[CentOS-devel] CentOS 5 PowerPC port?

[Greg Snyder]

On Fri, May 21, 2010 at 10:24:45AM +0200, Timo Schoeler wrote:
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> thus Greg Snyder spake:
> > Hi all,
> 
> Hi Greg,
> 
> > I'm trying to get a CentOS 5 port started for PowerPC.  I saw there was
> > some email back in February about this, but did not know what progress
> > had been made.  Does anyone have any news?  
> 
> I think that was my mail... Well, could be, at least. I started to think
> of it in December, but didn't make any progress (except adding another
> IBM Power 285 machine to the already existing Power 275 I get, see
> http://wiki.centos.org/TimoSchoeler).
> 
> > I'm most interested in
> > 32-bit, with the hope of eventually running it on some Apple (G4 and G5)
> > desktops, as well as on some embedded PowerPC boards (mostly amcc 460ex
> > based).  So I'd be hoping to build with some pretty generic target
> > options so the RPMs would be useful in the most places.
> 
> For me it would be the 64bit stuff. I do have a G4 machine at home, but
> it isn't set up ATM. Also, I'd really like to have it running on IBM
> Power... especially as there *exists* an official upstream port.

Sure, that makes sense.  In terms of the build tools and process, I'm
sure there'd be a lot of overlap anyway.

> > Are there tools, scripts or techniques used to do the x86 RPMs build
> > that could be leveraged?  I looked around on the CentOS website and
> > wiki, but could not find docs or sources for this.  Any pointers on
> > this, or just generally how the x86 build/build server is bootstrapped,
> > and the x86 RPMs are produced, would be greatly appreciated.
> 
> Same problem here; I asked in IRC yesterday, but noone of the PowerPC
> guys was there, as it seemed (if there are any, that is).

Bummer, from your email I had hoped you might be the holder of the
super-secret PowerPC stuff.  :)  I wonder who if anyone is then?

> > Given my previous somewhat painful experience with autoconf-related
> > cross-build issues, my first thought was to build the bulk of the RPMs
> > natively on PowerPC, rather than x86 to PowerPC cross-build.  I have a
> > few PowerPC boxes (currently running Fedora 12), including a quad core
> > 2.5GHz G5, that I'd be happy to share with others interested in getting
> > a CentOS PowerPC port done.
> 
> I'm very interested in this. However, even more interesting (and very
> port-specific) would be the stuff surrounding the topic 'how to create
> bootable media'...

I've been playing around with a manually constructed chroot'd
environment on top of Fedora PowerPC.  My thought is to initially try
using existing PowerPC kernel (and initrd / fdt), and to get it working
with as much of a CentOS-based userland as I can.  This approach can't
be followed for everything or forever, but it will at least let me make
some progress, and hopefully it'd be progress that could be used
independent of the other lower-level work.

> Another idea would be to create a wiki page for gathering information on
> getting up and running the PPC port. (I'll ask Ralph to create one. :)

Sounds good, please let me know.

Thanks,
Greg

> 
> > I'd be grateful for any tips, help or direction.
> > 
> > Thanks,
> > Greg
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Timo
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