PPCPorts: the only ports you ever need on a PowerPC

[barracuda156]

I tried using MacPorts on a Leopard 10.5.8 Intel VM to install gcc15 but it failed at libomp.

I am afraid no one tests 10.5 Intel builds at all. Why `libomp` is pulled in? In any case, I can only recommend switching the installation to `libstdc++` (which was Apple original set-up). Unfortunately, getting rid of clangs is non-trivial: some ports unconditionally try using unsupported by GNU `as` SIMD (libyuv, libsodium, aom), and upstreams think it is a user problem (implementing a proper test is an extra work for them). But with `libc++` you will have to deal with the whole zoo of untested clangs. Hard to estimate which is more painful eventually.

So now I'm trying PPCPorts on Leopard 10.5.8 Quad G5.
The instructions at https://macos-powerpc.org don't say what to do after step 3.

I tried this:

JoeG5:~ joevt$ sudo port list
Warning: Can't open index file for source: rsync://macos-powerpc.org/macos-powerpc/PPCPorts/powerpc-ports.tar
Warning: Can't open index file for source: rsync://rsync.macports.org/macports/release/tarballs/ports.tar.gz
Error: listing all ports failed: No index(es) found! Have you synced your port definitions? Try running 'port selfupdate'.

Run `sudo port -v sync`, as with MacPorts. Alternatively, `sudo portindex ${dir_with_ports}` also works, the first is easier.

So then I tried this:

JoeG5:~ joevt$ sudo port selfupdate
--->  Checking for newer releases of MacPorts
MacPorts base version 2.12.1 installed,
MacPorts base version 2.12.1 available.
--->  MacPorts base is already the latest version
--->  Updating the ports tree
The ports tree has been updated.
All installed ports are up to date.

So now I can do this:

JoeG5:~ joevt$ sudo port install gcc15
Warning: archive_sites.conf: no urls set for macports_archives
--->  Computing dependencies for gcc15
The following dependencies will be installed:
 autoconf
 ...
 zstd
Continue? [Y/n]: Y
--->  Fetching archive for gcc_select
--->  Installing gcc_select @0.1_10
--->  Activating gcc_select @0.1_10
--->  Cleaning gcc_select
--->  Fetching archive for gcc10-bootstrap
--->  Archive not available for gcc10-bootstrap, building locally
--->  Fetching distfiles for gcc10-bootstrap
Attempting to fetch http://distfiles.macports.org/gcc/gcc-10.5.0.tar.gz
--->  Verifying checksums for gcc10-bootstrap                                       
--->  Extracting gcc10-bootstrap

I will leave it running overnight.

Notice, at the moment the primary compiler is gcc14. Do you have any special reason to use gcc15 now?
So far I have not come across such a need with regard to ports we have. I am planning to skip gcc15 and update the main compiler to gcc16 once it is released.

 

[joevt]

I am afraid no one tests 10.5 Intel builds at all. Why `libomp` is pulled in?

Is there a command that shows the dependency tree for gcc15? `libomp` is needed for Intel but doesn't seem to be needed for PPC.

Run `sudo port -v sync`, as with MacPorts. Alternatively, `sudo portindex ${dir_with_ports}` also works, the first is easier.

Is there something wrong with using sudo port selfupdate ?

Notice, at the moment the primary compiler is gcc14. Do you have any special reason to use gcc15 now?

Someone said that's the one they used so I'm trying that one. If it fails, I'll try gcc14.

 

[barracuda156]

Is there a command that shows the dependency tree for gcc15? `libomp` is needed for Intel but doesn't seem to be needed for PPC.

gcc uses its own libgomp (installed with libgcc) for OpenMP; libomp is a clang-specific library. I am just not sure why it is needed in this case at all. OpenMP should not be needed to boostrap stage 0 of gcc.

`port rdeps ${portname}` shows the whole tree.

Is there something wrong with using sudo port selfupdate ?

Well, by design yes, it is a command to sabotage existing installation LOL
I think I have disabled that, but nevertheless, it is at best unneeded. `port sync` does updates of sources. The base must never be updated via opaque commands pulling an arbitrary source.

Someone said that's the one they used so I'm trying that one. If it fails, I'll try gcc14.

MacPorts switched to gcc15. So using MacPorts sources, gcc15 minimizes building times. With PPCPorts gcc14 does the same. Any non-default compiler will still require a default one, so you just gonna end up building n hours longer (with some risks of having to rebuild it, since a lot of places in the base and ports rely on compiler choice done in a predictable manner).
(To be clear, I have nothing against gcc15 as such, I just don’t want to deal with the mess in a case everything collapses. If you want to use gcc15, the right way would be to update the defaults: in the base, in compiler settings, in portgroups and portfiles where it is set explicitly. You can check in commit history how it was done, and repeat the same. Make sure to change the default runtime to libgcc15 consistently, and to turn libgcc14 to a stub.)

 

[joevt]

gcc uses its own libgomp (installed with libgcc) for OpenMP; libomp is a clang-specific library. I am just not sure why it is needed in this case at all. OpenMP should not be needed to boostrap stage 0 of gcc.

`port rdeps ${portname}` shows the whole tree.

Here's the relevant dependency for gcc15:

  gcc15-libcxx
    clang-11
      clang-9.0
        libomp

Well, by design yes, it is a command to sabotage existing installation LOL
I think I have disabled that, but nevertheless, it is at best unneeded. `port sync` does updates of sources. The base must never be updated via opaque commands pulling an arbitrary source.

There should be documentation to ignore the sudo port selfupdate suggestion...
Do I need to reinstall to undo the sudo port selfupdate?

The compile of gcc15 failed on my Quad G5 with 10.5.8. It has dependencies of isl and isl-devel. isl gets installed first. isl-devel fails because it cannot co-exist with isl. How do I fix this? Attached rdeps result.

 

[barracuda156]

Here's the relevant dependency for gcc15:

  gcc15-libcxx
    clang-11
      clang-9.0
        libomp

gcc*-libcxx is an optional dependency. You can disable a variant which pulls it in. Also, it only uses headers (and at runtime the library), not clang as such. (The whole set-up is quite unfortunate and wasteful in MacPorts, I have it done in a better way in PPCPorts, but for ppc. You could do the same for x86, picking libcxx-11, for example.)

There should be documentation to ignore the sudo port selfupdate suggestion...
Do I need to reinstall to undo the sudo port selfupdate?

If it works as you want it to, that’s fine.

The compile of gcc15 failed on my Quad G5 with 10.5.8. It has dependencies of isl and isl-devel. isl gets installed first. isl-devel fails because it cannot co-exist with isl. How do I fix this? Attached rdeps result.

This is what I was writing about earlier. It’s a bad idea to try forcing a non-default compiler. Either use gcc14 consistently, or switch the whole set-up to gcc15, but do not mix gcc15 from MacPorts with libgcc from PPCPorts.

Specifically re isl: with modern gcc either version works, but they are not swappable. Choose one and use it with everything; if needed, edit portfiles to use a desired one (you can replace path-style dependency with the hard one).

 

[Smithwick’s]

Just want to note that Dillo+ (dillo-plus) always installs broken on both 10.5.8 and 10.6.8a and requires rebuilding. It's a much more useful resource than regular Dillo on account of supporting gopher, gemini, etc. It's simple enough to rebuild even on a modest G4, so not a huge hurdle by any means, but for the sake of simplicity I wanted to mention it here.

 

[barracuda156]

Just want to note that Dillo+ (dillo-plus) always installs broken on both 10.5.8 and 10.6.8a and requires rebuilding. It's a much more useful resource than regular Dillo on account of supporting gopher, gemini, etc. It's simple enough to rebuild even on a modest G4, so not a huge hurdle by any means, but for the sake of simplicity I wanted to mention it here.

I will check 10.6.8 binary. Perhaps a rev-bump was missed on some dependency update.

Upd. Fixed in https://github.com/macos-powerpc/powerpc-ports/commit/515ed27b79239cdfe877c0eddef4e2bf54b974d4
Upd2. I have updated sources now, so it should work correctly.

 

[barracuda156]

HandBrake 1.10.2 (the latest release) port added now. Testing welcome. Make sure you have a working X server first, please, since it relies on GTK.

 

[barracuda156]

QMPlay2 25.09.11 (yes, the latest), with online radios working now:

 

[saxfun]

regarding handbrake: only HandBrakeCLI gets installed, where is the app itself located? Regarding QMplay2. you are talking about Qmplay2 or qmplay2-devel? after syncing neither app is ATM available in version 25.09.11.0

 

[barracuda156]

regarding handbrake: only HandBrakeCLI gets installed, where is the app itself located?

/opt/local/bin/ghb

Regarding QMplay2. you are talking about Qmplay2 or qmplay2-devel? after syncing neither app is ATM available in version 25.09.11.0

qmplay2 branch on GitHub repo. Not merged yet, since it needs few things to be fixed (unrelated to primary functionality).

Upd. Qmplay2 stuff merged, use main branch normally (or just port sync).

 

[danupsher]

i probably should have read this thread before i started just porting stuff

 

[kjellcomputer]

Hi! Great work on this @barracuda156! I've taken a recent interrest again with my newly brough PowerMac G5 DP, but opted for Tiger mainly for nostaliga (and T2-linux since it also supports accelerated graphics for the Nvidia card).
What I've observed these days of compiling thru MacPorts, is that many packages does not download (after it tried X mirrors), so I manually download them and scp them over, sometimes editing the Portfile to update some sha256 ect data to match if different.
Is this a common issue or am I just unlucky? I'm currently working on getting xorg-server-1.18 done, but the pauses in the build-process and hunt for missing packages makes it time consuming, so I wondered if anyone else also experience this?

 

[barracuda156]

Hi! Great work on this @barracuda156! I've taken a recent interrest again with my newly brough PowerMac G5 DP, but opted for Tiger mainly for nostaliga (and T2-linux since it also supports accelerated graphics for the Nvidia card).
What I've observed these days of compiling thru MacPorts, is that many packages does not download (after it tried X mirrors), so I manually download them and scp them over, sometimes editing the Portfile to update some sha256 ect data to match if different.
Is this a common issue or am I just unlucky? I'm currently working on getting xorg-server-1.18 done, but the pauses in the build-process and hunt for missing packages makes it time consuming, so I wondered if anyone else also experience this?

Broken system curl, likely. Bootstrap a separate installation first (I did that in /opt/bootstrap), configuring base with custom apps dir and no startup items, install curl there, then install new base (upgrade existing also works) in main prefix, configuring with curlprefix=/opt/bootstrap. It’s a pain on Tiger in any case, won’t be smooth. On 10.5 (or 10.6, course) the same is a breeze, since everything will just compile or download pre-built.

 

[barracuda156]

i probably should have read this thread before i started just porting stuff

If you have fixed or added something that we don’t have in PPCPorts, PRs are welcome

 

[Forest Expertise]

i probably should have read this thread before i started just porting stuff

You did get gcc15 fixed for Tiger, which we don't have. The question is can your fixes be integrated easily. If you can make a PR on the GitHub, that would be great.

Broken system curl, likely. Bootstrap a separate installation first (I did that in /opt/bootstrap), configuring base with custom apps dir and no startup items, install curl there, then install new base (upgrade existing also works) in main prefix, configuring with curlprefix=/opt/bootstrap. It’s a pain on Tiger in any case, won’t be smooth. On 10.5 (or 10.6, course) the same is a breeze, since everything will just compile or download pre-built.

@danupsher made curl installer you can probably build from source against. I know the one in my claws-mail installer is also updated enough to build PPC ports against and have working, but is heavy on disk space.
Sadly, you do currently need to build from source to get the benefits of updated curl on Tiger.

If you have fixed or added something that we don’t have in PPCPorts, PRs are welcome

@danupsher did get gcc15 working for Tiger, which I have been too scared to mess around with. It is a cross-compilation setup, so I am unsure how easily the changes can be integrated into PowerPC ports.

 

[Forest Expertise]

Hi! Great work on this @barracuda156! I've taken a recent interrest again with my newly brough PowerMac G5 DP, but opted for Tiger mainly for nostaliga (and T2-linux since it also supports accelerated graphics for the Nvidia card).
What I've observed these days of compiling thru MacPorts, is that many packages does not download (after it tried X mirrors), so I manually download them and scp them over, sometimes editing the Portfile to update some sha256 ect data to match if different.
Is this a common issue or am I just unlucky? I'm currently working on getting xorg-server-1.18 done, but the pauses in the build-process and hunt for missing packages makes it time consuming, so I wondered if anyone else also experience this?

Yeah, I lived with this for several months. Manually downloading the packages usually isn't hard, you can even do it from the command line if you have curl, or from the browser if you have aquafox. One of the urls it tries is the correct one, but it doesn't have modern curl.
You can build from source against modern curl to get rid of the problem, @barracuda156 gives great instructions in the SDL thread.
But you will get the same results just downloading the packages, it depends whether you want to streamline the process

 

[barracuda156]

You did get gcc15 fixed for Tiger, which we don't have. The question is can your fixes be integrated easily. If you can make a PR on the GitHub, that would be great.
@danupsher did get gcc15 working for Tiger, which I have been too scared to mess around with. It is a cross-compilation setup, so I am unsure how easily the changes can be integrated into PowerPC ports.

gcc16 is in stage 4 now, with release expected in March/April. It has some new stuff, including algol68 front-end: https://gcc.gnu.org/gcc-16/changes.html
Given this, I do not want gcc15, whether for Tiger or otherwise; IMO it is easier to wait a month and move to gcc16.
There is nothing pressing us to move from gcc14 right now: I know of 1–2 cases where newer gcc is required, but none of those are related to existing ports.

 

[kjellcomputer]

Broken system curl, likely. Bootstrap a separate installation first (I did that in /opt/bootstrap), configuring base with custom apps dir and no startup items, install curl there, then install new base (upgrade existing also works) in main prefix, configuring with curlprefix=/opt/bootstrap. It’s a pain on Tiger in any case, won’t be smooth. On 10.5 (or 10.6, course) the same is a breeze, since everything will just compile or download pre-built.

That fixed it, I just compiled curl from sources and then macports with the curlprefix over the existing installation and now it works. Thanks!

 

[sparty411]

I'm trying to get Curl installed from the .mpkg file from the macos-powerpc website, but I get an 'Install failed' error. It says "the installer could not install the software because there was no software found to install".

 

[barracuda156]

I'm trying to get Curl installed from the .mpkg file from the macos-powerpc website, but I get an 'Install failed' error. It says "the installer could not install the software because there was no software found to install".

Could you specify what system you try to install it on and which exactly pkg (i.e. link to the file, since there were more than one)?

I just tried to re-install it on 10.6.8 in a VM, and it works as expected:

P. S. Since curl packages did not change for a long time, it will be surprising if they are broken, and nobody complains.

 

[sparty411]

Could you specify what system you try to install it on and which exactly pkg (i.e. link to the file, since there were more than one)?
I just tried to re-install it on 10.6.8 in a VM, and it works as expected:
View attachment 2608927
P. S. Since curl packages did not change for a long time, it will be surprising if they are broken, and nobody complains.

I'm an idiot. I was trying to install the 10.6 PPC package. Sorry!

 

[PPCUser26]

QMPlay2 25.09.11 (yes, the latest), with online radios working now:

View attachment 2607660
View attachment 2607661

Hello everyone! This is my first time posting here but I was trying to get QMPlay2 to compile on my Powerbook G4 with Leopard v10.5.8 and I ended up getting the following error:

Before this error, I did sudo port sync, sudo port deactivate activate and sudo port -v -N install qt4-mac-devel ffmpeg7 qmplay2-devel yt-dlp and left it alone to compile for the 2-3 days before it failed. Is there anything that can be done to get this to compile?

I attached the logs that I got when the compilation failed.

 

[barracuda156]

Hello everyone! This is my first time posting here but I was trying to get QMPlay2 to compile on my Powerbook G4 with Leopard v10.5.8 and I ended up getting the following error:
View attachment 2609921

Before this error, I did sudo port sync, sudo port deactivate activate and sudo port -v -N install qt4-mac-devel ffmpeg7 qmplay2-devel yt-dlp and left it alone to compile for the 2-3 days before it failed. Is there anything that can be done to get this to compile?

I attached the logs that I got when the compilation failed.

Discussed in https://github.com/macos-powerpc/powerpc-ports/issues/85

I will deal with this today. Fixing is trivial, I’m just not sure why it works in some cases but not other.

 

[PPCUser26]

Discussed in https://github.com/macos-powerpc/powerpc-ports/issues/85

I will deal with this today. Fixing is trivial, I’m just not sure why it works in some cases but not other.

Thank you! Should I start posting any issues I find on Github, this forum or both?