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Operating Systems and Porting / Re: [NEWS] Bootstrapping native Void Linux (ppc64le) on Talos II
« Last post by MPC7500 on May 25, 2026, 04:51:28 pm »Wow. That's a big task. This means, VoidLinux is up and running on ppc64le, again?
Recent Posts
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Operating Systems and Porting / [NEWS] Bootstrapping native Void Linux (ppc64le) on Talos II
« Last post by DKnoto on May 24, 2026, 04:32:52 pm »Hi everyone,
I just wanted to share a recent personal milestone. After a few days of intensive compiling and debugging, I’ve successfully bootstrapped a complete, native Void Linux base system (almost 1,000 packages) for ppc64le directly on my Talos II.
I used Void's xbps-src environment to build everything from source. If anyone else is looking to try this, here are a few technical hurdles I ran into and how I bypassed them:
If anyone is working on a similar Void/OpenPOWER port and needs details on the xbps-src patches, let me know!
Cheers.
I just wanted to share a recent personal milestone. After a few days of intensive compiling and debugging, I’ve successfully bootstrapped a complete, native Void Linux base system (almost 1,000 packages) for ppc64le directly on my Talos II.
I used Void's xbps-src environment to build everything from source. If anyone else is looking to try this, here are a few technical hurdles I ran into and how I bypassed them:
- Kernel 6.18 & pSeries LPAR code: The build initially failed on papr-hvpipe.c. Since our machines run on PowerNV (skiboot) and don't need IBM's PAPR w/ LPAR virtualization overhead, I temporarily patched out the failing code with preprocessor macros. My ultimate goal is to build a leaner kernel with CONFIG_PPC_PSERIES completely disabled.
- x265 compilation errors: The x265 package tripped over AltiVec/VSX hardware optimizations during the 10-bit depth build pass. I had to explicitly disable the altivec option in the package's build template to get it to compile cleanly via standard C++.
- Booting via Petitboot: Instead of fighting with ISO generation scripts designed for x86, I installed the built packages (xbps-install) directly onto an ext4-formatted USB drive via chroot. I wrote a minimal grub.cfg pointing to the native vmlinux and initramfs, and Petitboot flawlessly parsed it and booted the system via kexec on the first try.
If anyone is working on a similar Void/OpenPOWER port and needs details on the xbps-src patches, let me know!
Cheers.
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Applications and Porting / Re: [DEV] LuaJIT PPC64 support
« Last post by MPC7500 on May 24, 2026, 04:24:09 pm »This article says it all: IBM Z and ARM
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Applications and Porting / Re: [DEV] LuaJIT PPC64 support
« Last post by power9mm on May 24, 2026, 11:28:45 am »I saw on youtube in one of those webinars that IBM has transfered Power ISA developement to Bangalore, India. If IBM Usa doesn't care about the OpenPower side of things, then I'm certain that no one in India gives a damn.
This is not good at all… if the power isa is out sourced to India it’s pretty much game over and I see the price has gone up even further from raptor.. geez
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Talos II / Re: Thinking of selling my Talos II System
« Last post by isengaara on May 23, 2026, 02:18:04 am »Good. In Summer there are some weeks where I am on vacation, please DM me.
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Applications and Porting / Re: [DEV] JIT support for Firefox
« Last post by MPC7500 on May 20, 2026, 06:35:53 pm »I have a PowerMac G5 with Debian ...
That's good to know. Right now, I'm working with an LLM on porting a non-Linux OS. I still need to ask the lead developers if they accept LLM code. But if everything works out, I'll need someone with actual ppc64 hardware for testing. There is already some (old) ppc code available, but I'm doing ELFv2 ABI ppc64 first, then ppc64le, and finally ppc. A PA6T would also be good for testing.
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Applications and Porting / Re: [DEV] JIT support for Firefox
« Last post by MPC7500 on May 18, 2026, 06:09:34 pm »Firefox-ESR (with a minor adjustment) runs here, too.
Chimera Linux
LLVM/Clang, PGO + LTO
Build time = 12h
JetStream 3 score:
POWER9, 4core = 28
Apple Silicon M1 = 172
Apple Silicon M4 = 255
By the way, here’s a little tip from me. Generating code with AI is one thing, but nobody really wants to chat with an AI on GitHub. That’s really not a good idea.
Chimera Linux
LLVM/Clang, PGO + LTO
Build time = 12h
JetStream 3 score:
POWER9, 4core = 28
Apple Silicon M1 = 172
Apple Silicon M4 = 255
By the way, here’s a little tip from me. Generating code with AI is one thing, but nobody really wants to chat with an AI on GitHub. That’s really not a good idea.
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Talos II / Re: Thinking of selling my Talos II System
« Last post by helen on May 18, 2026, 11:56:46 am »Hi, I'm interested
I have a Talos II lite, and would very much like to have a second Talos, in particular one with a dual CPU mainboard.
Then I could have a workstation with more PCI-capability, and can use my current Lite like a pure server.
I live in Norway, and may consider a trip during the summer to save on shipping.
I have a Talos II lite, and would very much like to have a second Talos, in particular one with a dual CPU mainboard.
Then I could have a workstation with more PCI-capability, and can use my current Lite like a pure server.
I live in Norway, and may consider a trip during the summer to save on shipping.
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Applications and Porting / Re: [DEV] JIT support for Firefox
« Last post by mparnaudeau on May 14, 2026, 11:06:07 am »tle: ppc64 is POWER8+ only, no PPC970/ PA6T?
Only POWER ISA 2.7+ and Little Endian only at this stage. I do plan to support Big Endian but the amount of work would be triple (POWER8, POWER9 and POWER10 fast paths all need to be carefully revised and tested).
I wish I could offer support for PPC970/PA6T but lacking of real hardware would make it very hard for me to pick up many issues.
I have a PowerMac G5 with Debian (and also an X1000 but haven't try Linux on it for years). I have very few time and I have no experience with the topic but if it helps to build and test some things, you're welcome.
A comment about your initial message though: you asked to people for a review of your pull request but to me, as a human, it is not possible to review such big pull request.
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Applications and Porting / Re: [DEV] JIT support for Firefox
« Last post by ClassicHasClass on May 14, 2026, 10:01:16 am »Fun! (But requires Leopard.)
