Frugalware Dropping PPC

[PowerPup]

http://frugalware.org/news/229

This architecture has been removed and will no longer be supported. We lost our buildserver for it and no longerpossess the means to support it, as no developers are left to care for it as well. So, powerpc is being powered down.

If you possess such hardware, we are sorry, but there is no other choice for us. x86/x86_64 support will continue to be

supported indefinitely, as they are much easier to support. Please join us there if you can.

This is quiet sad, I have Frugalware 1.3 on my PowerMac G4 sawtooth, (need to upgrade to current.) It's a pretty nice distro. I'm not sure what it would take or if I have the means hardware/skill wise, but I'd like to help them out if possible. Like, is it possible to have a buildserver that cross-compiles? (As I'm sure my Intel 2.33Ghz C2D can compile faster than a single 400Mhz G4.) How do other Distros (like Debian) support building across so many architectures?

It'd probably be too big of a commitment for me to deal with, especially since I'm still attending college... I'd still like to see what I can do though.

 

[ClassicHasClass]

Yes, they cross-compile. You can get gcc toolchains that build binaries for other architectures. johnklos is probably the one to ask (contact him off boards) since he does this for NetBSD pkgsrc.

However, they do (correctly) point out that the problem isn't just building but also correcting glitches as there appears to be no port maintainer anyway.

 

[Bunsen]

Speaking of such things, what's the state of play with the PowerPup distro project?

 

[PowerPup]

I've been busy with college, so I haven't touched it since like, last summer. I'm hoping to try to get things going with it this summer.

As I've mentioned here and there on the forums, when I do start it up again it's not going to be based of PuppyLinux, even though they've been making builds with other distro packages like Ubuntu and Slackware, some of the component are 86x only. (Last time I tried, like their stripped down version of Xorg.) It was going to be too much for me to deal with rewriting a bash script to support PPC, and then chase down source code to recompile specific packages. When I finally get some bare-bones system going, I might try to implement ideas from PuppyLinux, but its going to end up being it's own thing. With 5 to 7 different fruit themes.

However, they do (correctly) point out that the problem isn't just building but also correcting glitches as there appears to be no port maintainer anyway.

Yeah, I'm not sure I have the skills to actually be a port maintainer, but I'd hate to see another distro drop PPC. I asked what they used for making the packages for each arch and was given a link to their wiki: https://wiki.frugalware.org/index.php/Frugalware_production_infrastructure#Burns

Turns out they had been using a Sawtooth for the job, which is making me wonder if I can do the same with mine. (Or a PowerMac G5 if I get my hands on 1 of the 5 Portland State University is selling.)