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Void Linux for PowerPC

Finally - reinstalled :). Working KDE !!! BTW, I've set hold on grub & grup-powerpc-ieee1275 packages, last installation of Void crashed when I've made packages upgrade.

inxi -F
System: Host: PowerMacG5-QUAD Kernel: 5.8.18_1 ppc64 bits: 64 Console: tty 1 Distro: void
Machine: Type: PowerPC Device System: PowerMac11 2 details: PowerMac11 2 rev: 1.1 (pvr 0044 0101) serial: R6W
CPU: Info: Quad Core model: PPC970MP altivec supported bits: 64 type: MCP L2 cache: N/A
Speed: 1250 MHz min/max: 1250/2500 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1250 2: 1250 3: 1250 4: 1250
Graphics: Device-1: NVIDIA NV43 [GeForce 6600] driver: nouveau v: kernel
Display: server: X.Org 1.20.9 driver: nouveau unloaded: fbdev,modesetting resolution: 1680x1050~60Hz
OpenGL: renderer: NV43 v: 2.1 Mesa 20.2.1
Audio: Device-1: SoundByLayout driver: AppleOnbdAudio
Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.8.18_1
Network: Device-1: Broadcom and subsidiaries NetXtreme BCM5780 Gigabit Ethernet driver: tg3
IF: eth0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: 00:14:51:64:ac:b5
Device-2: Broadcom and subsidiaries NetXtreme BCM5780 Gigabit Ethernet driver: tg3
IF: eth1 state: down mac: 00:14:51:64:ac:b6
Drives: Local Storage: total: 2.16 TiB used: 23.19 GiB (1.1%)
ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Western Digital model: WD3200KS-00PFB0 size: 298.09 GiB
ID-2: /dev/sdb vendor: Western Digital model: WD2500JS-41MVB1 size: 232.89 GiB
ID-3: /dev/sdc vendor: Seagate model: ST9600204SS size: 558.91 GiB
ID-4: /dev/sdd vendor: Seagate model: ST9600204SS size: 558.91 GiB
ID-5: /dev/sde vendor: Seagate model: ST9600204SS size: 558.91 GiB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 548.88 GiB used: 4.82 GiB (0.9%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sdd4
ID-2: /boot size: 247.9 MiB used: 170.8 MiB (68.9%) fs: ext2 dev: /dev/sdd3
Swap: ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 509.9 MiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) dev: /dev/sda3
Sensors: Message: No sensors data was found. Is sensors configured?
Info: Processes: 219 Uptime: 1h 51m Memory: 7.70 GiB used: 1.65 GiB (21.4%) Shell: sh inxi: 3.1.08
# uname -a
Linux PowerMacG5-QUAD 5.8.18_1 #1 SMP Mon Nov 2 14:04:20 UTC 2020 ppc64 GNU/Linux
 

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just a quick update:

- kernel 5.9 now available (but not default yet - will be made default soon, probably within the next two weeks)
- firefox esr has been bumped to 78.x (this carries some upstream breakage compared to 68.x: some css transforms result in some images having a blue tint, though the majority should still look alright - we just couldn't hold esr back at 68 anymore, and a better patchset is currently not available - sorry)
- non-esr firefox is at 82, and is more or less in the same shape as esr, rendering-wise
- other things should be largely unsurprising, mostly just regular updates all across the stack (e.g. python 3.9 and whatnot)

and again, if you're unhappy with software having bugs/not working/not rendering properly, let that be known to the respective upstream projects (not the distro: it's impossible to endlessly hoard patches downstream), report your bugs to them, and if there are backportable patches available point them out to us (since it's impossible to keep track of everything)

alternatively, if you have the skill, you can try fixing things yourself, and contributing patches

there is a lot of software in the world and distros cannot be expected to keep everything fixed up and problem-free; community participation is needed

for instance, our ppc64le ports are in top-notch shape, with few to no issues and a wide software compatibility (even including things upstreams do not support on ppc64le, like chromium/vscode/element-desktop/telegram/whatnot), and it's largely thanks to there being public interest and an active community interested in up to date software
 
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ryan_ said:
Maybe I should rethink this a bit. I know yaboot is touted as old dead software, and I tend to agree, but its ability to launch OSX/MorphOS make it very interesting to me. I have grub2 installed already; how would I go about installing yaboot as well? I am fairly certain with yaboot I can launch everything I need.
Click to expand...
Weirdly, I spotted Grub2 detecting my Mac OSX partition when it was updating but then it didn't show as an option in the Grub Menu.
 
Depends by what you mean by "better"? I'm impressed Quantum works on PPC64, but it still has issues. The colors are messed up on quite a few sites that i frequent. Even this forum is b0rked as some buttons and avatars are discolored or bit rotted away. AF displays proper colors of images and videos, and is more lightweight for general browsing. On my G5's AF uses less resources and surfs faster than Quantum (and any of the webkit based browsers). It's also highly customizable unlike Quantum. So for casual browsing that's what i use. I have to fire up Quantum for github though since microsoft and google decided to screw that whole site up. It's just another browser option. That's all. Better or not is in the eye of the beholder.

Cheers
 
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InterWeb is now available for Void-PPC 64-bit (G5/BE glibc) from here and/or here.
No installer. Just extract anywhere and run the binary, or manually install it and create a .desktop file for it.

interweb-voidppc64.png


Edit: YouTube will lock the browser up until you make these changes in about:config. The video colors are reversed still, but this will prevent a lockup.
aboutconfig.png

I recommend using gtk-straw-viewer if you want to watch youtube videos. (xbps-install gtk-straw-viewer)

Also, to make github work again you'll need to install this extension: https://github.com/JustOff/github-wc-polyfill/releases
 
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I have installed the glibc version on my PowerBook 5,6 and am going through trying to fix the usual new distro install issues. Sound is proving difficult. I am still getting no sound out having installed alsa-utils and then run alsamixer, following the instructions on the void-ppc website. I was able to select the SoundByLayout sound card and turn up the PCM but still no sound from speakers or headphones, I have tried the modprobe command from the Debian "Powerpc Linux issues page but no joy. Sound worked out of the box on Ubuntu 16.04 and I managed to get it working on Debian 8 after searching it up. I have installed Deadbeef and Audacious and both seem to work apart from not making a sound. The display also looks very blue on Epiphany browser although the colours look OK in the terminal if I use alsamixer or neofetch for example. Not sure how to try a different display driver or adjust the colour profile. Has anyone solved these issues on their PowerBook and got any tips for a Void newbie? Also, I am struggling to remember how to install Greasemonkey onto Arctic Fox, I keep getting the message that it doesn't support web extensions.
 
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For sound the issue is that you are muted. You can't see that in alsamixer though. Do: sudo xbps-install pnmixer, then run pnmixer from terminal. You'll see another volume icon in your taskbar. Click on it and uncheck the mute box. Adjust volume to your liking, then right click on the same volume icon and choose quit. You should have sound now.

Cheers

Edit: Some software has endianness issues, like epiphany and parole media player, and display wrong colors. Just install alternatives (like mplayer) usually fixes that.
 
wicknix said:
For sound the issue is that you are muted. You can't see that in alsamixer though. Do: sudo xbps-install pnmixer, then run pnmixer from terminal. You'll see another volume icon in your taskbar. Click on it and uncheck the mute box. Adjust volume to your liking, then right click on the same volume icon and choose quit. You should have sound now.

Cheers

Edit: Some software has endianness issues, like epiphany and parole media player and display wrong colors. Just install alternatives (like mplayer) usually fixes that.
Click to expand...
I tried this and the mute box wasn't ticked. When I tried to adjust the volume the terminal message is "Can't get playback dB rangle: Invalid argument" hopefully this is a clue.
 
wicknix said:
Hmmm. So i was going to install the new 32-bit iso on my powerbook again to play with, but then i noticed it has the same endianness color issues i ran in to with spiderweb/interweb with online videos, but this time for regular downloaded videos. RGB is reversed. :-/
Can anyone else verify this? Or try another player on an installed system?
Cheers

View attachment 907231
Click to expand...
I am getting similar blueness on Epiphany and Parole Media Player.
 
Hmm ok. That worked for me on my G5. There is another mixer you could try. Its qasmixer which i think is in the qastools package. It has options to enable/disable internal speakers, headphones, etc. I needed this to get sound to play out of my G5's built in speaker (headphone jack worked with external speakers already). Open qasmixer and hit F6, then select "hw" like shown in picture. Make sure "speakers" is checked.

qasmixer.png
 
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That got it working, Thank you so much. Will it persist, or do I need to do something to make it persist? That makes a big difference, I mainly use this PowerMac for music and emails. I still need to sort out the mad graphics though. Blue and jerky when it worked alright in Ubuntu 16.04 XFCE. It was so cool being able to Youtube on such an old machine. Still works in OSX with TenFiveTube when I need it I guess.
 
Glad to hear it. Just experiment with other software. Like i said, mplayer and mpv play with correct colors. For a browser you can install Arctic Fox (not in official void repo) or maybe try midori or whatever else is available.

Edit: and yes, the volume/mute settings should persist through reboots.
Edit2: install octoxbps if you want a graphical installer/package search tool.

Cheers
 
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wicknix said:
Glad to hear it. Just experiment with other software. Like i said, mplayer and mpv play with correct colors. For a browser you can install Arctic Fox (not in official void repo) or maybe try midori or whatever else is available.

Edit: and yes, the volume/mute settings will persist through reboots.

Cheers
Click to expand...
I got Arctic Fox and Spiderweb installed, for some weird reason Spiderweb doesn't start. I have started trying to install Greasemonkey and Viewtube but I have forgotten how to get past the web extensions not allowed stuff. Cheers for all the help!
 
You'll need to create a symlink for spiderweb/interweb and spidermail to work in void32.
sudo ln -s /usr/lib/libffi.so.7 /usr/lib/libffi.so.6

These browsers don't support web extensions. You'll need to use the older xul style extensions. You can get working ones for arcticfox here (choose versions made for v27 on the right hand side under add-on releases). Spiderweb extensions can be found here

Cheers
 
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Just want to alert you Jake Hamby (@jhamby) is talking about doing some fun stuff for PPC users as far as developing a more user friendly Linux distribution for our old Macs. It’s been wild to follow his stream of consciousness, and I’ve tried to link him to things that are already happening like this thread. Anyway, if any of you are on Twitter (wicknix especially), I think he could use feedback.

See here:
https://twitter.com/x/status/1325944283556241408
 
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I am really getting into Void, its nice to have up to date packages and the CPU use is much lower than on Ubuntu. I am getting very mixed up with sound though. When I play music files with Deadbeef or Audacious it comes out very distorted. MP4 video files play fine on M-Player and the sound is fine too. I seem to have messed up the settings between ALSA and Pulse Audio, I think I installed about 4 mixers before I manages to switch it on in ther first place. Also the GPU glitches out when I try to project to a second screen, I think its a driver issue, used to work on Ubuntu. Total respect to Void-ppc, a super distro!
 
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