How To Boot Powermac from USB
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.
Firefox 128-ESR on PPC64 Powermac G5
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
Sorbet Leopard 10.5.9
There are quite a few Powermac Enthusiast around the world, like I am. They are using the Powermac G5 for day-to-day work and I think this is pretty cool, even when I think we need to go green as fast as possible in the reason of power consumption, I will give it a try. My G5 doesnt need more than 250 Watts even with the Cinema HD 23" Display in use.
magine if Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard was released for the PowerPC architecture. Aging machines would have received a much-needed boost in performance, software updates would have carried on for a little bit further, and instrumental features would have been newly claimed -- resulting in pre-existing hardware being kept in service for much longer.
While Apple opted not to continue the development of Snow Leopard for PowerPC-based Macs, that did not stop dedicated communities from filling this void (and then some) over a decade later. Enter Sorbet Leopard, a fresh new release of Mac OS X designed exclusively for the venerable Power Macintosh, fifteen years after the final model was sold.
Built off of the rock-solid Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard base system, Mac OS X 10.5.9 Sorbet Leopard offers a significant jump in speed and security over its predecessor by utilizing advanced methods of performance optimization, system streamlining, and brand new features, all together rivaling most of the UX improvements seen in Snow Leopard on Intel machines.
Thanks to the over 70 new changes present in Mac OS X 10.5.9, here's what to expect once installed ...
- Faster startup times, application launch times, and network performance
- Smoother, more fluid, and more consistent UI animations
- A brand new app store tailored for only the best apps on Mac OS X 10.5.x
- Built-in tools to create RAM disks, run routine maintenance, configure hidden preferences, toggle background services, and more
- Full compatibility with the Apple Wireless Keyboard and Magic Mouse
- Full compatibility with Unicode 13.1 emoji characters
- Updated desktop pictures, user pictures, screen savers, fonts, and Apple dictionaries, alongside apps such as Dashboard 1.7, Exposé 1.1, Front Row 1.1, Spaces 1.1, Time Machine 1.1, Java Preferences 13.9.8, and System Profiler 10.6.0, all from the final release of Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard
- Comprehensive system themes inline with OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, macOS 10.13 High Sierra, and iOS 4 to 12, featuring authentic desktop pictures, user pictures, screen savers, and UI assets unique to each choice
- Updated security certificates inline with macOS 10.13 High Sierra
- Updated applications including Safari 11 with new security updates and performance improvements, QuickTime 7.7 Pro, Bash 4.3.30, and ntpd 4.2.8
- Integrated optimizations such as reduced disk activity, reduced CPU / RAM / disk usage, PowerPC-optimized binaries, and universal ad blocking
Ressources:
Tags: powermacg5, leopard, sorbet-leopard
Status of Firefox on PPC64 Big Endian
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
New Release Of T2/Linux
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:
New Kernel 6.12.5 for my Powermac G5
I plugged in that great NVMe SSD into my Powermac G5 because he supports PCI-Express (Version 1.0) and there is a 4x Speed Port that is unused (the x16 is for the Graphicscard) and now I ran a 1 TB NVMe-SSD in this Powermac and it is doing great. Because due the lack of drivers, Open Firmware is unable to boot from thos NVMe-SSDs, he is able to boot from a normal 2,5" SSD on the SATA-Port. So I installed the /boot/grub parts to that SSD and therefor it loads the Operating System from the NVMe :-) This is working quite well and I run
- Debian 12
- T2/SDE Linux
- Adélie Linux
for PowerPC 64 PPC64 plattform. I even write this article on that machine while on Debian 12 doing an
apt update && apt upgrade, running SeaLion Firefox and listening to music. Okay, it is not the
performance of a late and great 128 Core Threadripper, but it is quite impressive what this machine
from 2005 is able to do in the end of 2024.
powermac:~$ uname -a
Linux powermac 6.12.5-powerpc64 #1 SMP Debian 6.12.5-1 (2024-12-15) ppc64 GNU/Linux
I installed 12 GB-Ram and that NVMe-SSD in the System. It has a 2 GHz PPC970MP Dualcore CPU and the original Apple 23" Cinema Display. I like that setup, typing is done via the famous Keycron K2 Keyboard.
Actually, I have no glue what can I do to get things crosscompiled. Firefox for PowerPC is broken and epiphany is running with a white screen, doesnt load on Debian. There is no actual browser for PowerPC, what I really dislike. I now use SeaLion (Version 33.4) and it is surprisingly good, even github loads and a lot of other new websites. It is usable.
Tags: powermacg5, debian, powerpc64, ppc64
Ressources
- Adelie Linux: https://www.adelielinux.org/
- Fresh Install T2/Linux: https://t2sde.org/kb/8/?kb/8
- Debian 12 SID: https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/ports/12.0/ppc64/
- Linux on PowerPC Computers: https://thahipster.de/linux-auf-dem-powermac-g5/
- SeaLion on Github: https://github.com/wicknix/SeaLion/releases/tag/33.4.0
Still crosscompiling
I own this late and great Powermac11,2 Powermac G5 Dual Core 2,0 GHz and I love this machine for being what it is: a great retrobattle station and also a sexy workstation. It is so clean, no cables, everything can be accessed easily.
