PPC64 install && Firefox

[Mike Hosken]

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to give some feedback on the install of ppc64 on a Mac G5.

I had a few issues when installing the latest version.

Grub install fails when not installing standard system utilities through tasksel during installation. I’m not sure if packages are required for ppc64 grub install from standard system utilities but I thought I’d mention it.

During installation, upgrading via ports archive dpkg throws up an error with the start stop daemon not being able to write to the directory. After installation upon reboot dpkg is broken because of this. The fix was simple and upon reinstall dpkg works as expected.

I installed xfce and noticed Firefox failed to launch with segmentation errors also the esr version does the same. Upon further research I discovered others also have this problem. I tried building both versions from Sid but they both failed to build. Is there a fix for this issue ?

I’d like to thank the maintainers for keeping the ports going on 20 year old hardware.

Mike Hosken
Sent via my iPhone

[John Paul Adrian Glaubitz]

Hello,

Post by Mike Hosken
I just wanted to give some feedback on the install of ppc64 on a Mac G5.
I had a few issues when installing the latest version.

Which image did you use? The latest snapshot image is known to not boot on
PowerMac G5, so I'm doubtful you were actually using the latest version.

Post by Mike Hosken
Grub install fails when not installing standard system utilities through
tasksel during installation. I’m not sure if packages are required for ppc64
grub install from standard system utilities but I thought I’d mention it.

Without knowing what image was used, I cannot really comment here.

Post by Mike Hosken
During installation, upgrading via ports archive dpkg throws up an error with
the start stop daemon not being able to write to the directory. After installation
upon reboot dpkg is broken because of this. The fix was simple and upon reinstall
dpkg works as expected.

I have run into this issue during a test installation as well, but I have not figured
out yet what the problem is.

Post by Mike Hosken
I installed xfce and noticed Firefox failed to launch with segmentation errors also
the esr version does the same. Upon further research I discovered others also have
this problem.
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1845669
I tried building both versions from Sid but they both failed to build. Is there a fix for this issue ?
https://buildd.debian.org/status/fetch.php?pkg=firefox&arch=ppc64&ver=124.0.1-1&stamp=1711164847&raw=0
https://buildd.debian.org/status/fetch.php?pkg=firefox&arch=ppc64&ver=124.0.1-1&stamp=1711164847&raw=0
I’d like to thank the maintainers for keeping the ports going on 20 year old hardware.

You're welcome. I'm glad my work is useful to others.

Adrian

[Mike Hosken]

Hi Adrian,

I used debian-12.0.0-ppc64-NETINST.iso with the date 2023-05-16. I downloaded this from cdimage.debian.org. When I burned it to a cd it didn’t boot. When I tried a dvd it did boot. I’m assuming that it’s the latest image. I ended up doing 6 installations overall, for testing purposes and it worked well.

As for Firefox thanks for the info, hopefully it will get fixed as it would make ppc64 still very useable in this modern era.

Hello,

Post by Mike Hosken
I just wanted to give some feedback on the install of ppc64 on a Mac G5.
I had a few issues when installing the latest version.

Which image did you use? The latest snapshot image is known to not boot on
PowerMac G5, so I'm doubtful you were actually using the latest

Post by Mike Hosken
Grub install fails when not installing standard system utilities through
tasksel during installation. I’m not sure if packages are required for ppc64
grub install from standard system utilities but I thought I’d mention it.

Without knowing what image was used, I cannot really comment here.

Post by Mike Hosken
During installation, upgrading via ports archive dpkg throws up an error with
the start stop daemon not being able to write to the directory. After installation
upon reboot dpkg is broken because of this. The fix was simple and upon reinstall
dpkg works as expected.

I have run into this issue during a test installation as well, but I have not figured
out yet what the problem is.

Post by Mike Hosken
I installed xfce and noticed Firefox failed to launch with segmentation errors also
the esr version does the same. Upon further research I discovered others also have
this problem.
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1845669
I tried building both versions from Sid but they both failed to build. Is there a fix for this issue ?
https://buildd.debian.org/status/fetch.php?pkg=firefox&arch=ppc64&ver=124.0.1-1&stamp=1711164847&raw=0
https://buildd.debian.org/status/fetch.php?pkg=firefox&arch=ppc64&ver=124.0.1-1&stamp=1711164847&raw=0
I’d like to thank the maintainers for keeping the ports going on 20 year old hardware.

You're welcome. I'm glad my work is useful to others.
Adrian
--
.''`. John Paul Adrian Glaubitz
: :' : Debian Developer
`. `' Physicist
`- GPG: 62FF 8A75 84E0 2956 9546 0006 7426 3B37 F5B5 F913

[John Paul Adrian Glaubitz]

Post by Mike Hosken
I used debian-12.0.0-ppc64-NETINST.iso with the date 2023-05-16.
I downloaded this from cdimage.debian.org. When I burned it to a
cd it didn’t boot. When I tried a dvd it did boot. I’m assuming
that it’s the latest image.
https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/ports/snapshots/

Not sure why you thought it's the latest one.

Post by Mike Hosken
I ended up doing 6 installations overall, for testing purposes and it worked well. 
As for Firefox thanks for the info, hopefully it will get fixed as it would make
ppc64 still very useable in this modern era. 

Well, someone interested in Firefox on big-endian targets would have to take a look
at it. I currently don't have the time for it.

Adrian

[Ken Cunningham]

Post by John Paul Adrian Glaubitz

Post by Mike Hosken
As for Firefox thanks for the info, hopefully it will get fixed as it would make
ppc64 still very useable in this modern era.

Well, someone interested in Firefox on big-endian targets would have to take a look
at it. I currently don't have the time for it.
Adrian

FireFox is quite broken, for a long time now.

There was a browser thread a few months ago.

The only browser I have found that is worth using on ppc64 debian so far is SeaLion.

https://lists.debian.org/debian-powerpc/2023/11/msg00012.html


It works pretty.well, and was updated not long ago. It's not perfect either, but so far is much better than anything else.

K

[Thomas Schmitt]

Hi,

When I burned it to a cd it didn’t boot. When I tried a dvd it did boot.

That's strange. Do you still have that CD with the ISO on it ?
If so, what do you get from a run of

xorriso -indev /dev/sr0 -toc -report_system_area plain -check_media --

assumed that /dev/sr0 is the drive by which you tried to boot.

It will show what the drive perceives as table of content and it will
try to read all blocks that are covered by the ISO.
(No need to show all of the many pacifier lines like
xorriso : UPDATE : ...... blocks read in ... seconds , ...xC
but any other text output might be of interest.)

The same run with the DVD might show significant differences.


Have a nice day :)

Thomas