10.6 Snow Leopard PowerPC Development

[barracuda156]

That's interesting. Never had problems editing system files with nano. I have no idea why that happens and I doubt I have enough skills to fix that.

Could you try TextWranger? To rule out an issue with my image at least.

 

[ChrisCharman]

If Apple removed support for it, I doubt it would work. I'm sure more than just a kext is necessary for it to work.

Yeah that’s the most likely scenario. It’s also possible that the code is just incomplete in kernel or iOKit somewhere and Apple just disabled the functionality last minute by removing the kext to avoid licensing issues. A curiosity for someone to look into down the line.

 

[barracuda156]

Yeah that’s the most likely scenario. It’s also possible that the code is just incomplete in kernel or iOKit somewhere and Apple just disabled the functionality last minute by removing the kext to avoid licensing issues. A curiosity for someone to look into down the line.

I agree, nominally disabling something does not necessary mean that the code was in fact removed (though it could have been).

 

[saxfun]

I'll want to join the club with my A1138 PB. I successfully restored the image and have a wifi connection. bootstrap curl is installed, but MacPorts won't install because of a missing Xcode. Xcode 3.2.6 is INTEL only, in the wiki on page one there is no other DL option for 3.1.4 or 3.2 (beta). Which Version do you guys recommend and where to DL?

 

[barracuda156]

I'll want to join the club with my A1138 PB. I successfully restored the image and have a wifi connection. bootstrap curl is installed, but MacPorts won't install because of a missing Xcode. Xcode 3.2.6 is INTEL only, in the wiki on page one there is no other DL option for 3.1.4 or 3.2 (beta). Which Version do you guys recommend and where to DL?

You could use Xcode from 10a190 for now, and upgrade later. No one yet packaged minimal Unix tools.

@saxfun By the way, let’s discuss ports stuff here: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...lt-ports-unofficial-testing-welcomed.2433458/
Otherwise too much irrelevant for the OS development information.
Once my PPCPorts is in “release stage”, I will post links and instructions here. Now we are still testing.

 

[barracuda156]

I'll want to join the club with my A1138 PB. I successfully restored the image and have a wifi connection. bootstrap curl is installed, but MacPorts won't install because of a missing Xcode. Xcode 3.2.6 is INTEL only, in the wiki on page one there is no other DL option for 3.1.4 or 3.2 (beta). Which Version do you guys recommend and where to DL?

EDITED 2. Turns out, my sources.conf was actually correct, rsync indeed needs a different link from http.
So this one is to be used:

# MacOS PowerPC ports:
rsync://macos-powerpc.org/macos-powerpc/PPCPorts/powerpc-ports.tar

# MacPorts upstream:
rsync://rsync.macports.org/macports/release/tarballs/ports.tar.gz [default]

This is what today’s version already has.

I have updated the link on macos-powerpc.org to point to the current version for 10.6.8.

 

[educovas]

Could you try TextWranger? To rule out an issue with my image at least.

It really does not work. InstallTool fails to run and there's no useful errors or logs so I have no clue why it's failing.

 

[barracuda156]

It really does not work. InstallTool fails to run and there's no useful errors or logs so I have no clue why it's failing.

Thank you for confirming. I am more concerned here with that edited documents owned by root can’t be saved (i.e. cannot be modified) unless permissions are changed manually first. Installation of helper binaries can be easily sorted out by hand, it is a one-time thing. Modifying permissions however is a constant need, which wastes a lot of time eventually.

 

[ChrisCharman]

I think we’ll need a section on debugging tools in the wiki. I’m looking into a few at the moment and will share with instructions when sorted. I’m sure there are people following along that will be able to support.

 

[educovas]

Thank you for confirming. I am more concerned here with that edited documents owned by root can’t be saved (i.e. cannot be modified) unless permissions are changed manually first. Installation of helper binaries can be easily sorted out by hand, it is a one-time thing. Modifying permissions however is a constant need, which wastes a lot of time eventually.

Every time I tried to save a file owned by root, it tried to run InstallTool so I think that's the reason why they are failing to save.

 

[barracuda156]

Every time I tried to save a file owned by root, it tried to run InstallTool so I think that's the reason why they are failing to save.

Oh, I did not know that. Did you see that from console logs? The displayed error just referred to permissions with error code -5000 (from memory now, but I will check).

 

[educovas]

Oh, I did not know that. Did you see that from console logs? The displayed error just referred to permissions with error code -5000 (from memory now, but I will check).

Yes, found that in the logs.

 

[barracuda156]

Not sure if this was something everyone knew (I never paid attention to this at least), but Apple ld in 10.6.8 links to `libLTO`, both in Xcode 3.2.6 and 4.2: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread....2232031/page-113?post=33686767#post-33686767

So if someone has an aim to reproduce Apple CLI tools “as they were”, building ld would require building llvm/clang from Xcode first and then build ld linking to `libLTO` from there.

 

[ChrisCharman]

Not sure if this was something everyone knew (I never paid attention to this at least), but Apple ld in 10.6.8 links to `libLTO`, both in Xcode 3.2.6 and 4.2: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread....2232031/page-113?post=33686767#post-33686767

So if someone has an aim to reproduce Apple CLI tools “as they were”, building ld would require building llvm/clang from Xcode first and then build ld linking to `libLTO` from there.

Yes, a number of projects can be built with or without certain dependencies but as you say not necessarily ‘like for like’ drop-in replacements. FYI it seems there is an issue with 3.2.6 LTO anyway so may be worth patching and or using 3.2.5 version.

See: https://inbox.sourceware.org/gcc/0CEFDA0E-D81D-4EDD-8556-23D783B051C7@apple.com/t/

 

[barracuda156]

@educovas It will be nice to remove two AHCI kexts in the next update, since they send the machine into KP if something using them is present (for example, PCIe card for SSD). I keep forgetting about that on every installation, but someone would not even know, and think that the OS is broken or dmg is corrupt.

P. S. I attached the backtrace.

 

[barracuda156]

utdns already included and using google's DNS 8.8.8.8

Deleted. (Turns out, specific IP needed only in Network setup, but utdns works then with Google one.)

 

[educovas]

@educovas It will be nice to remove two AHCI kexts in the next update, since they send the machine into KP if something using them is present (for example, PCIe card for SSD). I keep forgetting about that on every installation, but someone would not even know, and think that the OS is broken or dmg is corrupt.

P. S. I attached the backtrace.

I see the AppleAHCIPort kext used is from 10A190 (1.5.2) and it's considerably older than the one from 10.5.8 (1.7.0).

Could you try to use AppleAHCIPort and IOAHCIFamily from 10.5.8 and see if it'll have the same panic? Unfortunately I can't test since I don't have the hardware.

 

[barracuda156]

Changes in the new image:

- utdns already included and using google's DNS 8.8.8.8
- tiff2icns replaced with the one from 10.5.8
- fixed Core Text's cursor
- graphics acceleration wrappers have been rebuilt with the correct version

In order to get internet connection, the IP address, subnet mask and router have to be manually inserter since DHCP is still broken. The DNS server has to be set to 127.0.0.1.

Just to remind again: this image should work with all GPUs that were supported in 10.5.8, including Nvidia. To avoid confusion again, I won't be updating the image I built for @barracuda156.

10.6.8 image: https://mega.nz/file/AApSABha#W83ywkVUXAeemZGjz4Prdzy0_yBsLuVG8rWjvqAc98M

I have a very strange bug in this installation: if I copy an app via Finder (by pulling it over), it creates two duplicates in destination (some.app and some 2.app). First time seeing this. Any idea what may be causing it?

 

[barracuda156]

Developer Tools for 10.6.8 (developer version )

Install these AFTER installing Xcode 3.2.6. They will overwrite unusable x86-only binaries.

Three [set of] components are here:
1. ld64 and its tools, ver. 97.17, which corresponds to Xcode 3.2.6. LTO is disabled.
2. Apple gnumake, ver. 3.81, same as in 10.6.8, just built for ppc.
3. cctools from darwin-xtools by Iain Sandoe (maintainer of GCC for Darwin), ver. 1.1.0. (ld64 components are dropped from here, since ld is much newer in xtools and may not be totally compatible with old Xcode gcc.)

Specifically, I installed the OS, installed standard Xcode 3.2.6, then installed these three pkgs.
Then I installed PPCPorts, synced sources, and I am able to build software (I have built several fundamental ports now). So ld, as, make and gcc work.
Notice, this does not mean that everything will work, since there are a lot of x86-only binaries which are not dealt with here (gm4, bison etc.). However, from what I can tell, this is a minimum that makes installation functional.

Archived pkgs:

https://macos-powerpc.org/PPCPorts/sl-ld64-97.17.zip

https://macos-powerpc.org/PPCPorts/sl-make-3.81.zip

https://macos-powerpc.org/PPCPorts/darwin-developer-tools-1.1.0.zip

Identical installers can be built from source using the following portfiles:

powerpc-ports/devel/sl-make at 46ca86130c9517fefd85f522897b98eddef30216 · macos-powerpc/powerpc-ports

Overlay repo with fixes to use with MacPorts on macOS PowerPC - macos-powerpc/powerpc-ports

github.com

powerpc-ports/devel/sl-ld64 at 46ca86130c9517fefd85f522897b98eddef30216 · macos-powerpc/powerpc-ports

Overlay repo with fixes to use with MacPorts on macOS PowerPC - macos-powerpc/powerpc-ports

github.com

https://github.com/macos-powerpc/po...efd85f522897b98eddef30216/devel/darwin-xtools (use darwin-developer-tools subport)

Notice, these ports cannot be installed (as a safety measure to not overwrite binaries in /usr/bin accidentally). Use them like you use `MacPorts` port: build the installer via MacPorts, then run the installer to install the software (outside of MacPorts).
Installers are built with `sudo port pkg ${port_name}`.

DISCLAIMER: If you install these, please make sure you know what you are doing, or at least try on a clean system with no valuable data, so that you can wipe it out if something goes wrong. While I have tested this and confirmed working on a clean installation of 10.6.8, no guarantee is given whatsoever, as usual.

 

[barracuda156]

@educovas @ChrisCharman There seems to be another permission-related bug: I cannot erase a partition on HDD with Disk Utility from 10.6.8 or restore another image onto it (tried both on my usual system and on a clean install of the latest image), it fails with size validation error and permission denied. It did work for a FW-connected drive though, but not for the one in the machine itself.
On 10a190 no such issue, everything works normally.

 

[barracuda156]

@educovas BTW do you know what this means (see the backtrace)?
When I restore 10.6.8-Nvidia image onto a drive, Disk utility sends the OS into KP when trying to verify the cloned image. Happened on two machines, so reproducible. However the OS on the cloned image works fine, so it is not corrupt.