This Is Apfelhammer!

Master-Hacker René Rebe has published his newest version of T2/Linux, an SDE Linux with the most CPU Architechture support in the world. It is also the most active and most actual Linux Distro as you can see on distro watch and other sites.

I installed this new version on my Powermac G5 Workstation and it works like charme.

Here you can find the direct download for ppc, ppc64 or ppc64/32*

I installed the 64/32 Bit Variante, because it is optimized for the 970 Processor which works in the Powermac G5.

*64-bit OS kernel, 32-bit user-space

[Update]. I just installed the 64-Bit Version of the PPC64 variant and what shall I say? Firefox works, so I created a screenshot directly under my Powermac to show what crazy René has done for the comunity of PPC Enthusiast. Unbelievable. And I just played this Video of Townes on my other Weblog in the Browser on my PowermacG5.

My Powermac G5 with real Firefox 143.0.1 (ppc64)

This is freaking fantastic guys! DAMN!

Ressources

• T2 25.10 Never Obsolte at t2linux.com
• Media in SHOCK about this Linux distro - Renes Stream about!
• T2 Download Portal for 25.10
• T2 Main Website
• Quick Build in seven-1 easy steps
• Getting started w/ a fresh T2 install
• Rene Rebes Medium Blog

Tags: powermacg5, ppc, ppc64, t2linux, linux, download, firefox

I am proud to announce the release of TerminalDrome 0.2.0 as a feature-rich stable version to the public. It is still alpha but it works on a daily basis here on my Powermac G5 or the Mac Mini M4.

TerminalDrome Splash Screen

There are compiled binaries available for arm64, ppc64 and armhf. But TerminalDrome will build on every Linux with Rust and Cargo.

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Since I recently discovered how relaxing programming can be, I've been tinkering with my Navidrome-compatible terminal client called TerminalDrome almost every day.

I've now integrated a new feature, which I've moved to Main:

A simple search function:

• Press slash / and the search will open.
• Enter the search term, press Enter, and you'll see the search results in the right panel.
• It's neither alphabetically sorted nor otherwise organized.
• Additionally, there's a feature in the leftmost panel where you can jump directly to the beginning of the respective artist by pressing a letter of your choice. So if I press D, I'll land on D.A.F., or Q on Queens Of The Stone Age—you get it?

My TerminalDrome CLient in Search Mode

I'm very proud.

TerminalDrome is written in Rust and can be downloaded and compiled using the following command. You'll need the Rust toolchain and mpv.

git clone https://github.com/thafaker/termnavi.git TerminalDrome
cd TerminalDrome
cargo build && cargo run

I've also explained this on my Github repo.

TerminalDrome (left) near btop (right) on my Debian 13 Sid PowerPC Powermac G5

Tags: ppc64, navidrome, rust, terminal, powermacg5, linux, termnavi, terminaldrome

My little Terminal Navidrome Project TerminalDrome is evolving and works a little bit better from day to day. So, what is working?

• safes the state of the panes to come back later
• in pane 4 it shows the elapsed time and a small bar is going to 100%
• it plays the songs of an album from 1 to last

What does not work:

• it won't changes the now playing bar when a new song is playing

This is a screenshot of my real Powermac G5 running TerminalDrome in the wild.

Ressources

• TerminalDrome Github Repo

Tags: ppc64, navidrome, rust, terminal, powermacg5, linux, termnavi, terminaldrome

Because there's already a Terminal Navidrome client called NaviTerm, and I don't really like my name TermNavi, I decided to rename my software TerminalDrome. Of course, that sounds completely stupid, but at least it's better than a copy.

I think my software will soon become famous.

Oh, and it doesn't even work properly yet. :-)

Ressources

• TerminalDrome Github Repo

Tags: ppc64, navidrome, rust, terminal, powermacg5, linux, termnavi, terminaldrome

So the other day I tried to connect to my Navidrome MP3 Streaming Server, I call it "Spotify at Home", via Webinterface to listen to some music, but there were no way to do this. The Webbrowsers available are too old. Sad.

So I decided to programm a really small Navidrome Terminal Client called TermNavi (yes I know... need better name) to listen to my MP3. And what shall I say? The first implementation is ready. I tested and successfully compiled on aarch64 (my MacMini M4) and the legendary Powermac G5 with ARCH Linux or Debian Sid ppc64.

So this it is:

• MVP for playback
• Rust for pgramming
• Ratatui für the Terminal UI (TUI)
• a Powermac G5 with PPC Linux

Really happy, it is my first rust project.

known bugs

• State handling is missing
• UI Rendering for more selections
• scroll logic is worst

And as a now cool hacker guy, I pushed everything in my github repo. But don't expect too much, I am a worst programmer, I often do not understand what is going on and I have everything in one file, the main.rs :-)

Ressources

• TermNavi Github Repo

Tags: ppc64, navidrome, rust, terminal, powermacg5, linux, terminaldrome

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. :-)

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As you know my Setup, I will shortly explain again. In my Powermac G5 there is an SATA-SSD as a replacement for the old spinning Apple HDD. On this SSD I installed Mac OX 10.5 and also Debian SID for PPC, to get the Partition-Scheme and GRUB installed.

I also built in a NVMe-SSD with 1 TB because the Powermac11,2 has PCI-Express Slots like it is standard nowadays. The OpenFirmware in the Powermac doesn't know what an NVMe-SSD is and therefore can't recognize it or boot it. Also Mac OS X 10.5 doesn't see the device. The technic is too young and there are no drivers, that is the reason for that.

But lucklily, Linux has the drivers for that. And that's the reason for my Setup. Boot Grub from SSD because that can the Powermac. Than load the things you need for NVMe and boot the linux off the NVMe-SSD.

I have 4 Linux on that NVMe-SSD and that works great. But it is a problem to update the Grub Bootloader everytime there is a new kernerl or something other changed. Long story short, here I will tell (me) you, how to update grub via chroot.

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A lot of crazy things happen right now. A few minutes ago I reported about the living sign of Fienix Linux after the APT Repo down and now I see there is a new version of latest and greatest T2 Linux (ver. 25.4) from Rene Rebe.

With a total of 17 pre-compiled base install ISOs for various Glibc, Musl and uClibc combinations are available for 12 CPU ISAs: Alpha, ARM(64), HPPA64, IA64, MIPS64, PowerPC(64), RISCV64, SPARC64, i586, x86-64. On most architectures the release still boots with as little as 512MB of RAM or even less, and ISO downloads are less than 2GB for base Wayland desktop with Firefox.

T2 runs well on my Powermac G5, as I stated here for detail.

Ressources

• T2/SDE 25.4 announcement
• T2 Download Portal for 25.4
• T2 Linux for direct download for PPC64/32 (64-bit OS kernel, 32-bit user-space)
• T2 Main Website
• Quick Build in seven-1 easy steps
• Getting started w/ a fresh T2 install
• Rene Rebes Medium Blog

Tags: t2linux, powermacg5, linux, ppc64

As I wrote in a few articles before, I am a big fan of Fienix Linux because it works absolutely amazing on my Powermac G5, it can even render complex and modern Websites like my other Weblog (Ghost CMS) and all the big and modern new Websites.

However, as I continued to use Fienix, I found out that I couldn't install any updates or other software packages. After some research, I discovered that the Fienix APT Repo was down. I asked at the corresponding youtube channel and even at the Website, but there was no answer.

Today, almost by chance, I discovered the official article on the Fienix website. The developer writes:

The Fienix software repository was "unreconciled" due to an unexpected interruption to an update process. Unfortunately, a backup did not exist. Effort to reconcile the repository were unsuccessful. This caused package unavailability, broken packages and broken updates.

He can't fix it in Version 6 so he hopes to get it fixed with Version 7, what is months ago. His solution as follows:

If you have installed all the packages you want/need, you don't need to do anything. Browser updates are generally posted to the "Linux on PowerPC" Facebook group, Hyperion forums, and elsewhere. You can also get packages from Debian, or switch over to Debian completely.

At this point I find it really good that the website, the project and Fienix Linux itself is not dead, it's has a broken APT Repo and need to be fixed, but the developer is willing to continue. That gives me hope for my Powermac G5.

Keep up the great work

(via)

Tags: powermacg5, linux, ppc64, eolie, browser, fienix

I had problems typing the backslash "\" and bar "|" on my iMac keyboard when in the OpenFirmware user interface.

A picture of my iMac G3 while in Open Firmware

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I find it quite sad because I only recently got to know Fienix Linux, even though it has been around for a long time. And I think it's absolutely great because it works better than any other Linux on the Powermac G5 that I've tried so far:

• Graphics acceleration
• modern web browser

But unfortunately the package sources are dead, this Linux is based on Debian SID and uses APT. The Fienix source server is unreachable and there is no alternative.

I tried to contact the developer, I know that Fienix Linux is a one-man project and therefore there are few resources available, but I haven't received any response.

So it's not really possible to reinstall packages, I also can't install a development environment to compile myself and so it remains nice, but not very expandable and usable.

Tags: powermacg5, linux, ppc64, eolie, browser, fienix

The other day I stumbled across Fienix Linux. It is a Distribution maintained by one man, Casey Cullen. It is based on debian, but with focus on powerpc first. I just tried to install it on my Powermac G5. And it works great!

Fienix Linux 6.0.1 on my Powermac G5, on real Hardware.

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There are many different mentions in the web. Some say it is impossible to boot Powermacs from USB, others says: only PowermacG5 from 7,3 Revision are able to boot from USB and the third party says: every Powermac is bootable.

And because I own this late and great Powermac G5 11,2 and I don't want to always burn a CD/DVD everytime I try a new Linux or something else out, I invesitagted a little bit further: the third statement is correct: every Powermac can boot from USB.

But it is not so easy like we knew it from Intel/x86 Machines. Press a button and it boots. Because this is a Powermac with a PowerPC CPU and therefore it uses Open Firmware as an BIOS alternative. Open Firmware was far ahead of it's time with great features, but it is a cryptical terminal. :-) So far - so good.

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Since I own the Powermac G5 and play around with it, I want to install a modern Browser and therefor, I want to run Firefox on it. But it is not possible. I tried different Linux Distros like Debian 12 PPC64, T2/Linux by Rene Rebe and even some special builts of ARCH for PPC64 - but I had no luck. No one had luck and even the Debian Mailinglist said it is not possible to built Firefox for PPC64 at this time. I even wrote about that.

And now, the other day, I tried Adelie Linux PPC64 and et voila: I fucking could start Firefox and tested some Websites like youtube.com and it worked. So I made a screenshot because I could not believe myself. I totally hope I can use Firefox sooner than later on the other Distros too.

Firefox 128 ESR running on top of LXQT Adelie Linux Powerpc 64 Powermac G5

Sincerely, Jan

Tags: powermacg5, firefox, ppc64, linux

So yesterday was the release ouf 24.12 T2/Linux and the maintainer, creator and mastermind behind, René Rebe, were at a lifestream on youtube and twitch. So I played around with T2 on my Powermac G5 and listened to the stream and had a small chat with him. The most important part is an actual browser on that machine so I asked for the actual status of firefox.

René replied that the problems with big endian still exist and occours so there is no Firefox for Big Endian Machines at the moment. Firefox builts well on all little endian processors, but not on the big ones. There is no better answer at this time, but I hope he can do something when he have the time. Because to make that clear: there is not a big audience who is working on big endian ppc64 processors like my 970MP is in the world and I believe he get's not enough feedback and attention for his work for the open source community. But this is another part.

Debian also faces the problem of not building firefox for ppc/64, but they have other important things to do than to fix that.

I know there were patches from oracle for big endian firefox but I cant find the repository anymore. Maybe these patches and the Void Patches could do some important thing? [UPDATE] I found the patches for firefox.

I bet biggest problem are the people at firefox who doesnt care about big endian firefox builts for ppc64 because it is not important.

Ressources

• New Release Of T2/Linux
• Oracle Patches for Firefox
• PPC 750 Void Linux Firefox Patches
• void-packages-ppc750/srcpkgs/firefox/patches/big-endian-image-decoders.patch
• Debian Build Status Firefox

Tags: t2linux, powermacg5, linux, firefox

Comments belongs to the website. So I newly established this weblog and I am a great fan of comments. Because were is the place to talk about a topic? Directly under the topic, right. I now publish with a simple Shell-Script (Bashblog) and there is no commenting system built in, the author helped out with integrating Disqus, which is known for being a wideley used commenting hoster.

And there is the point to talk: I think comments belong to the commenters and to the website were the comments are said, but definitely comments are no big data and therefore should not be outsourced to a third-party company like disqus is.

And here is the point were isso enters the game. Isso is a commenting server similar to Disqus, but were you host your own data at yourself, on your own server, here at apfelhammer.de

And now I integrated it into my bashblog.

And it is up and running now.

So please feel free to comment:

• no name needed
• no email needed
• just your input

But because of this, everytime someone is commenting, I'll get an email and have to moderate the comment. So when you comment, it could take a while, that's because I am lazy sometimes :-)

Thank you, Jan

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T2/Linux 24.12 with XFCE Desktop on Powermac G5

As you know, this weblog is about my 2005 Powermac G5 and how to use it in 2024 soon 2025 as a normal computing device. I installed different Linux Distros on an 1 TB NVMe Device while computing with 12 GB-Ram.

And today reached me the information that famous René Rebe did released T2/Linux 12.2024 [1]. They are pleased to announce T2 24.12 as a major update with a total of 37 pre-compiled base install ISOs for various Glibc, Musl and uClibc combinations are available for 25 CPU ISAs:

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