Re: Apple iMac G4/700 - Black text at boot

[Michael <macallan%netbsd.org@localhost>]

Hello,

On Wed, 11 Feb 2015 21:20:00 -0500
me%jeremiahford.com@localhost wrote:

> On 2015-02-11 21:16, Michael wrote:
> > Hello,
> > 
> > On Wed, 11 Feb 2015 20:23:41 -0500
> > me%jeremiahford.com@localhost wrote:
> > 
> >> I just installed netbsd 6.1.6 macppc on an iMac G4/700.
> >> 
> >> After first boot from hardrive, the console text is red, but as it 
> >> nears
> >> finishing the boot process the text turn black ((or invisible)) 
> >> against
> >> my black screen and I cannot see it.
> >> 
> >> If I log in ((simply typing into the keyboard with good faith that it 
> >> is
> >> correct)) I can log in.  If I hit the right commands and any red text 
> >> is
> >> called, I can see it.  But it is mostly black or invisible.
> >> 
> >> I can eject the cd drive & reboot the computer, so I know I am logging
> >> in fine.  Just can't see text.
> >> 
> >> Has anyone run into this issue before?
> > 
> > What kind of graphics hardware is that? I assume some sort of nvidia?
> > 
> 
> Since I cannot look it up at command line, I had to look it up via 
> Google.
> 
> It seems to be a "NVIDIA GeForce2 MX graphics processor with AGP 2X 
> support" as per
> http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/imac/specs/imac_700_fp.html

Alright, that explains the colour problems - there's no driver for this
chip in 6.x and OpenFirmware calls set only palette registers for the
analog output, I guess the iMac G4's panel uses the digital one.

Any chance you could try a -current or 7.x kernel? I wrote a driver for
the 2MX ( gffb ) a while ago and also added a workaround for the
palette problem to genfb.

have fun
Michael