PreInit returned NULL for "product 0x1000"
(EE) config/hal: NewInputDeviceRequest failed (8)

What sort of voodoo is required to get this working? We're using the old open-source nv driver. Our intention is to get noveau working some point, though.
 
Some additional info:

/dev/ums0 is an external USB optical mouse attached to the machine, by the way. I tried to change the device to /dev/ams0, which is the internal ADB trackpad, but Xorg is still trying to use the USB mouse.

The USB mouse does work at the command line interface. The ADB trackpad does not. According to dmesg, the keyboard is also ADB.

I also searched through dmesg for anything related to the GPU, and came up completely empty.
 
Removed the mouse InputDevice - no dice. We also force-stopped moused so that X could use it. No mouse in Xorg -retro, but no errors in Xorg.0.log, either.
 
You must edit the xorg.conf file with the variables for the screen.

The VertRefresh and HiorizSync values must be put in, even for a laptop.
You must add
Code: 
Option "UseFBDev" "False"
into xorg.conf.

Only install the drivers for your system and no extras.

There is a tutorial: http://forums.freebsd.org/showthread.php?t=13827 .

There is a mailing list: http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-ppc .

Go through the tutorial, subscribe to the mailing list. The former will give you a template to follow, the latter has people who use the same architecture and equipment as you.
 
there are input problems(mouse) check Input section(or related entries) in Xorg.conf

can you post(or pastebin) a complete /var/log/Xorg.0.log?

you must specify Hsync and Vsync manually on these machines, and modelines if a specific mode is not available with default settings
 
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