Successfully installed FreeBSD 10.1 on Apple PowerMac G5 -- BUT -- system freezes after a few minutes of running.

[Mark Millard]

If every boot gives some time before things freeze up you might be able to extract and report the outputs of commands like:

$ freebsd-version -ku; uname -a
10.1-RELEASE-p5
10.1-RELEASE-p5
FreeBSD FBSDG5M1 10.1-RELEASE-p5 FreeBSD 10.1-RELEASE-p5 #0 r277808M: Fri Jan 30 00:58:33 PST 2015     root at FBSDG5M1:/usr/obj/usr/home/markmi/src_10_1_releng/sys/GENERIC64vtsc  powerpc

(There is more than one 'powerpc64 FreeBSD 10.1 "disk1" CD' that can be burned, such 10.1-RELEASE vs., say, a recent 10.1-STABLE. But it turns out that until very recently powerpc64 CD burns did not work for booting PowerMac G5s so more than normal is known about which versions could have be installed from a CD.)

Despite the mention of there being no console messages I list some basics below about dumping messages out anyway...

$ tail /var/log/messages
Feb  1 21:37:40 FBSDG5M1 kernel: uhid1: <vendor 0x05ac product 0x9218, class 0/0, rev 1.00/1.0e, addr 7> on usbus1
Feb  1 21:37:40 FBSDG5M1 kernel: hid_get_item: Number of items truncated to 255
Feb  1 21:37:40 FBSDG5M1 last message repeated 2 times
Feb  1 21:37:41 FBSDG5M1 ntpd[991]: ntpd 4.2.4p5-a (1)
Feb  1 21:37:43 FBSDG5M1 dbus[924]: [system] Activating service name='org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit' (using servicehelper)
Feb  1 21:37:43 FBSDG5M1 dbus[924]: [system] Activating service name='org.freedesktop.PolicyKit1' (using servicehelper)
Feb  1 21:37:43 FBSDG5M1 dbus[924]: [system] Successfully activated service 'org.freedesktop.PolicyKit1'
Feb  1 21:37:43 FBSDG5M1 dbus[924]: [system] Successfully activated service 'org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit'
Feb  1 21:37:52 FBSDG5M1 ntpd[992]: time reset +1.748777 s
Feb  1 21:38:01 FBSDG5M1 login: ROOT LOGIN (root) ON ttyv0

$ dmesg -a | tail
Configuring vt: blanktime.
Performing sanity check on sshd configuration.
Starting sshd.
Starting sendmail_submit.
Starting sendmail_msp_queue.
Starting cron.
Starting background file system checks in 60 seconds.

Sun Feb  1 21:37:42 PST 2015
Feb  1 21:38:01 FBSDG5M1 login: ROOT LOGIN (root) ON ttyv0

tail by itself may not give enough context. Full copies would be nice but I do not know about fitting the time before the hangup.

The intent is to have a more complete specification of which 10.1 variant and to see if problems are being logged before the complete hangup.

Others may well have better suggestions than mine for getting evidence.


You should probably indicate if you are using just the console vs., say, X11. (Although it is probably just the console if it never stayed up long enough to establish more context.) Some folks may want to know the video card involved or other configuration information, even for simple console usage.



Historically for a base system configuration (video card & monitor, SSD appropriate to the SATA vintage, appropriate superdrive vintage/variant that FreeBSD would tolerate) if I've made it to the login prompt and I had not mixed and matched distinct kernel and world vintages for some reason then I've had no later troubles with panics, hangups, or the like for 10.0 or 10.1 vintages that I've installed.

But that was after I removed all the PCI-Express cards (G5 quad-core) but the video: My earlier attempts at using the pre-existing SATA cards and SSD's/disks from them was unreliable even for simple console usage. I took the direction of simplifying/removing stuff until what was left just worked, such as the built-in SATA. I've not gone back yet to figure out if I can make anything that I removed work well. (I'm still learning/investigating other things for FreeBSD and am in no rush about what I removed.)

I temporarily had my hands on a PowerMac G5 that would overheat if kept busy. But its fan would be going faster than normal after warming up while idle. The fans would go full speed well before the shutdown when it would overheat. So that sort of issue is not a match to what you report.


===
Mark Millard
markmi at dsl-only.net