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MintPPC project

Hello, first of all, thanks for this great work, ran it on a G5 and works perfect, surreal speed for machines this old, second is that I plan to use MintPPC/Debian on a PB, since it's PPC 32bit, which is a target that has much less packages on Debian than PPC64 (G5s and the like), searching through the Debian packages site I noticed that packages like libreoffice and openjdk/java weren't in the PPC repository (which is where we G4 users get our packages from), which makes me ask, is there another repo which contains these packages (say, the old Debian Jessie repo for example)?.

Third, with a fresh battery, a ssd and new thermal components, is there that much difference when compared to a HDD non serviced PowerBook? (the Dsldr 5.9 model for some reference), fourth and last, has anyone tried the latest debian installer that was published this motnh? thanks beforehand for your answers.
 
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Tratkazir_the_1st said:
I think I'll drop it here until I found topic about Debian@G5 :).

Power Progress Community - promotion and dissemination of Open Source Hardware and Software

promotion and dissemination of Open Source Hardware and Software
repo.powerprogress.org repo.powerprogress.org
Click to expand...
Woah, I believed they only had their POWER laptop project, but they also have another hardware, in any case, it makes sense for them to have a repo like that, since, AFAIK, their laptop will be Big Endian, just like our G5s, but only for curiosity, don't they have a repo like that for 32 bit PPC? It would be great....
 
liero said:
I just did the 3rd install in past two weeks, on 2 different machines. Ibook g3 and eMac g4 , the same result, blank disk, 4 partitons, result cant install GRUB
Click to expand...
I'm having this same error. I have the A1138. And solutions found?
 
trying to install on a titanium 1ghz and getting errors left right and center.

went into the virtual console and am getting these error messages...

base-installer: error: exiting on error base-installer/debootstrap-failed
main-menu[233]: WARNING **: Configuring 'bootstrap-base' failed with error code 1
main-menu[233]: WARNING **: Menu item 'bootstrap-base' failed.
main-menu[233]: INFO: Falling back to the package description for brltty-udeb
main-menu[233]: INFO: Falling back to the package description for brltty-udeb
main-menu[233]: INFO: Menu item 'pkgsel' selected
base-installer: warning: attempting to install to unclean target
debootstrap: /usr/sbin/debootstrap --components=main --debian-installer --resolve-deps --include=debian-ports-archive-keyring,debian-ports-archive-keyring --no-check-gpg sid /target file:///cdrom/

&

base-installer: error: exiting on error base-installer/debootstrap-failed
main-menu[233]: WARNING **: Configuring 'bootstrap-base' failed with error code 30
main-menu[233]: WARNING **: Menu item 'bootstrap-base' failed.
main-menu[233]: INFO: Falling back to the package description for brltty-udeb
main-menu[233]: INFO: Falling back to the package description for brltty-udeb
main-menu[233]: INFO: Menu item 'bootstrap-base' selected
base-installer: warning: attempting to install to unclean target
debootstrap: /usr/sbin/debootstrap --components=main --debian-installer --resolve-deps --include=debian-ports-archive-keyring,debian-ports-archive-keyring --no-check-gpg sid /target file:///cdrom/
 
Hello guys, I'm trying to install mintppc on iBook G4 with powerpc 800mhz, RAM 640mb and HD 40 GB. I created the usb pen drive with rawrite32 and when I try to boot from usb in open firmware with boot ud:,\\grub.elf or option button at startup I get the prohibition symbol. I also tried with boot /pci@f2000000/usb@1/disk@1:,\\grub.elf(I also tried with boot/grub/powerpc.elf) and iBook gets freeze on open firmware screen. Who can help me? Thanks.
I downloaded this image: https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/ports/snapshots/2021-04-17/debian-10.0.0-powerpc-NETINST-1.iso
 
Tratkazir_the_1st said:
@TUNIN96
Why you don't use CD? BTW - you'll got more troubles later during installation :D. (Debian installation requires quite complicated partitioning & GRUB installation).
Click to expand...
Because my cd drive doesn't work. I installed Mintppc on another ibook g4 via usb but I get some errors.
When I created partitions it asked me to correct boot partition scheme and I clicked on No because I didn't know to do, then during the installation I got this error:
IMG20211014193826.jpg
 
Tratkazir_the_1st said:
Can you use English during installation? I can't understand your screenshot.
Click to expand...
*edit*
sorry, this is the proper translation...

[!!] Installation finish

Running the preconfiguration command failed

Executing the preconfiguration command ((in-target export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/sbin:/sbin)) failed, exit code 127
 
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Sorry for late reply and thanks reddrag0n.
Anyway...The installation created four boot selections (Linux 5.14.0-3-powerpc,Linux 5.14.0-3-powerpc(recovery),Linux 5.10.0-6-powerpc,Linux 5.10.0-6-powerpc(Recovery)). When I boot from Linux 5.14.0-3 os started but when it should appear the login screen I get a black screen. Instead if I select the other Linux os version(Linux 5.10.0-6-powerpc) I can login but it's very slow. Thanks.
 
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I've been trying to get MintPPC working for a few days now but I'm hitting a brick wall. I don't like netinstall media so my method is the one with the live system. Copying the live system to a USB stick and booting it was no problem. Cloning the zipped image to the internal ATA drive by using the shell of the booted live system was also no problem.

On the MintPPC site the instructions tell:
When this operation has finished you might want to boot into your new system from the hard drive.
Click to expand...

My question is how on earth am I supposed to do that? I've been banging my head against the wall because of OF. No command lets me boot into the bootstrap partition of the internal drive. Booting from USB (bootstrap partition) is no problem with the command:

Code: 
boot usb1/disk@1:2,\grub

No the logical thing for me would be to type a command that has been adjusted to the internal drive. Something like:

Code: 
boot hd:2,\grub
or
Code: 
boot first-boot/@0:2,\grub
but they never work and I know the bootstrap partition is disk0s2 and /dev/sda2 respectively. OF is complaining about supposedly non-existent files ... yuk ...

I didn't do any changes after dding the zipped image to /dev/sda (my internal drive) so it is a carbon copy of the live system as it is the case with the USB stick. Long story short, I can't figure out any command to boot GRUB from the internal drive. I've tried countless commands but none work. Help is kindly appreciated. Thanks!
 
Jeroen Diederen said:
Hi all,

Let me introduce myself first. My name is Jeroen Diederen and I am the developer of MintPPC, which was quite a known project back in 2011. The idea of it was to have a solid Debian system, together with a lightweight desktop environment (LXDE) and a slick graphical layer on top of that. Another thing that I found important is that it is easily installable and that it takes away the pain of having to search on the world wide web for answers how to get your wireless Airport card to work for example. These are things that should work out of the box. I think I achieved that back in the days.

We are now eight years further and unfortunately, there is not much support for Linux on PowerPC anymore. Debian ditched PPC out of their release cycles and we are now left with Debian-ports. Recently I found an old PowerBook G4 in a drawer somewhere in my house. I was sick at the time and I had nothing better to do, so I decided to try Debian sid. That worked fine and then I thought about my old days. I started looking on the net about MintPPC and to my surprise, as I really didn't know that, people enjoyed MintPPC!. I stopped working on MintPPC after my first son was born and never looked back. I had no idea that for some folks it was, as I read somewhere, a stroke of genius. I was flattered and thought that I might be able to achieve the same thing once more.

This is how this project got started. We are now a month further since the inception and things are starting to work out. I have a desktop environment, based on LXDE and recent Linux Mint 19. I now also have my own installer, based on Debian-netinstaller.

For those who are interested in this project: you can follow me here in this thread or at my own website http://mintppc.nl. I don't own mintppc.org anymore, it was bought by Amazon for ad revenue. I hope to get it back in the future.
Click to expand...
Does this still work? I have been trying to install Debian / MintPPC net install using the url in the instructions for the preseed. Grub tries to install on the /root partition even though the installer creates a 256MB /boot/grub hfs partition. Grub fails to install regardless.

Other issues arise during the installation, including issues with the preseed. I am trying to install this on a MDD G4 32 bit 1.25GHz, 2 GB RAM, onto it’s own 80GB ATA HD.

MacMaverick855
 
Good to hear but there is a problem both I and two other people have tried installing it using your install instruction on your website….the preseed gos through but it gets to a point where it can’t connect to one of the sources and the whole install fails….its not only me that is having the issue but two other people who use mint everyday and actually manage 1500 machines for a local business are also having the issue…they have a powermac g5 and an iBook g4…like I said when we try on our systems (mine is a PowerBook g4 1.67)…if finds the configuration from the pressed link on your site then it’s unable to download from one of sources…all three having the same issues…all three of us on completely different networks at different locations. I know I have a connection because I’m able to ping out and it was able to configure the network with dhcp with no issues. So unless you had the server down the last few day or you were updating packages we don’t have any other options to install.(other then live usb)
 
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