Back from a Break - PowerPC Linux advise needed!

[Cal J Harris]

So it’s been a while and my Mini G4 which I got for some fun has mostly been used on OSX here and there with me bouncing but finally settling on Tiger. Mostly enjoying playing some occasional Sims 1 amounts other things.

Anywho I’m one of those people who likes to give there machines purpose no matter what they do. While a Mini G4 is still a perfect file server I have a tiny Lenovo Thinkcenter smaller than the Mini even that performs that task and has USB 3 so I can get nice file transfer speeds amongst hosting a http download server, bit torrent, Minecraft server etc.

The Mini G4 however outside of my usage in Tiger is mostly sitting not getting used. I have continually experiment with Linux and come to the conclusion that while things like 12.04 remix give the Mini a usable web experience that I still prefer newer software. I’m currently running Void cli only and might mess a bit with using Openbox IW3 something lightweight and up fancy to actually use a browser or whatever when I want.

I’m enjoying Void but running into some issues. Aside from hosting some hold games servers for fun or having another file server I really don’t have a need for I decided that the least I could do is gives he Minis compute power to something when I’m not using it however Bonic has dependencies that are not available in Void PPC. I chased compiling a dependency and it led me into a bigger rabbit hole of other dependencies need to compile that so I’m currently in limo.

My attempts to install Debian Sid (despite the fact I honestly think void is faster for the Mini) have been unsuccessful if it’s broken packages or whatever I have referred the guide and the installation would not be able to get everything it needed to deliver a working cli system. My idea being that maybe Debian would have the packages void lacks to run Bonic. I wanted to reach out too those with more Linux knowledge than me and ask them these things.

1. Does Debian Sid have a better Package Library than Void? Or is it the case it has more but more broken ones
2. Like I said I like to give machines purpose, I want the Mini to not just sit powered off for 2-3 weeks I want it to get used if nit by me then for some purpose. Can I give back to the PPC community in some way with the Mini can it be used help efforts in compiling PPC packages etc.
3. What else could I do with it? I have no need for file or print severs, Have that covered. It’s not that it goes unused it’s just not used to the point where I feel like it could be doing something outside of some fun Playing Sims 1 or messing with Tiger and Linux.

Long winded I know but never have been any good at short explanations. It’s such a pity that Linux despite all its might is mostly an x86 and now ARM platform. I get a Mini G4 is not at all powerful by today’s standards but take the Moon landings calculators these days are more power than the tech they used. Heck I only found out recently the Mars rover uses a G3 CPU. That’s why I know my Mini can find use. You just gotta find it.... or get it to actually work!

UPDATE: I have come up with an idea which will make use of Tiger only. So I will be deleting Linux.

 

[AL1630]

What are your new plans for it?

 

[Cal J Harris]

My Plan is to give back to the community and I was thinking how I could do that easy and something I have not really seen.

Macintosh Garden is great for legacy software and for Power Mac stuff in general. But it’s one site and they don’t have a torrent option. My idea is community wise I will use my Mini to seed the PowerPC stuff I am downloading and using, opening up some of the stuff I downloaded from Macintosh Garden, elsewhere and so on to seeding as another means of community file sharing. It helps to keep those legacy programs, Mac OS installers and so on alive and also means that anybody can contribute all you have to do is seed when your using your powermac or for that any device that can do so and whenever you like if you wish.

I get to sit down still and enjoy messing in Tiger and playing some Sims and stuff, while my Mini seeds all that PPC goodness for people to download.

 

[dextructor]

I decided that the least I could do is gives he Minis compute power to something when I’m not using it however Bonic has dependencies that are not available in Void PPC

As someone who get every machine and smartphone from anyone who would be trashed by any reason an put them to calculate in BOINC projects I would love to give some advice to my limited knowledge. The Power Architecture was really competitive but with any science it's about optimizations to fully unlock the power of the machine, like the CorePlayer can play most demanding videos with limited power. The distributed computing (BOINC, Folding@Home etc) depends on how much faster can be performed those small pieces of projects on any architecture, so the lead developer for the project would optimize thoroughly to avoid bad resources utilization and/or bad calculation. Taking on account that you depend on the volunteers machines availability you as a developer would make as much market share you have. The Folding@Home I remember could utilize almost all of the Playstation 3 PPE+SPE to make an awesome and unrivaled architecture, so any team that have some PS3's at their disposal would great benefit. Of course the longevity(thermal and production flaws) and specially the power consumption compared to many newer machines would lead to the retirement of PS3 on F@H, and PowerPC's wasn't so dominant outside PS3 to distributive computing. Some project's are only made to X86_64 because has much more availability (and even a few % of the population join anyway) would you really think that it was worth to spend much time to develop for PowerPC than for ARM? Like I said that not only the architecture would be supported (ARM, PowerPC or X86_64) but the operating system as well, and I don't searched in like 2 years about BOINC + Linux + PowerPC, but according to BOINC projects 3 are supporting PowerPC on OSX (Moo! Wrapper, Einstein@home and Yoyo@home) . I really like distributive computing (torrenting and or giving back to the community) so if you wanna give your contribution feel free to start your journey.