On Thu, Dec 06, 2018 at 01:19:33PM -0500, Mike via talk wrote:
I got Debian Jessie installed OK. I had some graphics hassles by virtue of a kernel upgrade to the 4.9 backport, but got that sorted out by rebuilding the kernel with slight config redecoration. It might just boot X fine with the native Jessie (3.14?) kernel - I didn't try.
Jessie even manages power and those prodigious fans just nicely. When it's all running properly it's even fairly quiet. With my not-quite-properly configured kernel, it's gale-force shortly after boot. Sounds a lot like a multi-POWER server that I remember a certain TLUG member working on :-)
There is no powermac that can come close to the sound of an IBM pSeries server for making fan noise no matter how badly you manage (or don't manage) the fans. :) Those IBM boxes like the run the fans a bit even when turned off if they are plugged in. I guess the board management processor is running and wants cooling and the power supplies want cooling, and I guess the way to test that the system is ready for power on requires spinning the fans a little to check that they are working. You can't turn it on unless the board tests pass first. Weird machines. Makes me wonder if they a behaving a bit like IBM's mainframes. -- Len Sorensen