PPCLinuxDocumentation

Documentation for Linux on PowerMacs (big-endian PPC).

1. Distribution Support

Ubuntu 16.04 (xenial) and earlier (No longer updated)
- Not recommended, since the "xenial-updates" repository seems to be down (likely archived somewhere, but I can't find it)
- Only Ubuntu MATE and Lubuntu (no longer available from official server) were available past around 14.04
- For more information on support, see https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PowerPCKnownIssues (useful resource for all distros listed).
Debian 8 and earlier (No longer updated)
Debian unstable (sid)
- Hidden on the Debian website, can be found at https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/ports/current/
- See https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/the-powerpc-debian-wiki.2178457/ for additional information (used as a source throughout but appears slightly outdated)
- When asked for a root password, press Enter twice in order to use sudo instead. Sudo is used in the remainder of the guide.
MintPPC (Debian PPC with a slightly easier installation process)
Void Linux PPC
- Not recommended, dropping Apple Mac support entirely in early 2023
- If used, the bootstrap (Apple_Bootstrap) partition must be 256MB or greater. If it's not, the installation will hang indefinitely.
- The GUI will not launch on the NVIDIA GeForce FXGo5200 with the default kernel (and maybe other NVIDIA cards). Install with the fallback kernel, then run "xbps-install -Su" on the installed system to update it (booted through the fallback kernel).
ArchPOWER
- I've never had any success personally getting it to work, but that could be because I'm an Arch Linux noob.
Gentoo
- May have issues compiling (untested)
Adelie Linux
- Slow development, the current ISO (as of 7/18/2022) won't install without workarounds.
- Uses the musl C library instead of glibc (making the term "GNU/Linux" factually incorrect!), so existing software will have to be recompiled (although the distro seems to be notably faster than any glibc distro)

2. Bootloaders

Yaboot
- Used on Ubuntu and Debian 8 and earlier
- Not updated frequently but still functional and can boot modern kernels
- Can chainload MacOS
GRUB
- Slow
- Cannot chainload MacOS
- Still updated
- Used on ArchPOWER, Gentoo, and Debian
- Doesn't work on G3 machines with low RAM

3. Graphics card support

a. NVIDIA cards

The NVIDIA GeForce2 MX will not load ANY GUI since 2011. This is due to a long-standing bug in the nouveau driver.
- All workarounds found online tell you to use the old "nv" driver (currently used on OpenBSD for PowerPC Macs) but this hasn't worked since Ubuntu 14.04
Some supported cards don't seem to play hardware-accelerated video back properly (endianness issue)

b. ATI cards

Some cards made before 2003 will not load ANY GUI in my experience. However, this isn't documented anywhere else, so it might just be my specific hardware.
On older kernels (such as those found in Debian 8 and Ubuntu 10.04-16.04) the code "radeon.agpmode=-1" (forcing those cards to run in PCI mode) had to be added to the kernel parameters to prevent freezing. As of kernel 4.19 this is no longer required.
The cards appear to the system as "AMD ATI" cards (purely a cosmetic bug)
The "radeon" driver is far more stable than the NVIDIA driver on big-endian (but not as stable as the Mac OS X driver)

4. WiFi

Drivers are available for all of the 2 WiFi cards used on PowerPC Linux, but you will need an ethernet connection.
On Ubuntu, the drivers are available by typing "sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install firmware-b43-installer" for 2003-and-later (mini-PCI & all non-removable) cards, or "sudo apt update && sudo apt install firmware-b43legacy-installer" for 1998-2002 (PCMCIA) cards.
Follow this guide for WiFi on Void Linux.
Follow the "Other distributions" section of this guide. Before the guide is followed, run "sudo apt install build-essential module-assistant" in the command line. Note that this solution is not perfect: internet seems to be very slow in this case.

5. CRTs

Most CRT Macs require a custom xorg.conf. If you manage to get a GUI working, please let me know by submitting a pull request or issue. If you have an eMac with a Radeon 7500, check out https://github.com/75mhzMac/eMac7500.

6. What doesn't work

Touchpads: While they generally work as generic pointing devices, they tend to not respond correctly or "jitter" when you keep your mouse in the same spot.
Sleep/Wake: While there are workarounds to getting it to work, they usually require backporting older packages from older releases and are therefore not recommended.
Some older graphics cards, as detailed here.
Battery indicators: While they technically work if you load the "pmu_battery" module (sudo modprobe pmu_battery), they tend to be somewhat inaccurate and take up to 30 seconds to detect a charger connection or removal.
Modern versions of the Qt5 library on glibc based distros (Debian, Ubuntu, Void) do not allow you to use the mouse to navigate certain menus. This is probably an endianness bug. As a workaround, you can use the arrow keys, Enter, and Esc to select items when the mouse won't work. GTK2 and GTK3 do not have these issues, but perform a bit worse than Qt5.
Sound: While workarounds exist to get sound working, many are broken in modern kernels and are unsafe on certain computers due to the speakers not being calibrated properly. If you decide to enable sound in some way (or use an older distro that supports it, like Ubuntu 6.06) you may run the risk of blowing out your speaker. Don't ask me how I know. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK!

All other features, including FireWire, USB, Ethernet, CD/hard drives, and Bluetooth work.

7. Installation Procedure

a. Debian sid

Download a Debian 11 netinst powerpc CD from https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/ports/current/. Note that you will need access to Ethernet to install.
Burn to a CD/DVD using any burning program or flash to a USB drive using dd, Rufus, balenaEtcher, or any other program.
If using a CD/DVD, insert the disc into the Mac (or a FireWire CD drive) and turn on the Mac while holding Option/Alt. When the boot picker finishes loading, select your CD/DVD and skip the USB-related steps.
If using a USB drive:
- You will probably need a powered USB hub or otherwise externally powered device (a powered USB hard drive enclosure will work), since most PowerPC Macs don't like to initialize high-power USB drives otherwise until a system is booted.
- Connect the powered USB hub to the Mac and to an external power source.
- Start the Mac into Open Firmware by holding Command-Option-O-F at startup. Alternatively, press Control-Z at any firmware screen, such as the boot picker, NetBoot screen, blinking question mark screen, or Target Disk Mode screen to enter Open Firmware. You will see a 0 > prompt..
- Enter the following commands:
```
dev usb0
ls
```
- If you see any "hub" or "disk" items in the device tree that shows up, then move to the next step. If you don't, keep trying more usb values (dev usb1 then ls, dev usb2 then ls, etc).
- Once you see a USB tree that contains disk and hub, type the following command: boot usbX/hub/hub/disk:,\\:tbxi making sure to replace the X with the USB port number, and making sure to use the right number of hub values (sometimes it's 1, sometimes it's 2). You can ignore the @X at the end of all device names.
- Photo: https://forums.macrumors.com/attachments/pxl_20220403_220757670-jpg.1985970/
- If this doesn't work, replace :,\\:tbxi with :2,\grub.elf or :2,\grub\grub.
Follow the installation instructions. Use XFCE (recommended), MATE, or LXDE as the desktop. Make sure to keep the root password blank in order to use sudo instead.
If the system reboots into a blinking question-mark, press Control-Z to enter Open Firmware, then type in setenv boot-device hd:2,\grub\grub then reset-all.
Have fun! See https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/the-powerpc-debian-wiki.2178457/ for additional guides and information.

b. More guides sometime soon.

8. See an issue with this guide?

Fork it and send a pull request, or file a bug report.

DistroHopper39B/PPCLinuxDocumentation