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Operating Systems for PowerPC Macs

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The first post of this thread is a WikiPost and can be edited by anyone with the appropiate permissions. Your edits will be public.

Which OS is Your Main/Favorite One?

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    423
AphoticD

AphoticD

macrumors 68020
Feb 17, 2017
2,283
3,467
ctJunkman said:
Not complicated (just cd to the directory and type 'make install clean') but on a lower end machine its going to take a long time.
Click to expand...

A good solution to speed up builds on old hardware is to setup distcc to use the parallel processing power of your other CPUs.

I have only had success in using matching architectures for this, so for example, a G3 host can use the processing power of G4s and G5s, but not an Intel. Either way, you can turn what could be an overnight compile into a few minutes with enough POWER.

If you match the GCC version (using Tigerbrew), you should be able to theoretically use distcc on an OS X PowerPC Mac to compile for a Linux/BSD PowerPC host.

My initial reason behind researching this was to allow my 1st Gen AppleTV to use the 8 cores in my Mac Pro to compile packages under OSMC/Debian in minutes instead of days :)
 
ctJunkman

ctJunkman

macrumors newbie
Oct 24, 2017
9
9
Connecticut
AphoticD said:
A good solution to speed up builds on old hardware is to setup distcc to use the parallel processing power of your other CPUs.

I have only had success in using matching architectures for this, so for example, a G3 host can use the processing power of G4s and G5s, but not an Intel. Either way, you can turn what could be an overnight compile into a few minutes with enough POWER.

If you match the GCC version (using Tigerbrew), you should be able to theoretically use distcc on an OS X PowerPC Mac to compile for a Linux/BSD PowerPC host.

My initial reason behind researching this was to allow my 1st Gen AppleTV to use the 8 cores in my Mac Pro to compile packages under OSMC/Debian in minutes instead of days :)
Click to expand...

Wow that is neat.

Playing with NetBSD 8.0BETA now on the mac mini :)
 
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Project Alice

Project Alice

macrumors 68020
Jul 13, 2008
2,092
2,174
Post Falls, ID
It seems MintPPC is no more, the last time I can find the site on the wayback machine is mid 2017, with the latest post being in 2013. Going to the URL without the wayback goes to a completely unrelated site, that appears to be a marketing scam.
 
timidpimpin

timidpimpin

Suspended
Nov 10, 2018
1,121
1,318
Cascadia
The original post of this thread groups BSD with Linux. BSD is UNIX - not Linux. Totally different things.
 
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T

trevor12

macrumors member
Sep 10, 2015
38
9
Is now any linux distro that still support ppc with lastest kernel security patches etc. ? Newest I found was lubuntu from 2014.
 
K

Krieger

macrumors newbie
Oct 13, 2014
8
6
AphoticD said:
A good solution to speed up builds on old hardware is to setup distcc to use the parallel processing power of your other CPUs.

I have only had success in using matching architectures for this, so for example, a G3 host can use the processing power of G4s and G5s, but not an Intel. Either way, you can turn what could be an overnight compile into a few minutes with enough POWER.

If you match the GCC version (using Tigerbrew), you should be able to theoretically use distcc on an OS X PowerPC Mac to compile for a Linux/BSD PowerPC host.

My initial reason behind researching this was to allow my 1st Gen AppleTV to use the 8 cores in my Mac Pro to compile packages under OSMC/Debian in minutes instead of days :)
Click to expand...

Hmm. I wonder what would happen if you were to try that with a modern POWER-based system on the network, such as a Talos II or Blackbird (Raptor Computing Systems is the company, and these are EATX and Micro-ATX boards, respectively, that are compatible with POWER9).

ks23 said:
Maybe some of you have noticed the OpenSource POWER mainboard from RaptorCS
https://www.raptorcs.com

Here is the blog from Cameron Kaiser (TenFourFox):
https://www.talospace.com

Here is a big list of operating systems for PowerPC:
http://bgafc.t-hosting.hu/oses4ppc.php
Click to expand...

Oh, you beat me to it. :)
 
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Z

z970

macrumors 68040
Jun 2, 2017
3,591
4,546
Updated the Linux section, though frankly, the entire wiki needs to be completely overhauled.

Maybe someone can do that.
 
Last edited:
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Amethyst1

Amethyst1

macrumors G3
Oct 28, 2015
9,845
12,269
z970mp said:
I took those out because to my understanding, OpenBSD specifically has better compatibility with PowerPC machines. If somebody new waltzes in and chooses one, they might not know how to compile anything.
Click to expand...

First post says:

For future reference, I thought it would be a good idea to have a list of all of the operating systems that we can put on our PowerPC Macs.
Click to expand...

No matter how "newbie-unfriendly" FreeBSD and NetBSD might be, they fit the description. But do as you please.
 
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Z

z970

macrumors 68040
Jun 2, 2017
3,591
4,546
swamprock said:
Added the other 'buntu derivatives...
Click to expand...

The 16.04 desktop images are terrible. The server image is far more up-to-date, fixed various bugs present in the desktop images (when both have DEs installed), and the installation guides here are specifically targeted for the text-based installers, and carefully walk you through each process. Plus, considering MATE 16.04 drops support as of today (if I recall), you'll need to change the repos to be updated. And besides that, they're all the exact same operating system, simply with a different desktop environment attached by default.

I'm just saying, this is not a good idea.
 
swamprock

swamprock

macrumors 65816
Aug 2, 2015
1,266
1,839
Michigan
z970mp said:
The 16.04 desktop images are terrible. The server image is far more up-to-date, fixed various bugs present in the desktop images (when both have DEs installed), and the installation guides here are specifically targeted for the text-based installers, and carefully walk you through each process. Plus, considering MATE 16.04 drops support as of today (if I recall), you'll need to change the repos to be updated. And besides that, they're all the exact same operating system, simply with a different desktop environment attached by default.

I'm just saying, this is not a good idea.
Click to expand...

I removed them. If anything changes (new repo information, etc.), we can always re-add them.
 
galgot

galgot

macrumors 6502
May 28, 2015
487
899
Tired of searching for the Rhapsody -> to Leopard Threads each time I need it, I've added links for these in the first post of this pinned thread.
 
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Dilli

Dilli

macrumors 6502a
Oct 21, 2019
581
544
I have my PowerBook G4 1.33Ghz in immaculate condition running Tiger. The only upgrade I did is switch the mechanical IDE drive to SSD IDE drive of 120GB. All works well except can't watch Youtube or stream videos.

Could anyone tell me if I can retain my existing OS partition and install another good OS . I don't want to throw this Mercedes of laptop.
 
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R

retta283

Suspended
Jun 8, 2018
3,180
3,482
Dilli said:
I have my PowerBook G4 1.33Ghz in immaculate condition running Tiger. The only upgrade I did is switch the mechanical IDE drive to SSD IDE drive of 120GB. All works well except any watch Youtube or stream videos.

Could anyone tell me if I can retain my existing OS partition and install another good OS . I don't want to throw this Mercedes of laptop.
Click to expand...
Yes. If you use Disk Utility you can partition the hard drive and install an OS on the second partition without touching the first one. There are plenty of guides online of how to do this.

If you have an OS X Leopard disk I would recommend using it for Disk Utility, I've heard Tiger Disk Utility can cause some undesired corruption.
 
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Dilli

Dilli

macrumors 6502a
Oct 21, 2019
581
544
retta283 said:
Yes. If you use Disk Utility you can partition the hard drive and install an OS on the second partition without touching the first one. There are plenty of guides online of how to do this.

If you have an OS X Leopard disk I would recommend using it for Disk Utility, I've heard Tiger Disk Utility can cause some undesired corruption.
Click to expand...
Tks for your prompt reply. Which alternate OS can I install which runs smooth and I can watch Youtube better and browse the net faster. I see many guides on various OS but nothing seems perfect. Linux has its own hassles of sound etc not working.
 
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