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| Living the dreamm~ PowerMac G5 | |
| Posted by: adespoton on 2025-11-18 13:09:56 I'm also no expert, but that's my understanding too; G4 adds AltiVec, a proper SMP implementation and a few related instruction extensions, mostly to do with hardware acceleration pipelines. In other words, as far as the instruction set itself goes, AltiVec is the big thing; most of the other changes were to do with how it interfaced with the rest of the hardware. | |
| Posted by: Link4Electronics on 2025-11-19 13:57:51 One interesting finding is that ArchPOWER uses ELFv2 from OpenPOWER Foundation  according to the internet, ELFv2 ABI provides significant performance and efficiency advantages over the ELFv1 ABI on PowerPC64: No Function Descriptors, Reduced Call Costs, Optimized Parameter Passing, Streamlined Stack Frame, Improved Position-Independent Code (PIC), Optimized Main Modules and Modern Toolchain Support. I may be wrong but I think Debian PPC64 still uses ELFv1. Started compiling binaries for PPC32, they're at my repo on github. Best regards, Link. | |
Posted by: herd on 2025-11-19 15:34:35The G4 is basically a faster G3 with altivec tacked on, isn't it? I've heard that too. | |
| Posted by: Powerbase on 2025-11-19 17:18:45 Was going to say the same, but the previous G3 versus G4 discussion was already linked. | |
| Posted by: CC_333 on 2025-11-20 13:02:12 Interesting! I had forgotten, but I do vaguely remember reading that thread when it was current. That said, it's now firmly established that, as far as implementation goes, the G4 is more or less a G3 with a 3x faster bus, AltiVec and various other enhancements and improvements. However, is the G4's instruction set otherwise relatively similar to a G3, such that a binary compiled, without AltiVec, for a G4 could run unmodified on a G3?? The reverse (G3 binary running unmodded on a G4) is certainly true. c | |
| Posted by: Link4Electronics on 2025-11-26 19:09:48 Compiled Aerofoil (glider pro), works fine too  Best regards, Link. | |
| Posted by: Link4Electronics on 2025-12-17 02:48:24 Yeah, well, brought Altivec and G4, etc., into discussion because I thought would have a problem when compiling 32-bit packages due to platforms that don't have Altivec, but checked "makepkg.conf" file and for powerpc (32-bit) arch in archpower, it doesn't use Altivec as a target, only Linux kernel uses Altivec. So PowerPC packages will work from a PowerPC 604 up to the Nintendo Wii, G3, and G4. The Nintendo Wii U has a special branch called "espresso" since it's based on 750 G3 with SMP but without Altivec. Posted a new video making some maintenance on G5 and new games running on it. Best regards, Link. | |
Posted by: Andrew-R on 2026-01-03 11:24:14Yeah, well, brought Altivec and G4, etc., into discussion because I thought would have a problem when compiling 32-bit packages due to platforms that don't have Altivec, but checked "makepkg.conf" file and for powerpc (32-bit) arch in archpower, it doesn't use Altivec as a target, only Linux kernel uses Altivec. So PowerPC packages will work from a PowerPC 604 up to the Nintendo Wii, G3, and G4. The Nintendo Wii U has a special branch called "espresso" since it's based on 750 G3 with SMP but without Altivec. Can you also test if cinelerra-gg works on Linux/ppc64 ? I tested ppc32 variant on qemu, but 64bit emulation there is not so fast for my host, so if anyone can test our git tree at I'll be happy to hear your results/errors. In theory build should be simple install autoreconf and friends run ./autogen.sh then check blds/bld_prepare.sh for libraries needed then run ./configure --with-single-user if it finished without errors type make and make install. After some time and 2 Gb of hdd space later you should have bin folder in the root of our source tree (where autogen.sh file located) ran it "bin/cin" for X terminal or set DISPLAY to your another machine X server or Xephyr for example. Four windows should appear, then you can load video files, alter them, and render them out. Documentation at | |
| Posted by: Link4Electronics on 2026-01-03 21:03:55 Hello, Happy new year! Tried to compile cinelerra-gg but it's failing to compile x265 because of altivec, already tried to use -mno-altivec for C and CXX flags but no dice. Funny though that library x265 is already provided by ArchPOWER and I have it installed system-wide. An alternative is kdenlive which works on powerpc. Meanwhile, compiled LeoCAD (Lego Designer on PowerPC!)  and Freecad Best regards, Link. | |
Posted by: Andrew-R on 2026-01-04 01:57:18Hello, Thanks for trying! You can disable internal x256 build with --disable-x265 configure switch, or just disable whole thirdparty build with --without-thirdparty (but then you may need some patience installing -devel dependencies or disable components one by one because configure's logic incomplete for this case). I'll look into how ArchPOWER compiles x265, probably by just disabling asm support? But may be there is patch! | |
| Posted by: Link4Electronics on 2026-01-04 08:07:13 Hi, x265 is compiled without altivec on archpower, probably is causing issues archpower/x265/PKGBUILD at fd47685291dd0243162afc98ecbaf75349a4d7e7 · kth5/archpowerUnofficial Archlinux port to powerpc64le, powerpc64 and powerpc - kth5/archpower
github.com
I'll try to compile --without-thirdparty later then. Regards, Link. | |
| Posted by: Andrew-R on 2026-01-05 01:24:22 Got cinelerra-gg working on Arch/ppc64le (send simple patch for guicast/makefile to our mail list), actual x264 render sadly corrupted at some frames? 
Andrew_R (@Andrew_R@mastodon.online)Attached: 1 image More Arch for POWER8 (emulated)
mastodon.online
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| Posted by: Andrew-R on 2026-01-05 02:01:37 https://disk.yandex.ru/d/d4Fs_YNL4jZbLA - 1.8 Gb image, if you want to play with it on qemu. sha256sum /mnt/sdc1/More_QEMU/5gb_ppc_le-compressed.qcow 9300ce74a3007e326bd2461c2f89f33c837619cc5a420052b49d202b9e476d73 /mnt/sdc1/More_QEMU/5gb_ppc_le-compressed.qcow qemu-system-ppc64 -hda /dev/shm/5gb_ppc_le.qcow -m 1G -cpu POWER8 -accel tcg,tb-size=256 user: root password: toor | |
| Posted by: Andrew-R on 2026-01-05 06:39:37 Another application to try might be Bochs from git, you can grab Geforce bioses from discussion and see how far win95 can go 😉 GitHub - bochs-emu/Bochs: Bochs - Cross Platform x86 Emulator ProjectBochs - Cross Platform x86 Emulator Project. Contribute to bochs-emu/Bochs development by creating an account on GitHub.
github.com
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Posted by: Link4Electronics on 2026-01-05 13:36:03Got cinelerra-gg working on Arch/ppc64le (send simple patch for guicast/makefile to our mail list), actual x264 render sadly corrupted at some frames?This is cool™! https://disk.yandex.ru/d/d4Fs_YNL4jZbLA - 1.8 Gb image, if you want to play with it on qemu.I'd be more interested in the patches applied, already have a qemu VM for archpower ppc64le 😅 but thanks for sharing anyway! Another application to try might be Bochs from git, you can grab Geforce bioses from discussion and see how far win95 can go 😉Dosbox-staging already works and it does have a dynrec for powerpc (despite the current maintainer of dosbox-staing is kinda toxic person who doesn't like PowerPC or big-endian for not a really good reason, personally I like Dosbox-x more but there's no ppc jit for it) It's possible to install windows95/98 on dosbox-staging but iirc it's a very convoluted process with some caveats. Qemu on archpower works too but it's very unstable when emulating x86 or other platforms, it emulates ppc fine though (powerpc emulating powerpc, inception, adorable). Best regards, Link. | |
Posted by: Andrew-R on 2026-01-05 14:09:28This is cool™! patch should be already in our git, so you can pull inside your ppc64le VM and see how it builds there with --without-thirdparty (I also disabled libdpx and lv2). Does x264 encoder by itself works on ppc64le as in Arch POWER distro? For me it was failing at some frames, x265 worked fine but was slow. xvid worked fine too. So I guess chain cingg -> libavcodec - > encoders generally work, just not for x264 for some reason? | |
Posted by: Link4Electronics on 2026-01-10 12:42:25patch should be already in our git, so you can pull inside your ppc64le VM and see how it builds there with --without-thirdparty (I also disabled libdpx and lv2).I'm having issues when packaging, hveg2enc mpeg2enc mplex mplexlo *** Error - inst.sh mpeg2enc in /home/link/Downloads/ArchPKGBUILD/cinelerra-gg-git/pkg/cinelerra-gg-git/usr/lib/cinelerra-gg failed. make: *** [Makefile:1094: zmp_install] Error 1 I had to disable lv2 too, but libdpx was fine. When trying to run cinelerra-gg, segfaults. No idea about the codecs, never tried to render something on ppc, I would stick with x265 since it works compiled like this: ./configure --prefix=/usr --without-thirdparty --disable-static-build --without-cuda --without-lv2 --with-exec-name=cinelerra-gg make Cinelerra Infinity - built: Jan 10 2026 19:24:09 git://git.cinelerra-gg.org/goodguy/cinelerra.git (c) 2006-2019 Heroine Virtual Ltd. by Adam Williams 2007-2020 mods for Cinelerra-GG by W.P.Morrow aka goodguy 2003-2017 mods for Cinelerra-CV by CinelerraCV team 2015-2025 mods for Cinelerra-GG by Cinelerra-GG team Libav version: Lavc62.11.100 Cinelerra is free software, covered by the GNU General Public License, and you are welcome to change it and/or distribute copies of it under certain conditions. There is absolutely no warranty for Cinelerra. BC_DisplayInfo::gl_fb_config failed build plugin index for: /usr/lib/cinelerra-gg/plugins PluginFFilter::new_ffilter(aap) err: Input/output error PluginFFilter::new_ffilter(acrossfade) err: Input/output error PluginFFilter::new_ffilter(acrossover) err: Operation not permitted PluginFFilter::new_ffilter(aeval) err: Cannot allocate memory PluginFFilter::new_ffilter(aiir) err: Operation not permitted PluginFFilter::new_ffilter(ametadata) err: Invalid argument PluginFFilter::new_ffilter(amultiply) err: Input/output error PluginFFilter::new_ffilter(anequalizer) err: Operation not permitted PluginFFilter::new_ffilter(anlmf) err: Input/output error PluginFFilter::new_ffilter(anlms) err: Input/output error PluginFFilter::new_ffilter(apsnr) err: Input/output error PluginFFilter::new_ffilter(arls) err: Input/output error PluginFFilter::new_ffilter(arnndn) err: Invalid argument PluginFFilter::new_ffilter(asdr) err: Input/output error PluginFFilter::new_ffilter(asegment) err: Operation not permitted PluginFFilter::new_ffilter(aselect) err: Operation not permitted [asendcmd_139 @ 0x179a2fee0] One and only one of the filename or commands options must be specified PluginFFilter::new_ffilter(asendcmd) err: Invalid argument [asidedata_155 @ 0x179a2fee0] Side data type must be set PluginFFilter::new_ffilter(asidedata) err: Invalid argument PluginFFilter::new_ffilter(asisdr) err: Input/output error PluginFFilter::new_ffilter(asplit) err: Operation not permitted PluginFFilter::new_ffilter(astreamselect) err: Operation not permitted PluginFFilter::new_ffilter(axcorrelate) err: Input/output error [azmq_191 @ 0x179a31d90] Could not bind ZMQ socket to address 'tcp://*:5555': Address already in use PluginFFilter::new_ffilter(azmq) err: Generic error in an external library ** segv at (nil) in pid 66623, tid 66623 writing debug data to /tmp/cinelerra_66623.dmp lock_items: 0 lock_frees: 4 Segmentation fault (core dumped) ./cinelerra-gg Got other game working, but it crashes after a while. Ion Fury  Regards, Link. | |
Posted by: Andrew-R on 2026-01-10 13:07:50I'm having issues when packaging,Thanks for testing! On segfault, if you issue "make install" it should add bin/ffmpeg/plugin.opts file, where you can add new ffmpeg filter name, commented out (with #) or with default params. On packaging issue ... does attached patch help? | |
| Posted by: Link4Electronics on 2026-01-13 11:33:50 Hi, Thanks a lot for the attached patch, it helped  Regards, Link. | |
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