The following instructions deal with installation of a tweaked mesa-amber from Debian Salsa’s source and the steps to take to make it all work. If you follow these instructions, it is possible to get hardware acceleration on this old machine. Please note that this document is a draft version and that further redacting will be done in the future by the original author of this document. The document was written by Alexis Levie, a French Linux enthusiast.
CTRL+ALT+F2
# Go to TTY2, a virtual console
# login as <username>su -
adduser sudo
exit
|# logout and re-login as <username>
sudo systemctl stop lightdm
sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf
Make it look like this:Section "Device"
Identifier "ATI Radeon 9000 Pro Mac Edition (RV250)"
Driver "radeon"
Option "NoAccel" "true"
EndSection
sudo systemctl start lightdm
# XFCE may not run the window manager with no acceleration, if that’s the case run it from ALT+F2
xfwm4 --compositor=off --replace
#disable compositor in XCFE permanently for now
xfwm4-tweaks-settings
sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list# deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 13.0.0 Sid - Unofficial powerpc NETINST 20251206>deb http://deb.debian.org/debian-ports/ sid main
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian-ports/ unreleased main# deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian-ports/ sid main
# 'unreleased' does not support sources yet
# deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian-ports/ unreleased maindeb [arch=all] http://deb.debian.org/debian sid non-free-firmware# This system was installed using removable media other than
# CD/DVD/BD (e.g. USB stick, SD card, ISO image file).
# The matching "deb cdrom" entries were disabled at the end
# of the installation process.
# For information about how to configure apt package sources,
# see the sources.list(5) manual.
sudo apt modernize-sources
cat /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-ports.sources# Modernized from /etc/apt/sources.list
Types: deb
URIs: http://deb.debian.org/debian-ports/
Suites: sid
Components: main
Signed-By: /usr/share/keyrings/debian-ports-archive-keyring.gpg
# Modernized from /etc/apt/sources.list
Types: deb
URIs: http://deb.debian.org/debian-ports/
Suites: unreleased
Components: main
Signed-By: /usr/share/keyrings/debian-ports-archive-keyring.gpg
sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.sources# Modernized from /etc/apt/sources.list
Types: deb
URIs: http://deb.debian.org/debian/
Suites: sid
Components: non-free-firmware
Architectures: all
Signed-By: /usr/share/keyrings/debian-archive-keyring.gpg
# Need to add “Architectures: all” manually (manual edit)
# Fix aptsudo apt install vim-common
# Upgrade all packagessudo apt upgrade
# Useful toolssudo apt install fastfetch
sudo apt install mac-fdisk hfsprogs
sudo apt install exfatprogs ntfs-3g dosfstools mtools udftools
sudo apt install mesa-utils
sudo apt install htop btop radeontop lshw
sudo apt install aptitude
# If you plan to try an Nvidia graphics card later, you may installsudo apt install nvtop
# locatesudo apt install plocate
sudo updatedb
sudo apt install gparted
sudo apt install synaptic
sudo apt install menulibre
ls /usr/lib/xorg/modules/
# libglamoregl.so is alright, do not deletedrivers input libfbdevhw.so libint10.so libshadow.so libwfb.so
extensions libexa.so libglamoregl.so libshadowfb.so libvgahw.so
# No need for kernel parameters, don’t change /etc/default/grubcat /etc/default/grub# If you change this file or any /etc/default/grub.d/*.cfg file,
# run 'update-grub' afterwards to update /boot/grub/grub.cfg.
# For full documentation of the options in these files, see:
# info -f grub -n 'Simple configuration'
GRUB_DEFAULT=0
GRUB_TIMEOUT=5
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR=( . /etc/os-release && echo ${NAME} )
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""# If your computer has multiple operating systems installed, then you
# probably want to run os-prober. However, if your computer is a host
# for guest OSes installed via LVM or raw disk devices, running
# os-prober can cause damage to those guest OSes as it mounts
# filesystems to look for things.
GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=true
# Uncomment to enable BadRAM filtering, modify to suit your needs
# This works with Linux (no patch required) and with any kernel that obtains
# the memory map information from GRUB (GNU Mach, kernel of FreeBSD …)
# GRUB_BADRAM="0x01234567,0xfefefefe,0x89abcdef,0xefefefef"# Uncomment to disable graphical terminal
#GRUB_TERMINAL=console
# The resolution used on graphical terminal
# note that you can use only modes which your graphic card supports via VBE/GOP/UGA
# you can see them in real GRUB with the command `videoinfo'
#GRUB_GFXMODE=640x480# Uncomment if you don't want GRUB to pass "root=UUID=xxx" parameter to Linux
#GRUB_DISABLE_LINUX_UUID=true
# Uncomment to disable generation of recovery mode menu entries
#GRUB_DISABLE_RECOVERY="true"# Uncomment to get a beep at grub start
#GRUB_INIT_TUNE="480 440 1"
# Do NOT install these packages: firmware-linux firmware-linux-free firmware-linux-nonfree
# Crash otherwise
# Install only AMD / ATI Radeon firmware:sudo apt install firmware-amd-graphics
# Optional airport supportsudo apt install firmware-b43-installer firmware-b43legacy-installer
# Tune alsaalsamixer
Bass: 50
Treble: 50
PCM: 67 # More on my system brings distortion
# Test speakersspeaker-test -t wav -c 2 -l 1
Instead of building mesa-amber, you can also install the required libraries in MintPPC by installing the mesa-amber-powerpc package.
# Build mesa-amber
mkdir -p ~/git/debian && cd $_
sudo apt install git build-essential devscripts
git clone https://salsa.debian.org/xorg-team/lib/mesa-amber.git
mv mesa-amber mesa-amber-21.3.9
cd mesa-amber-21.3.9
# At the time of writing last commit is 1800dfbe25f88c97612d024dfd06c3f44c350d40
git log -1
commit 1800dfbe25f88c97612d024dfd06c3f44c350d40 (HEAD -> debian-unstable, origin/debian-unstable, origin/HEAD)
Author: Timo Aaltonen tjaalton@debian.org
Date: Wed Aug 27 14:15:03 2025 +0300
control: Migrate to pkgconf.
# Patch
# The patch can be found here
alexis@PowerMac-G4:~/git/debian/mesa-amber-21.3.9$ git apply ~/Documents/mesa-amber-21.3.9_ppc-2.patch
sudo mk-build-deps --install ---remove
# Remove and install are optional
mk-build-deps
dpkg-deb --info mesa-amber-build-deps_21.3.9-2_powerpc.deb
new Debian package, version 2.0.
size 2672 bytes: control archive=888 bytes.
1027 bytes, 11 lines control
254 bytes, 3 lines md5sums
Package: mesa-amber-build-deps
Version: 1:21.3.9-2
Architecture: powerpc
Maintainer: Equivs Dummy Package Generator root@PowerMac-G4.local
Installed-Size: 10
Depends: build-essential:powerpc, bison, debhelper-compat (= 13), flex, libdrm-dev (>= 2.4.107-4), libelf-dev, libexpat1-dev, libglvnd-core-dev (>= 1.3.2), libwayland-dev (>= 1.15.0), libwayland-egl-backend-dev (>= 1.15.0), libx11-dev, libx11-xcb-dev, libxcb-dri2-0-dev (>= 1.8), libxcb-dri3-dev, libxcb-glx0-dev (>= 1.8.1), libxcb-present-dev, libxcb-randr0-dev, libxcb-shm0-dev, libxcb-sync-dev, libxcb-xfixes0-dev, libxext-dev, libxfixes-dev, libxrandr-dev, libxshmfence-dev (>= 1.1), libxxf86vm-dev, libzstd-dev, linux-libc-dev (>= 2.6.31), meson (>= 0.45), pkgconf, python3, python3-mako, python3-setuptools, quilt (>= 0.63-8.2~), valgrind-if-available, wayland-protocols (>= 1.9), x11proto-dev, zlib1g-dev
Section: devel
Priority: optional
Multi-Arch: foreign
Description: build-dependencies for mesa-amber
Dependency package to build the 'mesa-amber' package
sudo dpkg -i mesa-amber-build-deps_21.3.9-2_powerpc.deb
dpkg-buildpackage -us -uc
# If for whatever reasons you need to resume the build use the noclean option
dpkg-buildpackage -us -uc -nc
# Install only these, other packages are not necessarysudo dpkg -i libegl-amber0_21.3.9-2_powerpc.deb libglx-amber0_21.3.9-2_powerpc.deb libgl1-amber-dri_21.3.9-2_powerpc.deb libosmesa6_21.3.9-2_powerpc.deb libglapi-amber_21.3.9-2_powerpc.deb
# Enable Mesa Amber
sudo nano /etc/environment
# add the following line__GLX_VENDOR_LIBRARY_NAME=amber
# Xorg configsudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf
Section "Device"
Identifier "ATI Radeon 9000 Pro Mac Edition (RV250)"
Driver "radeon"
#Option "NoAccel" "true"
Option "DRI" "2"
Option "AccelMethod" "EXA"
Option "EXAPixmaps" "false"
EndSection
# The last three Xorg options prevent system freeze
reboot
# Enable compositor in XCFE permanentlyxfwm4-tweaks-settings
alexis@PowerMac-G4:~$ glxinfo | grep OpenGL
OpenGL vendor string: Mesa Project
OpenGL renderer string: Mesa DRI R200 (RV250 4966) DRI2
OpenGL version string: 1.3 Mesa 21.3.9 Amber (git-1800dfbe25)
OpenGL extensions:
# Warning glxgears makes the system freeze, when it does not the gears have artifacts.
# DO NOT USE IT
### Test
sudo radeontop
# Install OpenGL screensavers
sudo apt install xscreensaver-gl xscreensaver-gl-extra
# Note : some may make the system crash
# This will allow you to test OpenGL
# If needed reset XFCE screensaver settings:
~/.config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/xfce4-screensaver.xml
# The ATI Radeon 9000 Pro Mac Edition (RV250) supports only OpenGL 1.3
# Install Web Browser
cd ~/Downloads
wget https://u58733p55594.web0093.zxcs-klant.nl/wicknix/powerpc/sealion_34.2.0_powerpc.deb
sudo dpkg -i sealion_34.2.0_powerpc.deb
# The name of the package may have changed because of a newer version
alexis@PowerMac-G4:~$ fastfetch
