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PPCPorts: the only ports you ever need on a PowerPC

srp said:
When investigating a YouTube playback issue with QMPlay2 (installed pre-built binary from PPCPorts, just says "could not load http://youtube...), I tried to just run `yt-dlp` in a terminal and the results were interesting. When I'm running `yt-dlp` in bash, this is my result:
View attachment 2594637

But when I run through zsh it works just fine:View attachment 2594638

Something about the two environments are different, and considering the default environment is broken, I'm assuming this affects QMPlay2 as well.. it's strange because bash seems to find every other binary in `/opt/local` so I can't imagine it would be trying to use some system binary instead.. as you can see all of the dependency versioning is the same...

edit: nevermind, bash is not sh....

I guess I'm not sure why QMPlay2 won't play Youtube videos.
Click to expand...

Assuming you followed port notes and made a symlink, you should get identical results with ytdlp directly, I believe.
However, QMPlay2 has setting for preferred formats, which may differ from what ytdlp defaults to on its own.

Notice that JS runtime is not found, which means you did not follow what port notes say for ytdlp.

P. S. Anyway I will check it today on my end. Thanks for bringing this up.
 
barracuda156 said:
Assuming you followed port notes and made a symlink, you should get identical results with ytdlp directly, I believe.
However, QMPlay2 has setting for preferred formats, which may differ from what ytdlp defaults to on its own.

Notice that JS runtime is not found, which means you did not follow what port notes say for ytdlp.

P. S. Anyway I will check it today on my end. Thanks for bringing this up.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reminder, I just double checked the notes.

1768038587797.png

yt-dlp symlink is there, but I had `yt-dlp.conf` named as `yt.dlp.conf` (oops...)

Even with that fixed though, the same error occurs.
 
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srp said:
Thanks for the reminder, I just double checked the notes.

View attachment 2594647
yt-dlp symlink is there, but I had `yt-dlp.conf` named as `yt.dlp.conf` (oops...)

Even with that fixed though, the same error occurs.
Click to expand...

Just to be clear, you cannot stream any videos from QMPlay2? It was often the case that some did not stream, but some other did. I am not sure what exactly was the reason, but very likely it was due to missing formats (while QMPlay2 expected something specific to exist), gradual breakage of non-JS-based downloads by YouTube or possibly just timing-out on huge files (I don’t remember if time-out was disabled or not).
 
srp said:
Thanks for the reminder, I just double checked the notes.

View attachment 2594647
yt-dlp symlink is there, but I had `yt-dlp.conf` named as `yt.dlp.conf` (oops...)

Even with that fixed though, the same error occurs.
Click to expand...

Okay, here is what I have:

yt-dlp (config to use QuickJS, `quickjs` port active): downloads video normally.
QMPlay2 port: YouTube search works, streaming is broken (same like for you).
QMPlay2-devel port: streaming works.

qmplay.png


(The errors in the log is from attempts with non-devel QMPlay2 port: both ports preserve history for each other.)

Tested with 1 identical video. Notice, YouTube seems to have removed nice formats and leaving only heavy vp9 and av1:
Code: 
$ yt-dlp -F 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vYO8cBGE58'
[youtube] Extracting URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vYO8cBGE58
[youtube] 4vYO8cBGE58: Downloading webpage
[youtube] 4vYO8cBGE58: Downloading tv client config
[youtube] 4vYO8cBGE58: Downloading player b75a8e80-main
[youtube] 4vYO8cBGE58: Downloading tv player API JSON
[youtube] 4vYO8cBGE58: Downloading android sdkless player API JSON
[youtube] [jsc:quickjs] Solving JS challenges using quickjs
[info] Available formats for 4vYO8cBGE58:
ID  EXT   RESOLUTION FPS CH │   FILESIZE    TBR PROTO │ VCODEC           VBR ACODEC      ABR ASR MORE INFO
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
sb2 mhtml 25x45        1    │                   mhtml │ images                                   storyboard
sb3 mhtml 48x27        4    │                   mhtml │ images                                   storyboard
sb1 mhtml 50x90        1    │                   mhtml │ images                                   storyboard
sb0 mhtml 101x180      1    │                   mhtml │ images                                   storyboard
139 m4a   audio only      2 │  153.89KiB    49k https │ audio only           mp4a.40.5   49k 22k [ko] low, m4a_dash
249 webm  audio only      2 │  162.03KiB    52k https │ audio only           opus        52k 48k [ko] low, webm_dash
250 webm  audio only      2 │  212.47KiB    68k https │ audio only           opus        68k 48k [ko] low, webm_dash
140 m4a   audio only      2 │  405.41KiB   130k https │ audio only           mp4a.40.2  130k 44k [ko] medium, m4a_dash
251 webm  audio only      2 │  417.38KiB   134k https │ audio only           opus       134k 48k [ko] medium, webm_dash
160 mp4   144x256     30    │  339.54KiB   109k https │ avc1.4d400c     109k video only          144p, mp4_dash
133 mp4   240x426     30    │  742.76KiB   239k https │ avc1.4d4015     239k video only          240p, mp4_dash
242 webm  240x426     30    │  315.49KiB   101k https │ vp9             101k video only          240p, webm_dash
395 mp4   240x426     30    │  344.68KiB   111k https │ av01.0.00M.08   111k video only          240p, mp4_dash
134 mp4   360x640     30    │    1.62MiB   534k https │ avc1.4d401e     534k video only          360p, mp4_dash
18  mp4   360x640     30  2 │    1.83MiB   601k https │ avc1.42001E          mp4a.40.2       48k [ko] 360p
243 webm  360x640     30    │  672.61KiB   216k https │ vp9             216k video only          360p, webm_dash
396 mp4   360x640     30    │  965.85KiB   310k https │ av01.0.01M.08   310k video only          360p, mp4_dash
135 mp4   480x854     30    │    2.45MiB   807k https │ avc1.4d401f     807k video only          480p, mp4_dash
397 mp4   480x854     30    │    1.72MiB   567k https │ av01.0.04M.08   567k video only          480p, mp4_dash
779 webm  608x1080    30    │    1.49MiB   491k https │ vp9             491k video only          480p, webm_dash
780 webm  608x1080    30    │    2.63MiB   866k https │ vp9             866k video only          480p, webm_dash
788 mp4   608x1080    30    │    1.90MiB   624k https │ av01.0.04M.08   624k video only          480p, mp4_dash
136 mp4   720x1280    30    │    3.49MiB  1150k https │ avc1.4d401f    1150k video only          720p, mp4_dash
247 webm  720x1280    30    │    4.56MiB  1500k https │ vp9            1500k video only          720p, webm_dash
398 mp4   720x1280    30    │    3.46MiB  1139k https │ av01.0.05M.08  1139k video only          720p, mp4_dash
137 mp4   1080x1920   30    │   11.11MiB  3657k https │ avc1.640028    3657k video only          1080p, mp4_dash
248 webm  1080x1920   30    │    8.04MiB  2646k https │ vp9            2646k video only          1080p, webm_dash
399 mp4   1080x1920   30    │    6.05MiB  1991k https │ av01.0.08M.08  1991k video only          1080p, mp4_dash
271 webm  1440x2560   30    │   25.73MiB  8468k https │ vp9            8468k video only          1440p, webm_dash
400 mp4   1440x2560   30    │   19.66MiB  6469k https │ av01.0.12M.08  6469k video only          1440p, mp4_dash
313 webm  2160x3840   30    │   53.47MiB 17596k https │ vp9           17596k video only          2160p, webm_dash
401 mp4   2160x3840   30    │   36.34MiB 11957k https │ av01.0.12M.08 11957k video only          2160p, mp4_dash

I am not sure how well QMPlay2* handle fallbacks via multiple format choices. Perhaps just set the preferred format to wanted resolution and VP9 (and not h264 which won't be there).
 
Hello @barracuda156 ,
First of all a big thanks for all the effort on providing software for the powerpc community.
I have a powerbook g4 running sobert leopard, and would love to try it ppc ports (specially to get an up to date email client).

You say on the first post: 10.5 in its official release form is supported, primarily for ppc64. I you do not have a G5 or do not need ppc64, choosing 10.6 makes a better sense.
Choosing 10.6 means choosing the SL installer of PPC ports or the operative system ?

Also on the installation instructions you talk about xcode 3.2.6 which from my understand is for snow leopard. Should I go with 3.2?
What about the darwin tools, make and bsdtar same versions as on your site for leopard?

Also for the repo I should use https://kemonomimi.nl/ppcports/ ?

Sorry for the newbie questions.


thedoctor45x said:
I have uploaded my custom PPCPorts install which includes approx. 1500 prebuilt ports for PPC OS X 10.5.8 Leopard (32bit only).

mega.nz

10.75 GB file on MEGA

mega.nz mega.nz

Instructions:

Mount the custom install dmg and double click the provided install.command script - enter your user password when prompted and wait till the process is completed. (at least 20 Gigs of harddisk space are required)

If you already have MacPorts installed you might want to consider backing up the /opt directory on your boot drive before proceeding with the install.

If anyone runs into any problems you can post them here and I'll try to help.
Click to expand...
Do you have a list of the software that is included?
I did and have like 30 items on macports folder. I was mainly looking for an email client that could support gmail.
 
Last edited:
skinniezinho said:
Hello @barracuda156 ,
You say on the first post: 10.5 in its official release form is supported, primarily for ppc64. I you do not have a G5 or do not need ppc64, choosing 10.6 makes a better sense.
Choosing 10.6 means choosing the SL installer of PPC ports or the operative system ?
Click to expand...

That refers to the OS (and a matching version of installer). If you are on Leopard, please use a version for 10.5.

skinniezinho said:
Also on the installation instructions you talk about xcode 3.2.6 which from my understand is for snow leopard. Should I go with 3.2?
Click to expand...

Xcode must always be from the same version as the OS itself.
10.5.8 – Xcode 3.1.4
10a190 – Xcode 3.2 (from 10a190 image)
10.6.8 – Xcode 3.2.6

Unix tools are mostly compatible (so pulling `make` from Leopard to SL will likely work fine), but the compiler and a lot of other Xcode components are not.

skinniezinho said:
What about the darwin tools, make and bsdtar same versions as on your site for leopard?
Click to expand...

These are only relevant for Snow Leopard. Do not install them on 10.5, at least not with installers from the site, since they are made for 10.6 specifically (where they are needed, since Apple ones lack ppc slices).

darwin-xtools will be installed by ports on 10.5.

skinniezinho said:
Also for the repo I should use https://kemonomimi.nl/ppcports/ ?
Click to expand...

You may, I guess. That should save you a lot of time on compilation.
 
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skinniezinho said:
I have a powerbook g4 running sobert leopard, and would love to try it ppc ports (specially to get an up to date email client).
Click to expand...

@skinniezinho
Nothing stops you from installing two systems in parallel by the way, whether on internal drive or external FireWire one. If you decide you are settled, delete partition with another, resize the chosen one to the whole drive.
 
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thedoctor45x said:
I have uploaded my custom PPCPorts install which includes approx. 1500 prebuilt ports for PPC OS X 10.5.8 Leopard (32bit only).

mega.nz

10.75 GB file on MEGA

mega.nz mega.nz

Instructions:

Mount the custom install dmg and double click the provided install.command script - enter your user password when prompted and wait till the process is completed. (at least 20 Gigs of harddisk space are required)

If you already have MacPorts installed you might want to consider backing up the /opt directory on your boot drive before proceeding with the install.

If anyone runs into any problems you can post them here and I'll try to help.
Click to expand...
Do you have a list of the software that is included?
I did and have like 30 items on macports folder.
barracuda156 said:
That refers to the OS (and a matching version of installer). If you are on Leopard, please use a version for 10.5.



Xcode must always be from the same version as the OS itself.
10.5.8 – Xcode 3.1.4
10a190 – Xcode 3.2 (from 10a190 image)
10.6.8 – Xcode 3.2.6

Unix tools are mostly compatible (so pulling `make` from Leopard to SL will likely work fine), but the compiler and a lot of other Xcode components are not.



These are only relevant for Snow Leopard. Do not install them on 10.5, at least not with installers from the site, since they are made for 10.6 specifically (where they are needed, since Apple ones lack ppc slices).

darwin-xtools will be installed by ports on 10.5.



You may, I guess. That should save you a lot of time on compilation.
Click to expand...

Thanks for taking the time to answer me.
Just installed it, but don't see any icon in apps folder neither macports nor ppcports, is it normal?
terminal only?
If you can give me any starting tips I would be welcome
 
skinniezinho said:
Do you have a list of the software that is included?
Click to expand...

That not a question to me, right?

skinniezinho said:
Just installed it, but don't see any icon in apps folder neither macports nor ppcports, is it normal?
terminal only?
If you can give me any starting tips I would be welcome
Click to expand...

MacPorts itself (whether upstream version or any forks of it) is a command-line thing. This is the same across all macOS versions and architectures. You can try using MacPorts on a modern macOS, and the same procedures will apply to PPCPorts on powerpc. (There are a lot of changes to ports code, but the user interface is identical.)

MacPorts uses /opt/local by default, and that is what installers will use either. (When compiling from source yourself, you can set arbitrary path.)

You may refer to official documentation, I think it is detailed enough and sufficient for needs you may have: https://guide.macports.org
Ideally, usage of MacPorts/PPCPorts/MacStrop amounts to
Code: 
sudo port sync
sudo port install anything-you-need-to-install

Not everything works ideally, but you are not expected to have coding skills or mastery of shell to use it.
 
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barracuda156 said:
That not a question to me, right?



MacPorts itself (whether upstream version or any forks of it) is a command-line thing. This is the same across all macOS versions and architectures. You can try using MacPorts on a modern macOS, and the same procedures will apply to PPCPorts on powerpc. (There are a lot of changes to ports code, but the user interface is identical.)

MacPorts uses /opt/local by default, and that is what installers will use either. (When compiling from source yourself, you can set arbitrary path.)

You may refer to official documentation, I think it is detailed enough and sufficient for needs you may have: https://guide.macports.org
Ideally, usage of MacPorts/PPCPorts/MacStrop amounts to
Code: 
sudo port sync
sudo port install anything-you-need-to-install

Not everything works ideally, but you are not expected to have coding skills or mastery of shell to use it.
Click to expand...
Thanks,
The first question is for @thedoctor45x .

Thanks for the help, unfortunately I am stumbling upon this issue with sudo.
 
skinniezinho said:
unfortunately I am stumbling upon this issue with sudo.
Click to expand...

Well, this is why it is explicitly mentioned that standard release of Leopard is supported. If someone has a hobby of creating a havoc for users, that's fine, but we are not gonna spend time on debugging any of that LOL

10.6.8 has to be hacked, because it was never released, so some needed stuff simply does not exist. 10.5.8 has no such an issue; the best one can do is leave the OS alone and make all improvements and developments in the separated environment, like sane package managers do (every one besides Homebrew).
Unless one knows how to develop the kernel, there is nothing to touch in the OS itself.
 
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barracuda156 said:
Well, this is why it is explicitly mentioned that standard release of Leopard is supported. If someone has a hobby of creating a havoc for users, that's fine, but we are not gonna spend time on debugging any of that LOL

10.6.8 has to be hacked, because it was never released, so some needed stuff simply does not exist. 10.5.8 has no such an issue; the best one can do is leave the OS alone and make all improvements and developments in the separated environment, like sane package managers do (every one besides Homebrew).
Unless one knows how to develop the kernel, there is nothing to touch in the OS itself.
Click to expand...
Thanks for sharing. Didn't think it was such a deep issue. Thought it was something simple to solve.Once I have more spare time I will try to get 10.6 to run
 
barracuda156 said:
far2l works with wxgtk GUI now as well! (full mouse support)

View attachment 2596877


P. S. Build as `far2l +gui`, since it is not being enabled by default.
Click to expand...

nice! how to build far2l with gui support exactly as shown? I tried different times with far2l +gui, only the port far2l is found.
when I start far2l in terminal the fonts begin to flash, impossible to work with. 10.6.8 on my A1138 PB.

anotehr question: I installed nautilus, a well known file manager from linux/gnome. is nautilus compiled with network plugins? when I try to start nautilus I get the warning "cannot open display". How to solve the problem? Start it in a X11 window?
 
saxfun said:
nice! how to build far2l with gui support exactly as shown? I tried different times with far2l +gui, only the port far2l is found.
Click to expand...

It is the same port, just a non-default variant. Try `sudo port -v upgrade --enforce-variants far2l +gui` (assuming you have far2l installed and active).

saxfun said:
when I start far2l in terminal the fonts begin to flash, impossible to work with. 10.6.8 on my A1138 PB.
Click to expand...

Not sure what you mean. As I recall, it was either working for me, or being unresponsive (before wx variant did not work). You may try a different terminal (and make sure far2l and wxGTK 3.2 are up to date), and startup options (forcing ncurses etc.).
Here is my issues (should have been fixed now):
github.com

Big-endian build: wrong colors, no text input with --notty · Issue #2870 · elfmz/far2l

Looks like colors are wrong on Big-endian? Also with --notty keyboard input does not work (could be that wx build needs some adjustment, at least the executable does not link to wx or x11).
github.com github.com
github.com

Looks like wx backend does not work with wxGTK on macOS · Issue #2873 · elfmz/far2l

I have tried to build far2l against wxGTK 3.2, both with existing macOS-specific code in CMakeLists and without it, but I only get TUI interface. Launching far2l --tty and far2l --notty, as well as...
github.com github.com

If nothing works, please attach screenshot of the issue, how to reproduce, which terminal is used and what is the output of `post -v installed far2l wxgtk-3.2`.

saxfun said:
anotehr question: I installed nautilus, a well known file manager from linux/gnome. is nautilus compiled with network plugins?
Click to expand...

I don’t know, it is not obvious what this would correspond within meson option. You may edit configure options however needed: https://github.com/macos-powerpc/po...859cf087a7b98/gnome/nautilus/Portfile#L67-L74
Some may need extra dependencies.

saxfun said:
when I try to start nautilus I get the warning "cannot open display". How to solve the problem? Start it in a X11 window?
Click to expand...

Code: 
% port deps nautilus
Full Name: nautilus @3.26.3.1_0
Extract Dependencies: xz
Build Dependencies:   pkgconfig, python313, meson, ninja
Library Dependencies: desktop-file-utils, exempi, glib2, gnome-autoar,
                      gnome-desktop, gsettings-desktop-schemas, gtk3, libexif,
                      libxml2, shared-mime-info, tracker, xorg-libX11
Runtime Dependencies: adwaita-icon-theme

Anything using GTK needs X server.
 
port -v installed far2l wxgtk-3.2
The following ports are currently installed:
far2l @2.7.0_0+s3+smb (active) requested_variants='' platform='darwin 10' archs='ppc' date='2026-01-28T20:48:53+0100'
wxgtk-3.2 @3.2.9_0+opengl (active) requested_variants='' platform='darwin 10' archs='ppc' date='2026-01-29T13:21:09+0100'

far2l +gui failed with log:
 

Attachments

saxfun said:
port -v installed far2l wxgtk-3.2
The following ports are currently installed:
far2l @2.7.0_0+s3+smb (active) requested_variants='' platform='darwin 10' archs='ppc' date='2026-01-28T20:48:53+0100'
wxgtk-3.2 @3.2.9_0+opengl (active) requested_variants='' platform='darwin 10' archs='ppc' date='2026-01-29T13:21:09+0100'

far2l +gui failed with log:
Click to expand...

TBH when I built with wx GUI last time I disabled other variants, but it is weird if it builds without s3 and smb, but not otherwise. I will try locally.
 
saxfun said:
port -v installed far2l wxgtk-3.2
The following ports are currently installed:
far2l @2.7.0_0+s3+smb (active) requested_variants='' platform='darwin 10' archs='ppc' date='2026-01-28T20:48:53+0100'
wxgtk-3.2 @3.2.9_0+opengl (active) requested_variants='' platform='darwin 10' archs='ppc' date='2026-01-29T13:21:09+0100'

far2l +gui failed with log:
Click to expand...

Hmm, the build with all variants enabled (i.e. defaults plus gui) works fine for me on 10.6.8 ppc. I do not see anything immediately wrong with your build log. If you got fast hardware, I suggest try doing a clean build, just in case (`sudo port deactivate active`, `sudo port -v sync`, `sudo port -v -N build far2l +gui`).

Are you using A5 image with Xcode 3.2.6 (i.e. SDK; it is irrelevant in this case where you got make and bsdtar from)?

P. S. I will upload the pre-built package soon.
 
Last edited:
What is the proper `libsdl2` port I should be using?

I think OpenMW stuff is failing OpenGL init due to an issue with sdl2. I apparently have `libsdl`, `libsdl2`, `libsdl2-cocoa`, and `libsdl2_mixer`.

I want to use an X11 backend but `libsdl2-x11` conflicts with `libsdl2-cocoa`.

I tried to just export SDL_VIDEODRIVER=x11 but it says x11 not available (despite xquartz running)

Otherwise I might just have to bypass SDL for the GL context and use OSG native windowing, which would be a lot of work.
 
srp said:
What is the proper `libsdl2` port I should be using?
Click to expand...

It’s a bit of a mess with sdl2 atm, there is an issue for that: https://github.com/macos-powerpc/powerpc-ports/issues/17

srp said:
I think OpenMW stuff is failing OpenGL init due to an issue with sdl2. I apparently have `libsdl`, `libsdl2`, `libsdl2-cocoa`, and `libsdl2_mixer`.
Click to expand...

libsdl is v. 1.x, those are separate, and should be separate. libsdl2_mixer is a different port, depending on libsdl2.
libsdl2 on powerpc systems is a shim port, which pulls in libsdl2-cocoa by default, but accepts libsdl2-x11 as an alternative (if it is installed, dependency is satisfied).

srp said:
I want to use an X11 backend but `libsdl2-x11` conflicts with `libsdl2-cocoa`.
Click to expand...

Code: 
sudo port -f deactivate libsdl2-cocoa
sudo port -v -N install libsdl2-x11

srp said:
I tried to just export SDL_VIDEODRIVER=x11 but it says x11 not available (despite xquartz running)
Click to expand...

We got two separate ports at the moment, so in the cocoa one there is no support for X11.
 
barracuda156 said:
It’s a bit of a mess with sdl2 atm, there is an issue for that: https://github.com/macos-powerpc/powerpc-ports/issues/17



libsdl is v. 1.x, those are separate, and should be separate. libsdl2_mixer is a different port, depending on libsdl2.
libsdl2 on powerpc systems is a shim port, which pulls in libsdl2-cocoa by default, but accepts libsdl2-x11 as an alternative (if it is installed, dependency is satisfied).



Code: 
sudo port -f deactivate libsdl2-cocoa
sudo port -v -N install libsdl2-x11



We got two separate ports at the moment, so in the cocoa one there is no support for X11.
Click to expand...
Understood. When I moved to libsdl2-x11, I ended up with a different error about being unable to find a matching GLX visual - so I'm pretty much stuck on Cocoa.
 
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