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Status of MintPPC?

Posted by: dan.dem on 2024-05-14 05:00:28

At the odd URL https://www.u58733p55594.web0093.zxcs-klant.nl/ is a forum dedicated to "MintPPC". It gives instructions how to install a "Mint-LXDE" version of Debian and is run by Jeroen Diederen.
This site shows entries from 2019 to late 2023. it does not look like an official Linux Mint Fork. I think it's also unrelated to an earlier MintPPC distro from around 2008 or 2009, which back then installed flawlessly on my 233 MHz Rev. B iMac (hence my interest in a newer PPC variant of Mint).

Has anyone tried this distro (or fork)?
Bad thing is, there's a banner at the top of every page reading: "Installation of MintPPC32 and MintPPC64 will FAIL." I could not determine easily what was working then and when it started to fail during installation, probably when he/they offered XFCE as alternative to LXDE.
So, anybody knows more? Is MintPPC dead (again)?

Posted by: Byrd on 2024-05-14 05:35:41

That looks like a hacked site, there is a thread on MacRumors relatively up to date information

MintPPC project

Hello, I have "modded" debian 8.11 on iMac g3 with Debian sid(see this thread)/MintPPC repository to make work "sealion browser" and other things(like MintPPC lxde etc...) here a screen. obviously there is no hardware acceleration.

forums.macrumors.com

Posted by: dan.dem on 2024-05-14 09:17:40

Thank you for the link to MacRumors. The main problem is that Debian abandoned 32bit PPC after release 8.
The mentioned Jeroen Dideren did start an effort in 2019 to "modernise" Debian 8 to make it useful again. This MacRumors thread spans the time from 2019 to 2023 for a discussion with a larger audience than on the dedicated project website. This project website is the one I had mentioned in my first post.

This brings me to the conclusion MintPPC is no longer an active project (as of May 2024) and it is not based on a recent Linux distro, and the instructions on the website may have been compromised since the website looks hacked. Not good.

Jeroen D. was also behind the earlier MintPPC project from around 2011 (not in 2009, my bad memory) I had mentioned it too. Its previous .org domain is no longer registered to him and is now used to distribute unwanted content. So don't look for it.

(Edit: Written and posted from a 300 MHz Clamshell iBook, wirelessly tethered by means of its original Airport card to an iPhone 7 @iOS15 via a 2009 MacBook Pro @macOS10.13. All as part of the exercise I give my iBook every 3 month or so 🙂. Thanks to all the people whose efforts make this possible!)

Posted by: ArbysTPossum on 2024-05-14 11:18:54

I used MintPPC on a G5 many years ago, it was actually pretty slick. At the time, it had the most up to date web browser, it ran DosBox better than OS X could, but I don't think it had any GPU acceleration at all, which makes sense for Linux.

Posted by: GondolinOnMyMind on 2024-05-16 05:47:08

Thank you for the link to MacRumors. The main problem is that Debian abandoned 32bit PPC after release 8.
The mentioned Jeroen Dideren did start an effort in 2019 to "modernise" Debian 8 to make it useful again. This MacRumors thread spans the time from 2019 to 2023 for a discussion with a larger audience than on the dedicated project website. This project website is the one I had mentioned in my first post.

This brings me to the conclusion MintPPC is no longer an active project (as of May 2024) and it is not based on a recent Linux distro, and the instructions on the website may have been compromised since the website looks hacked. Not good.

Jeroen D. was also behind the earlier MintPPC project from around 2011 (not in 2009, my bad memory) I had mentioned it too. Its previous .org domain is no longer registered to him and is now used to distribute unwanted content. So don't look for it.

(Edit: Written and posted from a 300 MHz Clamshell iBook, wirelessly tethered by means of its original Airport card to an iPhone 7 @iOS15 via a 2009 MacBook Pro @macOS10.13. All as part of the exercise I give my iBook every 3 month or so 🙂. Thanks to all the people whose efforts make this possible!)

Slightly off topic: If you're interested running linux on G4 or G5 there are options.

There is a Debian 32-bit PPC net installer on http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/ports/snapshots/2024-02-25/
This of course requires that your NIC is recognised by the OS.

Also there are at least Adelie linux and T2 linux, which are actively developed. Some others exist too.

And of course there are various flavours of BSD 🙂

Posted by: ArbysTPossum on 2024-05-16 06:30:04

Slightly off topic: If you're interested running linux on G4 or G5 there are options.

There is a Debian 32-bit PPC net installer on http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/ports/snapshots/2024-02-25/
This of course requires that your NIC is recognised by the OS.

Also there are at least Adelie linux and T2 linux, which are actively developed. Some others exist too.

And of course there are various flavours of BSD 🙂

Absolutely going to look into these. I'd gladly take a flavor os Linux that's somewhat up to date.

Posted by: eharmon on 2024-05-17 19:41:50

Sadly, Linux itself is starting to drop 32-bit PowerPC: https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-5.10-Dropping-PowerPC-601

You should be able to create a Buildroot-based image pretty easily by modifying the 68040 instructions in my signature. But....only for 603+ 🙂.

Posted by: eharmon on 2024-05-17 20:16:26

Sadly, Linux itself is starting to drop 32-bit PowerPC: https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-5.10-Dropping-PowerPC-601

You should be able to create a Buildroot-based image pretty easily by modifying the 68040 instructions in my signature. But....only for 603+ 🙂.

Actually that's the wrong link. Here: https://68kmla.org/bb/index.php?threads/installing-debian-12-on-68040.45222/page-2#post-502295