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Adélie Linux for PowerPC

Again, that’s the problem. Entering su or sudo results in unauthorized access to anything I try. For instance:

Su apk results in apk unknown user, enter su username apk, then a password, results in unauthorized access.

Su root apk, and a password, unauthorized access.

I’ve even searched for a directory “/“ and have been told it doesn’t exist!

I didn’t think a distro could exist with out a “root” directory.

Mm855
 
What happens if you enter just su? It should ask for the password (passphrase) assigned to “root”. According to the documentation, you were asked to set one when installing Adélie. Enter that.
 
Amethyst1 said:
What happens if you enter just su? It should ask for the password (passphrase) assigned to “root”. According to the documentation, you were asked to set one when installing Adélie. Enter that.
Click to expand...
I’ll give it a try. Typically, I set the “root” password the same as my user name password. I do that because, (a) I don’t have to remember two passwords and (b) no one besides me will ever use these computers. For some reason though, I (think I) found it necessary to set a password different than my user name. Due to my poor documentation skills, I found a password on a business card. In my handwriting I can’t recall using before so I’ve been trying that. I’ve been operating in kind of a panic mode and will start setting up a documented process so I can keep track of what I’ve used and how.

Thanks for the reply.
MM855
 
That's great that @ifrit05 set up to help you and patch my lack of knowledge in Linux or Adélie specifically.

What I know regarding the privilege of users. Sudo and su are two different things that can be used regarding the needs that you have of executing software as root.

When you login as root, you should have all the priviledges that you need to obliterate the OS if you are in that kind of mood. Every other way of doing things (sudo, su, doas) sometimes can need additional steps.

Some distros has sudo already installed, some don't (I didn't know that Adélie didn't has), and needing to install should solve it, but probably you'll need to configure the sudoers file (1, 2, 3)
 
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ifrit05 said:
There is work being done right now to build packages for x86 and ppc. armv7l is still wip. They are close to releasing nighties very soon™. You can install using the wip repos using rc2 media. I have a G5 up and running this way. Let me know if you want me to tell ya.
Click to expand...
I never successfully installed Linux before. My first and only attempt was Void on one of my Power Mac G5s. I want to try Adelie but I am sure I will struggle with it
 
ww2_1943 said:
I never successfully installed Linux before. My first and only attempt was Void on one of my Power Mac G5s. I want to try Adelie but I am sure I will struggle with it
Click to expand...
It helps if you have installed Void on any standard x86_64 machine before, because almost anything that you needed to do on PPC (or PPC64 on your case) aren't exclusive to this specific platform.

Other advice that I can give to who it's first trying Linux, it's to have an HDD exclusive to Linux at the first attempts because you'll need to format, partition many times to do it right and with confidence, then you can apply that to an dual boot, triple boot etc.

Void since it's rolling release it has one of the most up to date Kernels (6.x) on PPC64 and other drivers, firmware... So in my opinion it's really compatible, but when we are talking about Linux, the hardware matters a lot to have a smooth experience from install to finish.

But the most problematic piece of hardware it's the GPU, and nVidia has never a Open Source friendly company, so it was up to the community to reverse engineer the drivers for being able to have anything usable.

So if you have an nVidia GPU on a PPC, you'll need a lot of patience, trial and error, and even monitors can be a source of problems if I recall correctly because I read some months ago an user on the forum who did have this problem on Linux and probably has an nVidia GPU, but on OSX was "fine".

So I recommend that you try before the project "ends" on January 2023 when the main developer will change his entire focus on his new project (that "soon" can be on PPC as well)
 
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ifrit05 said:
su apk add bash bash-completion nano
Add bash to the allowable shells:
nano /etc/shells
/bin/bash
ctrl-x, y, enter.
chsh /bin/bash enter exit
Log in to default non-root user, then:
chsh /bin/bash enter
Click to expand...
Thanks for these codes, unfortunately, the "apk add..." returned Untrusted signature errors, and "no such packages". Something tells me I may need to add a repo to my sources file. One of the commands I can't figure out is how to edit a file. I want to add my CD and USB drives to /etc/fstab so it can mount them. If I want to add a repo to my .sources file, I'll need a "nano" equivalent for .zsh.

MM855
 
Amethyst1 said:
Try vi. That text editor is present on pretty much any Linux distro. It’s a bit of a nightmare to use though.
Click to expand...
Ya Dr. Google is a wonderful thing. I found reference to zed, vim, nano (doesn't work, neither did zed), vim exists though. vim is recognized, I will also try vi. Hearing they are a nightmare to use is a little scary but what's the worst that could happen?

Probably shouldn't have wrote that...
Thanks
Mav
 
Joking aside, you basically enter vi /etc/fstab after becoming “root”, go to the last line using the cursor keys, press I to enter “insert mode”, add the lines you want to add, press ESCto leave “insert mode” and enter :wq to save the file and exit.
 
MacMaverick855 said:
Thanks for these codes, unfortunately, the "apk add..." returned Untrusted signature errors, and "no such packages". Something tells me I may need to add a repo to my sources file.
Click to expand...

Yes, because the current keys on the RC2 media are now null and void. To get a working repository do this (if already installed):
Bash: 
su
cd /
curl -o keys.apk https://distfiles.adelielinux.org/adelie/keys-20221101/$ARCH/adelie-keys-1.0-r2.apk
tar -xf keys.apk && rm -r keys.apk
apk --initdb add
rm  /etc/apk/repositories
echo -e "https://next.adelielinux.org/system\nhttps://next.adelielinux.org/user" >> /etc/apk/repositories
apk update

Or while installing from RC2 media:

Bash: 
su
cd /
curl -o /target/keys.apk https://distfiles.adelielinux.org/adelie/keys-20221101/$ARCH/adelie-keys-1.0-r2.apk
tar -xf target/keys.apk && rm -r /target/keys.apk
apk --root /target --initdb add
echo -e "https://next.adelielinux.org/system\nhttps://next.adelielinux.org/user" >> /target/etc/apk/repositories
apk --root /target update

Where $ARCH corresponds to the current machines CPU architecture (pmmx, x86_64, ppc, ppc64, armv7l).

MacMaverick855 said:
One of the commands I can't figure out is how to edit a file. I want to add my CD and USB drives to /etc/fstab so it can mount them. If I want to add a repo to my .sources file, I'll need a "nano" equivalent for .zsh.
Click to expand...

You shouldn't add removable media to the fstab file. That's generally reserved for statically always-mounted media at boot time. No one says you can't, but it's not advised.

nano should work and install with zsh if you fix the /etc/apk/respository file. No idea what you mean by .sources file.
 
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ifrit05 said:
Yes, because the current keys on the RC2 media are now null and void. To get a working repository do this (if already installed):
Bash: 
su
cd /
curl -o keys.apk https://distfiles.adelielinux.org/adelie/keys-20221101/$ARCH/adelie-keys-1.0-r2.apk
tar -xf keys.apk && rm -r keys.apk
apk --initdb add
rm  /etc/apk/repositories
echo -e "https://next.adelielinux.org/system\nhttps://next.adelielinux.org/user" >> /etc/apk/repositories
apk update

Or while installing from RC2 media:

Bash: 
su
cd /
curl -o /target/keys.apk https://distfiles.adelielinux.org/adelie/keys-20221101/$ARCH/adelie-keys-1.0-r2.apk
tar -xf target/keys.apk && rm -r /target/keys.apk
apk --root /target --initdb add
echo -e "https://next.adelielinux.org/system\nhttps://next.adelielinux.org/user" >> /target/etc/apk/repositories
apk --root /target update

Where $ARCH corresponds to the current machines CPU architecture (pmmx, x86_64, ppc, ppc64, armv7l).



You shouldn't add removable media to the fstab file. That's generally reserved for statically always-mounted media at boot time. No one says you can't, but it's not advised.

nano should work and install with zsh if you fix the /etc/apk/respository file. No idea what you mean by .sources file.
Click to expand...
Some of the Linux distros used repositories that existed in a /etc/something.config/sources something something and in order to work I had to make sure they were valid or edit the file with the correct, up-to-date repo. Your instructions above should accomplish what I need.
 
@Amethyst1, the KDE system contains an “app” called Remote Devices. It should work to mount removable media. For some reason it’s not seeing the fact that a CD is inserted and a USB drive is attached. Since this distro was built for Mac PPC64 devices AND there is actually an app for removable devices I would think it should work. So, I’m wondering if there is some sort of firmware update or if the updated repository from @ifrit05 would instruct Adelie/KDE to see the removable devices. I’d just a soon not mess with /etc/fstab if I don’t have to but when running mount as root the message I get is that the /dev doesn’t exist in /etc/fstab. In researching the app, all indications are I have the app settings correct for mounting removable devices but they aren’t mounting.

Any suggestions?
MacMav855
 
dextructor said:
It helps if you have installed Void on any standard x86_64 machine before, because almost anything that you needed to do on PPC (or PPC64 on your case) aren't exclusive to this specific platform.

Other advice that I can give to who it's first trying Linux, it's to have an HDD exclusive to Linux at the first attempts because you'll need to format, partition many times to do it right and with confidence, then you can apply that to an dual boot, triple boot etc.

Void since it's rolling release it has one of the most up to date Kernels (6.x) on PPC64 and other drivers, firmware... So in my opinion it's really compatible, but when we are talking about Linux, the hardware matters a lot to have a smooth experience from install to finish.

But the most problematic piece of hardware it's the GPU, and nVidia has never a Open Source friendly company, so it was up to the community to reverse engineer the drivers for being able to have anything usable.

So if you have an nVidia GPU on a PPC, you'll need a lot of patience, trial and error, and even monitors can be a source of problems if I recall correctly because I read some months ago an user on the forum who did have this problem on Linux and probably has an nVidia GPU, but on OSX was "fine".

So I recommend that you try before the project "ends" on January 2023 when the main developer will change his entire focus on his new project (that "soon" can be on PPC as well)
Click to expand...
Yes, I did use a separate drive for Void. I pulled the drive with osx and put the new drive as primary.

My G5 DP 1.8 had a Radeon graphics card but my DC 2.3 has Nvidia. I tried installing void on the 1.8.

Does that mean Void loses all support after Jan 2023? Is it worth installing if the project is over in a month?
I guess it’s worth installing from the standpoint of just learning how to install Linux
 
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ww2_1943 said:
Yes, I did use a separate drive for Void. I pulled the drive with osx and put the new drive as primary.

My G5 DP 1.8 had a Radeon graphics card but my DC 2.3 has Nvidia. I tried installing void on the 1.8.

Does that mean Void loses all support after Jan 2023? Is it worth installing if the project is over in a month?
I guess it’s worth installing from the standpoint of just learning how to install Linux
Click to expand...
My motivation for installing Linux on all my “old” Macs was based on finding OS’s that would run faster and better than the latest Mac OSs. Safari stopped getting security updates so some of the web sites I tried to use were met with “I can’t go there”. There were other browsers I could use but a new operating system sounded fun.

Even though most of the distros I have loaded are no longer supported, I wanted to see if I could do it. I have little or no formal training in computer programming and saw this as an opportunity to learn something new.

I have always loaded a distro on it’s own HD mostly because I have a bunch of them and my G4s seem to be able to accommodate them. My G5 only has 2, 250GB HDs so I wanted to make sure it had the newest(?) Linux distro. Do not talk to me about Debian. I tried to load that on ALL of my Macs and never got them to work. Probably operator error but even with all of the help from this forum and Linux questions.org I never got one to work.

Intel Macs are more accommodating for the latest distros. I loaded Linux Mint onto a MacBook (white) and Ubuntu Mint on a Dell Insperion (2015) on the first shot. I have Catalina running on my MacBook Pro thanks to a patch from a gentleman named dosdude1. My i5 iMac runs Windows and Sierra but I may dump Windows for a Linux distro. We’ll see.

Start with simpler distros to learn Linux, then move up if the mode stricken you.

My two cents,
MacMaverick855
 
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MacMaverick855 said:
@Amethyst1, the KDE system contains an “app” called Remote Devices. It should work to mount removable media. For some reason it’s not seeing the fact that a CD is inserted and a USB drive is attached. Since this distro was built for Mac PPC64 devices AND there is actually an app for removable devices I would think it should work. So, I’m wondering if there is some sort of firmware update or if the updated repository from @ifrit05 would instruct Adelie/KDE to see the removable devices. I’d just a soon not mess with /etc/fstab if I don’t have to but when running mount as root the message I get is that the /dev doesn’t exist in /etc/fstab. In researching the app, all indications are I have the app settings correct for mounting removable devices but they aren’t mounting.

Any suggestions?
MacMav855
Click to expand...
Adelie is a WIP and doesn't have all the packages it's parent distro has (Alpine), which in turn doesn't have all packages other distros have since they use the musl over the ubiquitous glibc.

There is a work around that is semi-auto (with user intervention), by using the USB's UUID and running a script.

First, install util-linux:
sudo apk add util-linux

Get your USB device's UUID by running blkid:
sudo blkid

(copy the PARTUUID after the equals sign, should be numbers, letters, and dashes)

Then save this next block of code as mount-usb in /usr/bin, and make is executable:
Bash: 
!#/bin/bash
if [ ! -d "/media/USB-Drive" ]; then
    mkdir /media/USB-Drive
fi
mount UUID=$UUID /media/USB-Drive

(The $UUID should be changed to what blkid spat out as the PARTUUID)

sudo cp mount-usb /usr/bin && chmod +x /usr/bin/mount-usb

Now when you run the script as root it should mount the USB device:
sudo mount-usb

We can do the same for unmounting as well by creating an alias:
alias unmount-usb='umount /media/USB-Drive'

Now whenever you need to mount your USB-drive, run sudo mount-usb, and sudo unmount-usb to unmount it.

Keep in mind that this will ony work for that specific USB device, and the UUID will change if you ever reformat it, so you will need to get the UUID again by running sudo blkid and updating the UUID in the mount-usb script in the event this happens.

I invite you to join the Adelie IRC channel for help if you ever need it, I am on there as well. You can join using a web browser by going to https://www.adelielinux.org/contact/irc.html

ww2_1943 said:
Yes, I did use a separate drive for Void. I pulled the drive with osx and put the new drive as primary.

My G5 DP 1.8 had a Radeon graphics card but my DC 2.3 has Nvidia. I tried installing void on the 1.8.

Does that mean Void loses all support after Jan 2023? Is it worth installing if the project is over in a month?
I guess it’s worth installing from the standpoint of just learning how to install Linux
Click to expand...

Start out with the easy distros on supported platforms first. Mint or *ubunu are the great learner distros. After that experiment with more complicated ones like Arch, Gentoo, or even Alpine. Then start messing around with older niche archetctures like ppc, ppc64, or even arm (Raspberry Pi).
 
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Tratkazir_the_1st said:
So, what's so good in this distribution? If we compare it, say, with Debian?
Click to expand...
Adélie Linux respects your time and investments. That's why we're based on a rock-solid runtime library and focused on bringing an efficient operating system to your hardware, whether it's from 1995 or 2025.
Click to expand...
The philosophy.

You can't really compare it to a decades old distro that is extremely mature. Once Adelie gets off the ground rolling I can see it being a boon to PPC computers and old x86 ones as well. Have a read of the FAQs and homepage for more info. Or drop into the IRC channel and ask them yourself. :)
 
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