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Adélie Linux for PowerPC

I found a manual installation instruction site that worked pretty well, to a point. When it comes time to install GRUB2, instructions from another site, I get to a point where the instruction to “grub-install” generates an error that /boot/grub/grub is a directory. I’ll see if I can get the website particulars posted here later.
 
I resolved the above problem by strictly following the manual instructions pretty much to the letter. I added a second partiton with the file system ext2, maintained an Apple_Bootstrap partition, and kept the APM partition. Following the guidance of @ifrit05 I completed all of the steps, rebooted to the sddm screen where my username appeared. I entered my password, the screen went black, as if it was going to load the operating system then returned to the login screen. No errors, no “wrong password“ or user unknown, just right back to the login. I am able to get to a tty screen where, I tried my user name and password and again, it kinda flashed and went back to a tty login, as if my user name didn’t exist though no error was thrown. I can log in with root AND the password I established for root during the install, but I don’t know where to go or what to do from there…yet. I have a bad feeling about how I created the user and password. There was mention of adding the user to wheel, audio, video, but every time I tried to do this, the prompt returned stating user already exists. I did NOT try to add the user to wheel, audio and video on this last installation. I was hoping I could log in and then figure out where to go from there.

More research is needed.

MacMaverick855
 
Tratkazir_the_1st said:
Can you press CTRL-ALT-F1 (or some else) & login to command prompt?
Click to expand...
I can get to a tty and log in as root with the password I chose during the installation. The user name and password do not work. When I try to log in with my user name on the tty it loops back to the tty login. When in the GUI (uses sddm) I get a loop back when using the user name and password. Either sddm is broken or I messed up creating the user. The instructions on how to create a user are simplistic and I’m pretty sure I did what was necessary but it just isn’t working. May try to reinstall Adelie focusing on when (or if) KDE Plasma and sddm are loaded as part of the install. I’m not sure if, when performing the manual install, I am installing KDE/sddm as part of the install or not.
 
@ifrit05 , I am pretty sure I have Adelie 1.0-RC2 loaded on my G5 ppc64 Mac. It is currently in text mode only because the last install with KDE Plasma and sddm, I could not log in, something called a login loop I guess. My user name and password established during the install aren't working in text mode either. Not sure why. Retro Action dude had instructions on installing KDE Plasma and sddm, and I used those instructions to install the desktop environment and login manager, but like I said, sddm didn't work. My user name showed up in the sddm login screen but when I entered my password , it tried to load the GUI but it came right back to the login screen, no errors, no "wrong password or user ID".

I used useradd and passwd to create my account during the install process, but they don't appear to be working.

DO you have any recommended instructions on installing KDE-Plasma and/or sddm or perhaps a better DE or login manager? I'd be interested in your take on this.

I'm reeeeal close!!!!
MM855
 
@ifrit05, I owe you a huge apology mostly because, going back and reading some of my questions to this forum, I realized how much I didn’t know. After having gotten Adelie installed (text only at this time) I finally realized the difference between trying to use Konsole to install and using tty. Your instructions make so much more sense now that I’ve used the tty to install Adelie.

I’m at a stopping point. Until I can find why my user name and password are resulting in login loops both with sddm and when using tty, I’m not going to try to install KDE-Plasma (which I really want because of what I experienced in the “live” desktop) or sddm until I get this user name thing figured out.

I will say this though: Your instructions on updating repositories and apk.key info resulted in a successful installation. I just need to research the cause(s) of my user name and password not working. If I get it working in tty, I’ll consider installing KDE and sddm to take the next level.

Thanks so much for your excellent guidance!
MacMaverick855
 
I have spent some time trying to get Adelie 1.0-RC2 loaded on my ppc64 G5 cheese grater Mac. I have followed guidance from this forum, the Adelie IRC chat and several web sites. I run into issues (now) once the login manager appears (sddm). Assuming I used “useradd” correctly, I could not boot into the desktop, the login manager would return after appearing to try to launch the desktop. This would also occur when trying to log into the tty with my established username and password. I have been told the term is “ a log in loop”. Why it’s happening, I don’t know.

As I’ve stated in several other forums and posts, the live distro boots to a beautiful desktop and operating system. Even logging out and arriving at the sddm login, I was able to boot back into the desktop.

So, the question becomes, using instructions to manually install the distro, ensuring additional repositories are added, correct keys are used and a user is correctly established, one would think the result would be booting into a functional desktop. Somewhere between how the live distro loads and the distro gets installed, something drastic changes: A kernel is changed, a file is updated or removed and the result is an unworkable situation.

It’s possible that using the next.adelielinux.org software site, and/or the —allow-untrusted allows software into the install that is different enough from the live installation that it doesn’t allow the G5 to properly boot up.

I have looked at sddm issues, establishing users, even looked at Alpine installation instructions since Adelie is a derivative of Alpine. I haven’t found the “trick” needed to get the installation to boot to the live distro systemand performance.

I’d welcome any questions as to what I’ve done, what I’ve tried and, if I had tried something, what the result was. There has to be a way to get the G5 to boot to an operating Adelie system that looks and performs like the live desktop.

MacMav855
 
I personally would suggest waiting until Adelie has the new versions bugs sorted out so you don't have all these hoops to jump through. From what I've read in this thread, this looks worse to set up than Slackware and Gentoo in it's current state. Reminds me of how Linux was back in the 90's. A PITA. Nothing should be this hard to get running. Too bad Ubuntu stopped PPC support. Their live disks just worked (with supported GPU's), auto partitioned the drive, and installed updates while installing. That's how easy Adelie should be. Void's Live disks come close to that (minus the auto partitioning), but still pretty easy to set up. Debians installer is archaic at best, but even that's easier to install than Adelie. For the record I could never get Adelie installed either and I gave up on it and went with Void instead. So again, my 2 cents... just wait for the actual polished version to be released and save yourself the headache.

Cheers
 
AphoticD said:
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.
Click to expand...
issue is it keeps saying no screens found(EE) mine is on r129
 
Lastic said:
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]

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 ?
Click to expand...
hah! atari 130xe i still have it with 600xl using side box with touchscreen and old 1050 floppy drive
 
vwbug200713 said:
issue is it keeps saying no screens found(EE) mine is on r129
Click to expand...
I have had an Adelie install that got to the sddm login and allowed me access to a plasma desktop. However, the colors were off and, not being satisfied, I've been messing with trying to get the installed OS to look like the live desktop which appears perfectly. my messing about has only gotten me to a black screen with a (movable) mouse pointer. The good news is it's not blue, it's black and white which is how the pointer first appears when the live desktop launches.

I looked at the /var/log/Xorg.0.log for both the live desktop and the installed version. On a quick glance they look exactly the same. I will look again, but the only way I know to "look" at them is to use my phone to photograph them both and then compare them side by side.

on a whim, I decided to look at the /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d files for both the live and installed systems. The only differences were the existence of 10-evdev.conf 70-synaptics.conf and wacom.conf in the LIVE file. These are not in the installed systems file. So, I'm going to research what each of theses are (the X wiki talks about the evdev thing so I'll start there.

I am using a Radeon 9600 GPU of my Mac G5. To get where I am with the install, I did add xf86-video-amdgpu and xf86-video-ati, as part of the manual install.

The steps of the manual installation should at least touch on what additional items need to be installed to get a working system, or it should be transparent. I'll let you know what happens, and depending on your location in the world you may hear me scream with elation if get it working!!!

MacMav855
 
The Adélie Linux site (Adélie Linux) has become suddenly inactive... Also the old ones, and a github link.
What is happening with Adélie, has it dissappeared...?
 
so guys is it worth it now? I'm on a ibook g4, I only have 512mb ram but i already ordered a 1gb stick, so it'll be more snappy 😀
 
Cowlord2000 said:
so guys is it worth it now? I'm on a ibook g4, I only have 512mb ram but i already ordered a 1gb stick, so it'll be more snappy 😀
Click to expand...
Adelie looks very nice and has a ton of potential in the future, but due to various issues others have cited in this thread, I've never been able to successfully install it on any of my PowerBooks.
 
Just a heads up... The 4/26/24 Adelie download iso for PPC64 desktop (burned to CD) booted live and installed (xfce) on a G5 1.8 single processor without need for command line or other workaround... It "just worked."
Browsers include FF 91esr and the 12/2023 release of Netsurf.
Few bugs but in general runs very nicely... Worth a try
 
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I would have to see this. If the distro fits on a CD I may give it a whirl. If you look back through this thread you will see all of the issues I had with it. I eventually gave up. My G5 cheese grater is the only mac I have that currently isn’t running linux. I have a Debian 12 CD on standby to try and load onto it but I’d love to get Adelie on it. Looks like I need to update my list of computers and what they are running. The G5 does NOT have Adelie on it.
 
I likewise struggled repeatedly to get Adelie to work on my G5s to no avail. The closest I came to success was with Action Retro's approach, but that was a short-lived solution.
So when I saw the more recently dated download (4/26/24) which comes to 608MB with xfce selection I decided to give it another try. Again, install was smooth and at this point functions nicely...
 
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After many many failed boots with my G4 it finally got to a black screen with a cursor (got excited) but the disk spun down. Called it quits. May be some incompatibility with my sonnet CPU upgrade.

As for the G5 quad... I have success. At first I didn't want to use the stock nvidia 6600 since it always crapped out rather quickly (before it boots to desktop in Leopard) with major visual artifacts/glitches. After removing the heatsink and inspecting the card I noticed there was no thermal compound whatsoever! After adding some leftover thermal paste from a PC build it worked stable in Leopard. The quad booted from the KDE live dvd and made it to desktop with no issues. After manually partitioning my drive (Leopard ssd not connected) and running the installer via SU in terminal everything went well. It took a while to figure out what the drive was in open firmware but it booted at "boot ultra1:2,\grub\grub" without quotes. To find it I went through what I thought should be drives and had luck with "dir ultra#:#,\" (where the 1st # is drive number and 2nd # is partition number) without quotes to list contents. I'm guessing ultra0 is the upper sata bay and ultra1 is the lower. The use of "ultra" is concerning and didn't check to see if ultra2 was the optical drive. I hope it's not short for ultraATA... but using a sata connector. Trying to dir the sata entries didn't go anywhere.

Here are some things I've noticed after booting the install:
1. no sound
2. it sees the wifi card but doesn't have drivers
3. same with bluetooth (I wouldn't use it anyway)
4. sudo, Firefox and htop had to be installed separately via apk
5. having the installer do the partitioning doesn't seem to work yet (nothing in dir ultra1:2,\)
6. "eye candy" issues (menu fade effects) I'm assuming are due to the underpowered 6600
7. it doesn't boot with the ATI x1900
8. very minimal resource usage (internet is more usable/smoother in Firefox than InterwebPPC in Leopard)
9. fans ramp up normally with use
10. glxgears opens then closes right away
11. lm_sensors doesn't work
12. visuals in the activity monitor app don't show (possibly related to glxgears not working)
13. no rdate or ntpdate to set network date/time in distro repository
14. my user doesn't show up in the user section of settings (want to set auto login)
15. it boots faster than my macpro5,1 running Slackware15 or itself on Leopard (seriously?? it boots really fast)
16. neofetch isn't available in repository

With all that I'm just happy it boots and is usable. Maybe someday it will show up in the Apple boot picker and not need open firmware to boot. I don't remember using open firmware to boot Ubuntu on my G3 almost 20 years ago... and not sure how it booted since it doesn't have the boot picker. I did have OS 9.2.2, 10.4.11 and Ubuntu between 2 hard drives. Maybe Grub was able to boot it all?

I'm guessing to update between the beta releases I just use apk update then upgrade?
 
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Being quite new to the forum I just found out about this thread. I have naively partitioned my PBook with 4 partitions, thinking I could easily mix and match OS X installs with one Linux distro. Looks like a pipe dream now after reading most of this thread... installing a Linux distro looks like a nightmare, let alone having it multi-boot in a single drive. :eek:

Still, I'd really love to be able to run Linux on my 2004 Alubook, so do you think it's worth the effort or is it hopeless ? If there's still some hope considering my config (e.g. NVidia GPU), which distro should I pick that would get me the best chance of success ? (I used to love tinkering for hours on, but realistically I'm not that patient anymore, aging and stuff).

Just had a look at Action Retro comments on YT :


and found out a couple of guys claiming they successfully installed Adelie on their PPC, one is a PBook but no config detail provided...
 
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