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Adélie Linux for PowerPC

IMG_2906.jpg


Booting from the Full Alpha6 ppc CD on my iBook G3 500. So far so good.

Something very cool, which I haven't seen before - the sleep light is programmed to flash on drive activity.
 
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Oh neat! Their list of supported hardware is a bit lacking in detail. Listing the CPUs is great but would be nice to know exactly which machines they're testing this on. I'll download it and give it a shot on my iBook G4. :)
 
The help URL (http://help.adelielinux.org) listed on the MOTD doesn't appear to work, so I went onto their IRC channel to ask and was directed toward their wiki for manual installation:
https://wiki.adelielinux.org/wiki/HOWTO:Manually_install_Adélie_Linux#Installing_the_base_system

It was mostly a matter of stepping through it.

For disk layout, I created a 100MB HFS bootstrap partition for GRUB2 (type: Apple_Bootstrap), then a 1.8GB ext4 partition for the Linux system. I was advised that a swapfile should be configured if needed instead of a separate partition.

I then stepped through the GRUB2 config here:
https://wiki.adelielinux.org/wiki/Package:GRUB2#PowerPC

After some trial and error, I discovered I could boot into Grub via Open Firmware with:

boot hd:11,\grub

(partition 11 being my bootstrap partition)
 
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I'm trying to get X11 going. But nothing yet...

Firstly, added the Xorg packages:
apk add xorg-server xf86-video-vesa xf86-input-evdev xf86-input-mouse xf86-input-keyboard udev

Then added the Rage128 XFree86 video driver:
apk add xf86-video-r128

Then added the WMs:
apk add fluxbox
apk add xfdesktop

And configured Xorg with
Xorg -configure

It fails on X -config /path/to/config

I've tried a few different Video device options ("VGAAccess", "ForcePCIMode", "AGPMode", "UseFBDev", etc) with varying results. I'll keep playing around with it until we get somewhere.

The distro is surprisingly light and the package manager (apk) is very fast. It would be nice to have a working desktop environment.
 
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Hi AphoticD,

I got it running on a VM with a desktop.
After your steps you have to install

sddm
sddm-xdm

After this create the following file /etc/init.d/xdm
Put the following text on it

#!/sbin/openrc-run

depends() {
needs localmount
}

description="X Display Manager"
command="/usr/bin/sddm"
command_args="${xdm_opts}"
pidfile="/var/run/sddm.pid"

# uses the openrc templates for start()/stop()

then do

rc-update add xdm default

and finally reboot

Best regards,
voidRunner
 
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AphoticD said:
View attachment 760948

Booting from the Full Alpha6 ppc CD on my iBook G3 500. So far so good.

Something very cool, which I haven't seen before - the sleep light is programmed to flash on drive activity.
Click to expand...

Gentoo and SUSE also use the sleep light as a drive-activity indicator, on other Linuxes you can turn it on by writing to the device
[doublepost=1525844019][/doublepost]
vddrnnr said:
Hi AphoticD,

I got it running on a VM with a desktop.
After your steps you have to install

sddm
sddm-xdm

After this create the following file /etc/init.d/xdm
Put the following text on it

#!/sbin/openrc-run

depends() {
needs localmount
}

description="X Display Manager"
command="/usr/bin/sddm"
command_args="${xdm_opts}"
pidfile="/var/run/sddm.pid"

# uses the openrc templates for start()/stop()

then do

rc-update add xdm default

and finally reboot

Best regards,
voidRunner
Click to expand...

Looks interesting, will take a break from my current Atari 130XE fetish and have a go on it also.

Any interesting current software availability, Firefox ?
 
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Hi Lastic,

For x86 and ppc ( not ppc64 ) you have firefox 52 esr.
From the tests i did with vmware ( 1 cpu, 1Gb RAM ) it's very fast.
The only "desktop" I got running almost perfect is lxqt, but as far as I found
listing the available packages you have: KDE, XFCE and Fluxbox.
You also have openbox ( should be possible to use with KDE and Is a requirement for Lxqt ).

Best regards,
voidRunner
 
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pochopsp said:
Guys, no more news about this project? it seemed so interesting
Click to expand...
I confess to being interested - and excited on first reading Dronecatcher's post. Then after having glanced at the 'How to manually install' link instructions in post #4, I had to have a lie-down to partially recover from the resulting trauma....o_O
Even the initial comment about Horizon, 'Before proceeding, please ensure that the Horizon installation system will not meet your needs', started the headbanger. Is there en error there, a double negative that I had difficulty comprehending? Or was I just having a very bad hair day? :p
 
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The manual install was like taking inner city directions from the GPS lady. I got there in the end but just don’t ask me what route I took... o_O

I lost interest on my particular Mac when I couldn’t get X11 to initiate on the ATI Mobility Rage 128 in my 500Mhz iceBook. I was planning on trying a different G3 iBook, which is the 700Mhz 12-incher with the Mobility Radeon (7000), but then that machine died for a second time. Two failed logic boards in two months seemed like a sign to stop trying to make it work. It just wants to retire. :apple:
 
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I'm sure I had a MacRumors account at some point when I was doing 10.5 modding (specifically trying to reverse-engineer CG to make Classic work - fun times), but I don't think I even have access to that email any more for a password reset. I may or may not be the lead fox behind Adélie.

Dronecatcher said:
I tried it on my 17" DLSD and G5 iMac and it borked on boot - made my DLSD hard crash - inoperable until a few PRAM resets :/
Click to expand...

Ouch! We don't have a DLSD to test on, I assume that's the Radeon 9700 being fickle. Heard some reports of that around Gentoo land but never was able to confirm.

The iMac G5 should work just fine; that's my bedroom PC, running Adélie.

AphoticD said:
Booting from the Full Alpha6 ppc CD on my iBook G3 500. So far so good.
Click to expand...

Nice one, that's the same laptop I use for G3 testing!

dbdjre0143 said:
Oh neat! Their list of supported hardware is a bit lacking in detail. Listing the CPUs is great but would be nice to know exactly which machines they're testing this on. I'll download it and give it a shot on my iBook G4. :)
Click to expand...

Our hardware compatibility list is on our wiki; that link should probably be a lot more prominent. Sorry for the confusion.

AphoticD said:
I'm trying to get X11 going. But nothing yet...

[ snip ]

Then added the Rage128 XFree86 video driver:
apk add xf86-video-r128

[ snip ]
I've tried a few different Video device options ("VGAAccess", "ForcePCIMode", "AGPMode", "UseFBDev", etc) with varying results. I'll keep playing around with it until we get somewhere.

The distro is surprisingly light and the package manager (apk) is very fast. It would be nice to have a working desktop environment.
Click to expand...

Yes, none of us can manage to get the Rage128 working on PowerPC either. Supposedly there is a new version but it doesn't build properly in my experience. It works okay on my Compaq Armada e500, so I know the code should be right. I don't know if it's something specific to the iBook chipset, or if it's an endian issue, or if it has simply bitrotted away. Using the fbdev driver (xf86-video-fbdev) allows you to get a working DE, though 3D acceleration is software-only, which is bad enough on modern PPC...

vddrnnr said:
For x86 and ppc ( not ppc64 ) you have firefox 52 esr.
Click to expand...

That's available for ppc64 now as well and in fact that's what I'm typing this on right now ;)

AphoticD said:
The manual install was like taking inner city directions from the GPS lady. I got there in the end but just don’t ask me what route I took... o_O
Click to expand...

The manual install is quite a challenge, yeah. It's… I'm really hoping to land some proper installer software in beta1. One of our developers is writing one, but keeps getting hung up on the partitioning part. She had quite a shock when she looked at the state of APM supported partitioning software; we may end up having to rewrite large parts of mac-fdisk :/
 
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09872738 said:
So - how did it go? Any success?
Click to expand...

Hi all,

Finally had some time to work on it ( using beta 1 )
Well it's alive :)
Sort of....
I'm having a few problems:

- getting sddm/xdm working on boot ( doing startx after boot works, I'm using lxqt )
- getting sound working ( it's there but says only headphones and I get no sound )
- hardware sensors not detected
- radeon acceleraion not working ( everything seems to be done in software )

Everything else is working.
I'm typing this message with it.

Best regards,
voidRunner
 
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Under the motto of 'why do I still wake up at 06:00 AM when I don't have to work", going to try to install 1.0-Beta 2 full install ISO erasing my Ubuntu Mate 16.04 install on my PB G4 12" 1.5Ghz (which has a Newertech battery).

So far I haven't been able to burn the ISO on OS X 10.10 nor Ubuntu Mate PPC, now giving Leopard PPC a run for it.

And Leopard DiskUtility delivered, booting the ISO.
[doublepost=1552116845][/doublepost]@awilfox I realised that I'm following the manual install which off course fetches the repositories via Internet.

Since I've booted from the Full install iso , how do I use the repositories on the CD ?

OK added /packages/ to /target/etc/apk/repositories , but now installing the adelie-base failed.
Will stop tinkering for now :)

8 hours further ...

I decided to ignore the full install CD and follow the manual Live install procedure.

Somewhere around installing grub I must have messed up since rebooting doesn't load Grub
and booting it from OpenFirmware boot hd:2,\grub produces LOAD SIZE TOO SMALL

I also recall that I had a bizarre situation where

mount /dev/sda2 /target/boot would conflict with the later
mount /dev/sda2 /boot/grub

boot hd:2,\grub\grub does load grub but there is no config file, I'm guessing it's a directory up under /boot ?

Ok somehow my grub.cfg under /boot/grub/ was empty and the grub.cfg with the config was under /boot , copied /boot/grub.cfg to /boot/grub/grub.cfg and now I can boot from my HardDisk via OpenFirmware using boot hd:2,\grub\grub

I know , I wasn't going to tinker
 
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and now I'm merging AphoticD's post and vddrnnr's post to have a working X setup but to no avail.

I had to remove xdm from rc-update default or I was stuck with a non-working GUI at boot and no way to get into TTY's.

I've tried KDE , I've tried LXQT but it looks like X is simply not working , maybe I missed a package somewhere ?
 
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Lastic said:
and now I'm merging AphoticD's post and vddrnnr's post to have a working X setup but to no avail.

I had to remove xdm from rc-update default or I was stuck with a non-working GUI at boot and no way to get into TTY's.

I've tried KDE , I've tried LXQT but it looks like X is simply not working , maybe I missed a package somewhere ?
Click to expand...

Are you sure you installed xserver*?

Maybe one of the packages is simply missing from their repositories.
 
z970mp said:
Are you sure you installed xserver*?

Maybe one of the packages is simply missing from their repositories.
Click to expand...

Yes, this time (I made that mistake with Void Linux) I double-checked myself and it is installed.

X starts but is just stalling, will boot it up and post the message in a sec, have to SSH in whilst watching StarTrek Discovery :)
[doublepost=1552245363][/doublepost]I've attached the output of

apk listl X* | grep installed

which I will post also

xorg-fonts-1.0-r0 ppc {xorg-fonts} (MIT) [installed]
xf86-input-keyboard-1.9.0-r0 ppc {xf86-input-keyboard} (X11 AND MIT AND GPL-2.0-only) [installed]
xrdb-1.1.1-r0 ppc {xrdb} (MIT AND X11) [installed]
xcb-util-renderutil-0.3.9-r2 ppc {xcb-util-renderutil} (MIT) [installed]
xauth-1.0.10-r2 ppc {xauth} (X11) [installed]
xorg-server-1.20.3-r2 ppc {xorg-server} (MIT) [installed]
xfconf-4.13.6-r0 ppc {xfconf} (LGPL-2.1+ AND GPL-2.0+) [installed]
xfdesktop-4.13.2-r0 ppc {xfdesktop} (GPL-2.0+) [installed]
xcb-util-image-0.4.0-r1 ppc {xcb-util-image} (MIT) [installed]
xf86-input-mouse-1.9.3-r0 ppc {xf86-input-mouse} (X11 AND MIT) [installed]
xcb-util-keysyms-0.4.0-r2 ppc {xcb-util-keysyms} (MIT) [installed]
xf86-input-evdev-2.10.6-r0 ppc {xf86-input-evdev} (MIT) [installed]
xz-libs-5.2.4-r1 ppc {xz} (Public-Domain AND LGPL-2.1+) [installed]
xcb-util-wm-0.4.1-r2 ppc {xcb-util-wm} (MIT) [installed]
xkbcomp-1.4.2-r0 ppc {xkbcomp} (MIT AND X11) [installed]
xmodmap-1.0.9-r3 ppc {xmodmap} (MIT AND X11) [installed]
xf86-video-nouveau-1.0.15-r2 ppc {xf86-video-nouveau} (MIT) [installed]
xcb-util-0.4.0-r2 ppc {xcb-util} (X11) [installed]
xkeyboard-config-2.25-r0 ppc {xkeyboard-config} (X11 AND MIT) [installed]
xinit-1.4.0-r0 ppc {xinit} (X11) [installed]

Second longer part in the TXT file is my Xorg logfile, Xserver starts but then stops.

SDDM also doesn't , when started after booting it shows no username nor any keyboard or mouse entry possible.
 

Attachments

  • Adelie_X.txt
    22.7 KB · Views: 358
I don't see xserver-xorg-core, among others.

Try installing xserver with an asterisk at the end, like "xserver*", which will install everything with "xserver" in its name.

Unless I am mistaken, and that is a feature exclusive to Apt...

Worth a shot.
 
It's been ages since I've posted here.. Sheesh. lol. I've got Adelie installed in a VM on my Ryzen 5 3600X Windows 10 host (I'm learning its ins and outs before I commit to installing to bare metal, let alone get any bare metal to install it onto) and I can't get Xorg working. VoidRunner did post on how he got it working, but I have SDDM installed, but neither sddm-xdm or xdm on its own seem to exist in the pkg repo. Any pointers? I really wanna experience using Adelie in a VM before I install it to any spare hardware I might have. I do technically have an i5 2500k box just sitting there doing nothing, but I really wanna get a PPC Mac of some sort again because I was a PPC Mac kid, and I have that nostalgia for it.

vddrnnr said:
Hi all,

I'll try and install on a 15" 1.67 G4 and see how it goes.
Will keep you posted.

Best regards,
voidRunner
Click to expand...

Hahaha that's funny.. I'm looking to get one of those from someone I know! I might still get it from them, but I'm also eyeing this PowerMac G5: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Apple-Powe...005-2-3Ghz-Dual-Core-CPU-9GB-Ram/303518811331

Anyway, any ideas on how to get Xorg working in my VM? Please let me know.

EDIT: I'm trying out RC1 for reference.
 
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