ArchPPC, a new beta installer

DaNiMoTh · 2012-03-07 21:33:26

Hi everyone!

I'm glad to release the beta version of the new livecd / installer at
[1]. There are some test which you could do, one which *everyone* could
do, also who has already installed archppc, and another which who want
to install archppc could try. Meanwhile, I'm trying to get out
linux-pmac-nosmp and linux-pmac-nosmp64, to install archppc under qemu.

## First test - Everyone could do it

Simply, burn the iso on a CD (CD-RW, so you don't lost the CD if we
release another) and try to boot with it (holding C when mac boots).
Four kernels are available: arch, arch-ofonly and 64 bit version of
them. After a successfull boot with arch (or arch64) report your
hardware.
Mine: G4 with aTi, 1GB RAM, successfully booted "arch".
Please note that I'm interested on 64 bit bug reports, as I haven't a G5
to test it.

## Second test - installation

I have modified old installer to work with linux-pmac and linux-pmac64
packages. I could have miss something, as I can't test the installation
right now. So, try it, and report in real time any problem.

PS: Use our mirrors if you can.

[1]
http://archlinuxppc.mirror.garr.it/mirr … 04-ppc.iso

Please, subscribe to archlinuxppc-users mailing list !

kevin89 · 2012-03-07 22:12:39

Nice work! I might give this a shot. Tried to install ArchPPC some weeks ago, but the install didn't work well. I ended up with Debian, which works, but I'd still prefer Arch.

I'll report back with some results.

Onyros · 2012-03-07 23:06:20

Any idea if this will work on an iMac G3 (400MHz, with 256MB of RAM)? I might give it a try next weekend.

stronnag · 2012-03-10 18:05:27

My G4 Ti-Book failed to boot the media (nothing new, it dislikes optical media).
From OF,
boot cd:,\boot\yaboot

then boots ... and falls back to shell prompt.

modprobe pata_macio is necessary to get the boot to continue, after which it's fine. It has the good grace not to try and load the yenta_socket stuff, which otherwise would kill the machine big time, as it appears (in the default kernel) to be compiled with the machine check ISA stuff.

DaNiMoTh · 2012-03-10 18:38:58

stronnag wrote:

My G4 Ti-Book failed to boot the media (nothing new, it dislikes optical media).
then boots ... and falls back to shell prompt.
modprobe pata_macio is necessary to get the boot to continue, after which it's fine. It has the good grace not to try and load the yenta_socket stuff, which otherwise would kill the machine big time, as it appears (in the default kernel) to be compiled with the machine check ISA stuff.

So, with modprobe pata_macio you can see the CD, right? (that has already been reported).

I disabled yenta_socket to prevent the situation you're describing.

After all: You +1 the pata_macio load at the boottime, otherwise udev doesn't load it, right?

Thank you

stronnag · 2012-03-10 19:36:21

To confirm, yes with the modprobe pata_macio, then the install CD continued as expected. Thank you, for doing this work, it looks like a great advance on the previous installers.

Kebertx · 2012-03-16 20:56:13

Danimoth! Just wanted to say thank you good sir! You are a gentleman and a scholar.

I've been anticipating this for quite a while. I'll test this out on my '99 PowerMac G4 and report back here at the end of the day.

Kebertx · 2012-03-17 04:08:13

Danimoth, please see image. --> https://p.twimg.com/AoKQ4k_CQAQXlCi.jpg:large

I continuously got this error after installing Arch on this computer! I would install linux-pmac, configure yaboot just right, and see this when I booted back up. I had assumed there was something wrong. Now I see it again on the beta release of this cd, I there could be an issue with the kernel itself working on my machine...

Yay! An error! We're making progress!

DaNiMoTh · 2012-03-17 12:16:18

Kebertx wrote:

Danimoth, please see image. --> https://p.twimg.com/AoKQ4k_CQAQXlCi.jpg:large
I continuously got this error after installing Arch on this computer! I would install linux-pmac, configure yaboot just right, and see this when I booted back up. I had assumed there was something wrong. Now I see it again on the beta release of this cd, I there could be an issue with the kernel itself working on my machine...
Yay! An error! We're making progress!

You're booting the CD I presume.

To fix:

# modprobe pata_macio

I'm waiting a newer power supply, then I could redo an iso fixing all problems.

Thank you for your patience

Kebertx · 2012-03-17 16:54:39

Problem #2!

[root@archiso ~]# /arch/setup
/arch/setup: line 74: dialog: command not found
/arch/setup: line 74: dialog: command not found
/arch/setup: line 74: dialog: command not found
/arch/setup: line 74: dialog: command not found
/arch/setup: line 74: dialog: command not found
/arch/setup: line 74: dialog: command not found
...

ad infinitium.

Lines 73-76 in /arch/setup reads:

     if [ "$5" == "default=no  ]; then"
          dialog -- defaultno --backtitle "$TITLE" --aspect 15 --$1"$2" $height $width
     else
          dialog --backtitle "$TITLE" --aspect 15 --$1 "$2" $height $width $5

DaNiMoTh · 2012-03-17 18:23:17

Yeah, that's have already been reported, thank you.

Kebertx · 2012-03-20 00:11:40

Just want to show support! ArchPPC-2011 worked fine, there were just a lot of pitfalls along the way. Still, I believe you are doing exceptional and righteous work with this project.

Anyways, with the CD..... I suppose someone has also already told you about the error that pacman keeps giving on this installer...

error: failed retrieving file from <mirror> : Connection time-out

Network's fine.

On an unrelated note, I used the 2011 CD to install Arch on my PowerMac, and I'm getting that same issue. I thought I might as well ask, is there something wrong with the ppc version of the pacman package in the repository?

If there's a known quick workaround, I'd be grateful to hear it. If not, I'd be just as happy to turn to the world of source code...

DaNiMoTh · 2012-03-20 10:21:21

what mirror are you using? It's the most important thing here, and you hided it.

Kebertx · 2012-03-20 19:19:27

It cycles through all these before giving up on itself:

ftp://ftp.archlinuxppc.org/$repo/os/ppc
http://ftp.archlinuxppc.org/$repo/os/ppc
http://archlinuxppc.mirror.garr.it/mirr … epo/os/ppc
ftp://ftp.rediris.es/mirror/archlinux-ppc/$repo/os/ppc/
http://ftp.rediris.es/mirror/archlinux- … po/os/ppc/
http://archlinuxppc.positive-internet.com/$repo/os/ppc/

I tested each one just by pinging them, they weren't down or anything, so I think the problem has to be something else, right?

...I just thought I'd ask about it, I actually having a ton of fun playing with all this stuff manually :D

DaNiMoTh · 2012-03-20 22:57:24

maybe I catched the point, ifconfig & other net-tools are required by the (old) installer but aren't present on the CD.

Kebertx · 2012-03-21 04:24:03

I reinstalled pacman from source, then copied the PPC mirrorlist. Problem disappeared. Next stop, X11!

Again, thanks Danimoth, just for helping make all this available. You have certainly already earned your seat in the halls of Asgar. Great success to you and your PPC cause!

schrammbo · 2012-04-02 08:14:01

OK maybe its me but I cannot seem to get any version of PPC iso to burn properly or boot even when I have a successful burn. I am attempting to burn the iso to disc using both K3B and Brasero and neither produces a bootable copy.

Am I doing something wrong.

sintoni · 2012-04-02 11:19:46

Hi! Sorry for being so newbie.
Just trying to install Arch on my iBook G4.
I came across that dialog error and I did like this:
pacman -Syu dialog
Everything went fine but now can't continue due to librtmp.so.0 not loaded...
Any workaround plz?
TIA
Guido

sintoni · 2012-04-09 15:26:51

Sorry for disturbing... No news?
Thank you
Guido

DaNiMoTh · 2012-05-30 11:14:34

Yeah!

We got it [1]. Thanks all for your hints & feedback!

Remember that we need a G4 laptop hardware to continue working on these thing... If you can, donate (or contribute!)

[1] http://mirror.academica.fi/archlinuxppc … 29-ppc.iso

hobarrera · 2012-06-10 20:55:48

mac-fdisk is missing in the latest ISO (I could install it through pacman though). It's a bit crucial for installation.

I couldn't get LUKS to work though; is it supposed to work on PPC?

MegaLoler · 2012-06-15 05:59:06

I'm pretty new to Arch linux.

I'm trying to get it to install on my emac. First I had an issue where the installer section that loaded the ethernet drivers would never return to the menu and just keep repeating itself. Not a big problem, but annoying nonetheless. The second problem was, like hobarrera said, mac-fdisk wasn't installed. Annoying, but pacman could fix that.

Now my issue is that when I try to intall the packages I always get the error "warning: cannot resolve "linux-api-headers>=3.2", a dependency of "glibc"" I'm think it means the packages in the repository are older than the installed packages from googling around, but I'm not sure. I have tried multiple mirrors. It's probably a newbie error.

EDIT: And I just noticed that I get warnings about the local database being newer than the remote one, so it does seem like the ppc repositories are outdated. Are there newer ones somewhere?

Last edited by MegaLoler (2012-06-15 06:04:44)

1800yolk · 2012-06-15 06:37:24

hobarrera wrote:

mac-fdisk is missing in the latest ISO (I could install it through pacman though). It's a bit crucial for installation.

How do you install mac-fdisk through pacman if you're booting from a live cd? I could really use the help, Thanks!

MegaLoler · 2012-06-15 06:48:57

1800yolk wrote:

How do you install mac-fdisk through pacman if you're booting from a live cd? I could really use the help, Thanks!

First go to a virtual terminal that you aren't using by pressing alt-X where X is a function key F1 - F6 and login to it as "root"

Then make sure you are connected by doing:

dhcpcd

Then do:

pacman -Syu; pacman -S mac-fdisk

If it works, go back to the installer with alt-F1 and try the partitioning again.

1800yolk · 2012-06-16 06:47:12

Thanks MegaLoler! Now I'm stuck where you're stuck. At least I've got my disk partitioned properly.. If I find a solution I'll post here

Arch Linux

#1 2012-03-07 21:33:26

ArchPPC, a new beta installer

#2 2012-03-07 22:12:39

Re: ArchPPC, a new beta installer

#3 2012-03-07 23:06:20

Re: ArchPPC, a new beta installer

#4 2012-03-10 18:05:27

Re: ArchPPC, a new beta installer

#5 2012-03-10 18:38:58

Re: ArchPPC, a new beta installer

#6 2012-03-10 19:36:21

Re: ArchPPC, a new beta installer

#7 2012-03-16 20:56:13

Re: ArchPPC, a new beta installer

#8 2012-03-17 04:08:13

Re: ArchPPC, a new beta installer

#9 2012-03-17 12:16:18

Re: ArchPPC, a new beta installer

#10 2012-03-17 16:54:39

Re: ArchPPC, a new beta installer

#11 2012-03-17 18:23:17

Re: ArchPPC, a new beta installer

#12 2012-03-20 00:11:40

Re: ArchPPC, a new beta installer

#13 2012-03-20 10:21:21

Re: ArchPPC, a new beta installer

#14 2012-03-20 19:19:27

Re: ArchPPC, a new beta installer

#15 2012-03-20 22:57:24

Re: ArchPPC, a new beta installer

#16 2012-03-21 04:24:03

Re: ArchPPC, a new beta installer

#17 2012-04-02 08:14:01

Re: ArchPPC, a new beta installer

#18 2012-04-02 11:19:46

Re: ArchPPC, a new beta installer

#19 2012-04-09 15:26:51

Re: ArchPPC, a new beta installer

#20 2012-05-30 11:14:34

Re: ArchPPC, a new beta installer

#21 2012-06-10 20:55:48

Re: ArchPPC, a new beta installer

#22 2012-06-15 05:59:06

Re: ArchPPC, a new beta installer

#23 2012-06-15 06:37:24

Re: ArchPPC, a new beta installer

#24 2012-06-15 06:48:57

Re: ArchPPC, a new beta installer

#25 2012-06-16 06:47:12

Re: ArchPPC, a new beta installer

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