This Is Apfelhammer! — Posts tagged "archlinux"

Compiling Classic Thunderbird Client Epyrus for PPC64 [UPDATE]

November 08, 2025 — Jan Montag

Long time ago I found out that someone started a project for Classic Thunderbird, because they were not really happy about the newly established way it goes from then.

Epyrus was first conceived of sometime around March or April of 2022, after they started to feel another UXP-based e-mail client was needed, but found that there were complications that would prevent the revival of Fossamail. The original codename was actually Mercurius Civicus very briefly, before they came up with the codename Hermopolis and finally settled on Epyrus as the browser's final name.

TMUX on my Powermac G5 Arch Linux

IceDove-UXP was out there and seemingly had good bones, but too much that I found useful had been stripped out due to FOSS principles, it was really only maintained for a specific Linux distro, it had a different setup than what I was used to working on Pale Moon, and wasn't really tested on other platforms at all.

Most other UXP-based e-mail clients are loosely based on some kind of historical precedent. Mine is intended to be based on an alternate history that isn't too hard to imagine. Imagine that instead of Thunderbird being spun off and dealt with by the SeaMonkey team and the people who develop the suite, it had been developed as a first-class application alongside pre-Australis Firefox and given a similar "Phoenix" treatement. Also, imagine that the AppMenu had been implemented as planned in Thunderbird at one point, rather than being skipped in favor of the hamburger menu.

I thought I will give it a try and see if it compiles under good old Powermac G5 ARCH Power Linux and now, as I write this article, it compiles since 273 Min. straight. So I am very courius if it will work or if it break up at the end.

iTerm 2 SSH Connection to my Powermac G5

What do you guys think, will it compile or will it break? Write it in the comments please. By the way if it will compile I will write a How To so you guys can follow if one want. We compile 5 hours straight. :-)

[UPDATE] Short Update

The compiling process ended successfully after 323 Minutes, 5.4 hours on real hardware, on Powermac G5.

But Epyrus will not start. mach run and mach package (to build the software package), both commands fail. I don't know why.

Tags: archlinux, arch, powermacg5, ppc64, thunderbird, email, thunderbird, epyrus, seamonkey

How to install Xfce Desktop on ArchLinux ArchPOWER ppc64

October 25, 2025 — Jan Montag

As I wrote yesterday, the new ArchPOWER Linux for PowerPC 64 works like charme and with big thanks to (Kernel/Linux)-Hacker René Rebe, Firefox is working on POWER-Architecture (and much more) again after years. So you can use a modern Browser if you want.

But in the last post, I only described how you get your base system up and running while booting from usb pen drive. But you want more :-) A GUI I bet. So if you have a running instance, or when you are still in the live environment of the booted usb pen drive, you can chroot into the freshly installed ARCH Linux and can perfom different tasks. E.g. install a GUI. While the Powermac is not the fastest machine in 2025 anymore and a lot of packages are not available for ppc64, XFCe is a good idea for a good looking and modern desktop environment. My mac has the stock nVidia Geforce 6600GS graphicsboard so we need the driver for this to have 2d-acceleration. This is important, otherwise the gui is not useful because it is too slow.

ArchPOWER Linux for PPC64(/32)

October 24, 2025 — Jan Montag

My bigfat Powermac G5 Workstation running ArchPOWER 64 while compiling Claws-Mail under XCFE and running TerminalDrome

Because of a friendly comment by Powerlinux user Matias, I am willing to try out ArchPOWER Linux for PPC (Link) again. ArchPOWER is an unofficial Port of ARCH Linux for the PowerPC Architecture: It supports: powerpc64le (>=POWER8), powerpc (>=604), powerpc64 (>=POWER4+/G5 & PS3) and espresso (WiiU SMP).

Matias wrote that Firefox is also able to run on Powermac like on T2/Linux, thanks to René Rebes Patches. I bet Firefox actually is able to run on a lot of PPC Distros outside - I am happy about that. Thank you man.

Claws-Mail 4.3.1 ArchPOWER Linux successfully compiled for PPC64

April 25, 2025 — Jan Montag

Due to the lack of a good graphical email client [^1] for my Arch POWER Linux Distro (Arch Linux for PowerPC), I tried several things and ended up with claws-mail. But it is not installable or not existing in the repos of pacman for powerpc. So I dcided to compile it by myself.

Claws-Mail 4.3.1 just compiled successfully on my Powermac G5.

claws-mail first window, first start

Claws Mail is an email client (and news reader), based on GTK+, featuring:

Quick response
Graceful, and sophisticated interface
Easy configuration, intuitive operation
Abundant features
Extensibility
Robustness and stability

todays screenshot of my inbox on claws-mail on my powermac g5

Okay, it is an really not beautiful email client, but it works great and we should not forget my ancient hardware from 2005 :-)

[^1]: I think there is no one. Not only one.

Ressources

Latest Claws Mail Releases

Tags: archlinux, powermacg5, email, ppc, ppc64

Hello ArchPOWER Linux for PPC64

April 25, 2025 — Jan Montag

In a nice comment from Matias, he told me he is using ArchPOWER Linux, an unofficial Build of Arch Linux for PowerPC, PPC64, PPC and PPCle for the Power8 Architecture etc. pp.; If I remember correctly, I stumbled across this Linux Distro while I researched for the best Linux for my Powermac G5, but maybe because I was at the beginning of my Linux journey on these machines, I found it to heavy or something else told me not to try. I don't know but it is not important anymore, because I installed ArchPOWER Linux current on my NVMe-SSD in the Powermac, multi-booting with T2 Linux, Debian 12 SID, Adelie Linux and Fienix Linux. :-)