Taking a Walk With Debian Jessie

It's about that time in Debian's release cycle again where Testing enters a feature-freeze and all of Debian's worker bees hunker down and concentrate on bug squashing for their next stable release (yes, my metaphors are terrible). Also, they've recently come out with Jessie Installer Beta 2, so what better time to check out how Jessie's coming along and see if it'll crush our dreams or not?

In order to do this, I wanted to do a clean install instead of upgrading from Wheezy and having the safety valve of falling back on the old kernel. No safety nets here! Also, it's on a testing machine. I'm not gonna risk my stable install for you people. So onto the exercise. How does Jessie measure up?

The installer itself remains very familiar. It's only toward the end where it throws in something new: fresh choices for the desktop environment. In addition to the usual Gnome, KDE, LXDE, and XFCE, they also have options for Cinnamon and Mate. Good to know, but I was in a hurry and deferred installing a desktop environment for later.

To get a GUI up and running quick, I installed Openbox over the base system along with Xorg and LightDM and rebooted. It didn't take long for things to go wrong. For some reason LightDM didn't want to start up, so I replaced it with Slim, which is what I should've done in the beginning since it's much faster, and tried again. This time I got past the login screen but quickly found there's an issue with the radeon driver. This G3 iBook has an ATI card in it, so I need the radeon driver to give me at least 2D desktop acceleration, but I'm getting kicked back to the fbdev driver instead. Either the radeon driver is broken or it stopped supporting another slew of cards. I'm not sure which.

So to get an acceptable picture, i.e. without psychedelic colors, with the fbdev driver, I had to enter the yaboot parameter "Linux video=radeonfb:1024x768-32@60" at boot. This gives me a usable desktop, though video playback is unacceptably slow. So there's showstopper number one.

Showstopper number two is sound. As in, I have no sound. This bug has been around and reported on for over a year now and still isn't fixed. Basically, in many iBook models and some Powerbooks and perhaps others, the machine ID isn't read correctly so the sound card isn't seen. Patches have been proposed, but still no fix. Worrying.

At this point, do I have to say suspend is broken? Didn't think so.

As for new and exciting things Jessie offers, one is Mpv, an Mplayer fork that supports https streaming. Also there's Compton, a compositor that expands on xcompmgr, adding window and menu transparency and many bug fixes. Also, I saw Abiword is now at version 3.0, so just for laughs I decided to install it and see if it was any less awful than my previous experiences with it. And it was not quite as awful. I would put it around 80% as awful, so keep up the good work!

If you used Wheezy when it was in testing and were impressed by its stability and lack of bugs, Jessie is sure to be a letdown. There are major problems with video and sound, even this late in the development cycle. Some people can get around the radeon issue by disabling the radeon framebuffer and enabling KMS, but KMS for me is too unstable so it's not an option. Downgrading the radeon driver to the Wheezy version drags you into dependency hell and is probably unwise, so of course that's what I'm gonna do. I still don't know what I'll do about sound, though. Compile a new kernel? Or to be more accurate: learn how to compile a new kernel and then compile a new kernel? Or maybe I can try my "ignore it until it goes away" approach to problems. It doesn't always work, but when it does it's a thing of beauty.

The Liberating Luddite

Dan, the renowned founder and author of PPC Luddite, has joined the PowerPC Liberation writing team.  Please join me in welcoming him.

I feel truly honoured and privileged to have someone like Dan be part of this blog.  In my opinion this will bring an already close PowerPC community even closer.

For at least the next couple months, I will be taking a total break from active blog activity, like posting and commenting etc.  I will still be handling the administrative side of things, and commenting where I really feel a need on occasion, but the over two years of running this place has left me in dire need of a total break from the active side.

This doesn't mean Dan will no longer be a writer when I return; far from it.  He will be an author here for as long as he desires.  He isn't here as a temporary replacement, but rather just arriving at the time I needed help.

Don't think I'm tired of blogging, because I'm not, and I plan on this blog being around for many years to come.  I have a chance now to spend more time with my girlfriend over the next couple months, which is something we rarely do more than a couple hours in the evening before bed, as we both have very busy lives.  I just need some real life time away from all tech that isn't directly work related.  I shall return refreshed by early next year.

For now it's the Mark (fiftysixk) and Dan show here, and I know you will enjoy it, so just sit back and take it all in.

So again, welcome to the Liberation family, Dan!

Power Mac G4 cooling project: Phase 3 - Orientation swap

Hello and welcome to the third installment of the Power Mac G4 cooling project. If you missed the last two installments here are the links...

Power Mac G4 cooling project: Phase 2 - The baseline
Power Mac G4 cooling project: Phase 1 - The plan

In this installment I will be changing the orientation of my 120mm side panel fan and my 60mm CPU fan. Originally the CPU fan was oriented to draw external air into the case and onto the CPU heatsink. The Apple OEM heatsink for my Quicksilver did not have a fan on it; however, my third party CPU has two 40mm fans on top of it. With that in mind, I will orient the 60mm fan to expel the internal case air out of the case. The Quicksilver's CPU, RAM and GPU all live very close together. I suspect that expelling all of that hot air may bring the temperatures down. The results will answer that for us. The 120mm side panel fan is originally oriented to draw air out of the case. I will be changing it's orientation to draw external air into the case. I suspect that using the 120mm fan to draw air into the case may help the GPU temperatures; again, the results will answer that for us.

At the end of phase 2, I came to the conclusion that, on my Quicksilver, nap mode was enabled by default under OS X. With that being said I will not be performing an idle test without nap mode enabled.

I will note the difference in temperature taken, from the baseline temperature taken in phase two.

With all that said, onto the tests!

Ten minutes of idle. OS X 10.4.11:
CPU: 39°C, -3°C
GPU: 43°C, +1°C
RAM: 36°C, -3°C
Exhaust air: 33°C
Intake air: 36°C, +2°C

Ten minutes of idle. Debian Wheezy:
CPU: 38°C, -4°C
GPU: 43°C, +1°C
RAM: 36°C, -6°C
Exhaust air: 33°C, +1°C
Intake air: 38°C, -4°C

This very interesting already. Swapping the orientation did benefit the CPU and the RAM temperatures. There is a catch though; the benefit comes at the expense of the GPU temperature. A one degree increase is not large but this is just at idle. Once I actually start taxing the GPU with something like Quake III; I suspect that the increase in GPU temperature will grow larger.

I will start with the web browsing test. I am curious to see how the GPU temperature increase trends. I will have three tabs open, PowerPC Liberation, FrozenCPU.com and Newegg. I will bounce between FrozenCPU.com and Newegg just as I did in phase two.

Surfing under TenFourFox 31. OS X 10.4.11:
CPU: 48°C, -3°C
GPU: 46°C, +3°C
RAM: 39°C, -4°C
Exhaust air: 36°C, +2°C
Intake air: 38°C

Surfing under Ice Weasel 24.7.0. Debian Wheezy:
CPU: 51°C
GPU: 46°C, +3°C
RAM: 39°C, -4°C
Exhaust air: 36°C, +2°C
i Intake air: 39°C, +1°C

This keeps getting more and more interesting! The GPU temperature did slightly increase, going from a one degree increase to a three degree increase on both platforms. The RAM temperature also maintained it's decrease under both platforms. This is where it gets interesting, I managed to completely loose my CPU temperature decrease under Debian. This makes me start to question the benefit of this orientation swap. It looks as if, when pushed hard enough and long enough, the CPU temperature rises to the baseline temperature. So far I have gained ground on the RAM temperatures and CPU idle temperatures; while loosing ground on the GPU temperature and possibly the CPU temperature under higher usage.

Now lets see if I can erase the drop in the CPU temperature again by pegging the CPU at 100%. To do this I will perform the DVD rip test again. This is the same DVD rip test from phase 2 using using Handbrake 0.9.1. under Mac OS X.

The DVD rip results are...
CPU: 57°C, -4°C
GPU: 43°C, -3°C
RAM: 39°C -9°C
Exhaust air: 36°C
Intake air: 38°C, -4°C

Just when I thought this could not get any more interesting, it did. For the DVD rip we have a drop in the CPU and GPU temperature. We have a sizable nine degree drop in the RAM temperature. My theory on this is as follows. The CPU, RAM and GPU are very close to each other on the Quicksilver motherboard. The DVD rip is very taxing on the CPU. Out of all the tests I run this test is the hardest on the CPU. The CPU being taxed like that will obviously generate more heat. I suspect that the generated heat stays in that area. The RAM is next door to the CPU and the back of the GPU is right next door to the RAM. Now that I am immediately expelling the hot air with the 60mm fan I do not believe that the CPU heat is staying in that area as much as it did prior to the orientation swap. With that being said, the DVD rip is not very taxing on the GPU at all. The AVI playback tests and the Quake III tests will be more GPU intensive. Let us see what happens when I get the GPU to put out some heat.

The third test will be the playback of the resulting AVI file. I will use VLC under OS X and Debian. In addition to VLC, I will test mplayer in Debian.

OS X 10.4.11 VLC 0.9.10 full screen playback:
CPU: 43°C
GPU: 43°C, +4°C
RAM: 38°C, -1°C
Exhaust air: 33°C
Intake air: 38°C, +4°C

OS X 10.4.11 VLC 0.9.10 windowed playback:
CPU: 43°C
GPU: 43°C, +1°C
RAM: 38°C, +3°C
Exhaust air: 34°C
Intake air: 38°C, +5°C

Debian Wheezy VLC 2.0.3 full screen playback:
CPU: 43°C, -3°C
GPU: 46°C, +3°C
RAM: 38°C, +4°C
Exhaust air: 34°C, -2°C
Intake air: 39°C, +5°C

Debian Wheezy VLC 2.0.3 windowed playback:
CPU: 43°C, -3°C
GPU: 43°C
RAM: 38°C, -4°C
Exhaust air: 34°C
Intake air: 38°C

Debian Wheezy mplayer svn34540 full screen playback:
CPU: 43°C, -3°C
GPU: 43°C
RAM: 38°C, -4°C
Exhaust air: 34°C
Intake air: 39°C, +3°C

Debian Wheezy mplayer svn34540 windowed playback:
CPU: 43°C, -3°C
GPU: 42°C, -1°C
RAM: 37°C, - 5°C
Exhaust air: 34°C
Intake air: 38°C

Quake III Arena OS X 10.4.11:
CPU: 54°C, -3°C
GPU: 44°C, +1°C
RAM: 40°C, -3°C
Exhaust air: 36°C, +2°C
Intake air: 37°C, -1°C

Now it is time for my final thoughts on this experiment. I was honestly convinced that using the 120mm fan to draw air in; combined with using the 60mm fan to expel the CPU and RAM hot air would bring the temperatures down. I did not want to make such a claim without having data to back it up. That is where these tests come in.

I was wrong in regards to the effect of switching the 120mm fan's orientation. The tests, for the most part, had raises in the GPU temperature. Even though I am blowing cooler external air onto the GPU using a 120mm fan, the GPU temperature went up. I believe the reason for this is the fact, that by switching the orientation, I have given up a large form of exhaust. The heat generated by the GPU and the PCI area does not have the immediate exit it had before.

Switching the orientation of the 60mm fan however; did cause drops in the CPU and RAM temperatures. The tests, for the most part, confirm my theory about this area of computer. Immediately expelling the hot CPU and RAM air usually lowered the CPU and RAM temperatures.

The results are mixed. Since this has negatively affected portions of the system; I do not believe I can recommend this orientation swap as an improvement to a Quicksilver's cooling system. The cooling system in it's stock form does not perform poorly; therefore I do not see the sense in raising some temperatures for slight decreases in other temperatures. The mission of this project is to make it as good as I possibly can. I believe that this orientation swap misses that mark.

That brings us to a fork in the road. That is where to go from here. I could add a fan to the top of the airport bracket like Zen has in his Power Macs and test it's impact. I could also opt to replace all of my fans with Noctua or Antec fans, then test the impact.

I look forward to feedback. I hope you all have enjoyed this project so far.

Proposed new PowerPC portables

An entrepreneurial fellow named Roberto has contacted me - and it would appear the Luddite also - about the potential for a new PowerPC-based laptop; which also is intended to run Linux.

I am not yet actually putting my support behind this, but since Roberto seems genuinely motivated about it, I thought it was well worth mentioning here.  I simply don't know enough about the project, and if it has enough resources to turn this into a reality.  He claims to be close on a logic board.

I have mentioned many times before that I'm not much of a laptop/portable user, so this wouldn't be an overly desirable thing for me personally, but Mark (fiftysixk) is a portable user, as are many of the readers here.

It will be interesting to see if this actually becomes a reality, but being a laptop, no matter the architecture, there is a lot more engineering involved.  Almost anyone can make a desktop/tower; hence the Mac-clone days back in the 90's, but a laptop is much more challenging.  We shall see what happens.

I give Roberto my sincere best wishes in this project.

GNU/Linux PowerPC Notebook

Our Digital Future

OpenMedia - an international nonprofit that fights for internet rights and freedoms - is putting together what they summarize as "a crowdsourced agenda for free expression" as an answer to the many lobbyists representing many international corporations, in nations all over the world, trying to restrict net neutrality for their own benefit, but this deals more specifically with copyright.

This isn't a specific protest against anything, but more a way to document people around the earth who want to keep the internet as free and open as possible.  Think of it as a preemptive voice of the people before things can be swayed the way that benefits corporations instead of regular people.  This will positively impact the way we can create and share things, and try to ensure it stays that way.

This is why I love OpenMedia, because they are always thinking a couple steps ahead.  They are truly international in their representation of all internet users on earth.  The fact that Creative Commons backs them in all their causes is big for me also.


They propose three key recommendations to keep things fair for all:


Recommendation 1: Respect Creators

"We believe in respect for artists. Having a fair and flexible copyright system means that artists can make a living off their work, while users have the freedom to share, collaborate and create online."


Recommendation 2: Prioritize Free Expression

"The results of our crowdsourcing project demonstrate that participants value the principle of free expression above all other priorities for copyright."


Recommendation 3: Respect Democratic Processes

"Citizens, particularly young people, are increasingly questioning the legitimacy and effectiveness of traditional models of governance and hierarchical processes of decision-making; a new method befitting the era of participation is sorely needed."


They conclude...

"When it comes to government decisions that will affect all of us, OpenMedia doesn’t just want a seat at the table – instead, we actively work to put citizens at the center of government decision-making, and our own decision-making as an organization. In order to include as broad a community as possible in the conversation about copyright laws, we came up with several online engagement tools and strategies that were as simple and user-friendly as possible."


So please throw your support behind them, no matter where you live on the earth, by adding your voice to the cause and being part of the citizen-powered report.


 Our Digital Future: A Crowdsourced Agenda for Free Expression

Sudo vs Root

There has long been a debate, especially among Linux people, as to whether it is better to do administrator tasks as root or via sudo.  For me the debate is won by personal need and use alone.  If you are the lone user, and all that exists is your user account and root access; all you really need is root.

Sudo is better suited to systems with multiple users, and where each requires different limitations; along with also being able to see the logs of each user, and how they're using the abilities they do have.  It's largely for users that you don't trust with the root password, whether based on their skill (worried that they might mess something up) or based on pure trust; maybe both.

My advice is that if you don't trust the ability or intent of someone, then don't let them use your computer.  It would be better to provide them with their own, but that isn't always an option at companies or schools.

Using sudo also requires you to enter sudo in front of commands, which when you add the space needed after equals five extra characters piggybacked onto virtually every command you ever type to get important things done.

For me the best and most direct way to get restricted privilege tasks done (in Debian), will always be when logged in as a standard user and accessing root from the Root Terminal.

Use sudo when truly needed, but even in many of those cases you could get by with root if you add in some trust and discretion.

The main point is that if you trust in your ability, and the ability of those that also have access to your hardware, you never really need to bother with sudo.  I don't.

Like I said...  use it when you truly feel you need to; otherwise it's just an unneeded extra hurdle IMHO.


My personal method for installing anything in Debian or MintPPC:

1. Login to the GUI with your user account

2. Open the Root Terminal (found in the accessories menu)

3. After entering your root password, type:

apt-get install packagename

You know that old expression that goes "keep it simple stupid"?  In this case it's more appropriate to say keep it simple evolved one; since you're using Debian after all.

Several readers have emailed me about this over time, so now you all know where I stand on the whole sudo vs root thing.  Sudo is safer for the paranoid and/or less capable, but root is the best quick & dirty of all; especially if you have the confidence and ability to backup using it.

If you want to learn about using sudo in Debian, read this.