New Version 0.2.2 of TerminalDrome
I just finished the work on TerminalDrome 0.2.2 and I am really proud of it, because I don't know nothing about Rust but the Terminal NaviDrome Client is running very well :-)
TerminalDrome started, Cover Art, no artist or album chosen
Whats is new?
- Implemented cover art: terminaldrome is downloading the cover art of the album if available and convert it to ASCII :-)
- Album Scrolling: while in album pane, there were no scrolling implemented and when there were more than 5 albums, you would not see them.
- fixed mute button
- updated splash screen :-)
- a lot of other improvements and fixes
What else?
Tested on:
- Powermac G5 (Debian, Arch, T2 Linux ppc64)
- Arm64 MacMini M4
- Macbook Pro 2016 with x86 Intel CPU
- ArmHF Device (Raspberry Pi like)
- ...
If you download and test it, please let me now if it works. Bug reports straight to this blog here. Thank you.
Build Instructions (short)
In this early stage, but TerminalDrome runs on a daily basis here, it is a good
idea to let it run via cargo run. Short build instructions as follows:
🔧 Build with Cargo
git clone https://github.com/thafaker/termnavi.git TerminalDrome
After the, change to TerminalDrome directory:
cd TerminalDrome
and create a file config.toml:
[server]
url = "https://YourNaviDromeServer.de"
username = "yourUser"
password = "yourPass"
than:
#either (prefered)
cargo run
# or
cargo build --release
Thats all, that should build and run TerminalDrome and let it run, connected to your NaviDrome Server.
Ressources
Tags: ppc64, aarch64, arm64, navidrome, rust, terminal, powermacg5, linux, termnavi, terminaldrome
TerminalDrome 0.2.0 is available
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.
Status
- Absolute pre-alpha!!!
- Scrobbling to last.fm and listen.brainz works via Navidrome
- Track updates while playing. Once a song finishes, it automatically switches to the next one and updates the display accordingly.
- A basic full-text search is implemented: press the slash
/key to open the search window, enter a term, and the results will appear in the third pane. - Basic Help Screen via Shift+H Button.
- Splash Start Screen :-)
- Nice Status Bar at the bottom
TerminalDrome is playing a song on my Powermac G5
✨ Key Features of TerminalDrome
Navidrome Integration
- Connects to your Navidrome server (HTTPS enforced)
- Supports all Subsonic API endpoints (Artists, Albums, Songs)
TUI (Terminal UI) with 3-column layout
- Artists → Albums → Songs
- Intuitive navigation using arrow keys
- Colored highlights (active songs, selection, status)
Music Playback
- MPV integration (runs silently in the background)
- Automatic transition to the next song (playlist mode)
- Play/pause with spacebar
- Progress bar and time display
Last.fm Scrobbling
- Automatically scrobbles at ~50% of the song duration
- Correct timestamps (Unix milliseconds)
- Avoids duplicates (via
current_scrobble_sentflag)
Persistence
- Saves last state (
state.json)
- Current artist/album/song
- Scroll positions
- Now-playing index
- Stable MPV communication
- Unix socket for real-time updates (playlist position, time)
- Correct handling of playlist end
- Minimal status bar
- Displays current song + album/artist
- Clear error messages (e.g. for connection problems)
- Saves last state (
TerminalDrome Help Screen
🔧 Technical Highlights
- Written in Rust (fast & safe)
- Async/await for non-blocking I/O
- Atomic operations for thread-safe state (MPV ↔ UI)
- TOML configuration (server URL, credentials)
🚀 Roadmap Ideas (optional)
- Search filtering in lists
- Shuffle/repeat modes
- Cover art (via Sixel or ASCII art)
- Theme support (color schemes)
Ressources
Tags: ppc64, navidrome, rust, terminal, powermacg5, linux, termnavi, terminaldrome
New Release of TerminalDrome on Github
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
TerminalDrome is evolving
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
Tags: ppc64, navidrome, rust, terminal, powermacg5, linux, termnavi, terminaldrome
TermNavi is renamed in 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
Tags: ppc64, navidrome, rust, terminal, powermacg5, linux, termnavi, terminaldrome
TermNavi Terminal Navidrome Client ppc64
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
Tags: ppc64, navidrome, rust, terminal, powermacg5, linux, terminaldrome
Claws-Mail 4.3.1 ArchPOWER Linux successfully compiled for PPC64
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
Tags: archlinux, powermacg5, email, ppc, ppc64
Release: T2 Linux 25.4 "It Only Does Everything"
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
Update to Fienix Linux
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
Fienix Linux seems to be dead
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
Fienix Linux for PPC Computers
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.
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
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