Install Arch Linux PPC
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Install Arch Linux PPC
This is a tutorial on how to install Arch Linux PPC on Apple powerpc "newworld" machines (ie. all PowerMacs able to boot from CD). Arch Linux PPC is a project to port Arch Linux to the PowerPC architecture.
NOTE: There is a new iso available (see link below where to get it), so you are not forced to use the quickinst-script anymore (as described below).
Download iso
The latest ISO are available for download from:
ftp://ftp.archlinuxppc.org/iso/
Booting the install- CD
To boot a CD in most PowerMacs simply hold down C while switching on the machine. If it starts to access the CD drive all went well and you can start with the install procedure.
If it doesn't work that way, please check the version of OpenFirmware by booting into it. It should output a version when it comes up. To get in, do the same as for booting from CD but hold down: command + option + O + F
Generally it should at least be version 3.0 or higher.
You may also want to try to boot from the OpenFirmware prompt instead of doing it directly by typing: boot cd:,\\yaboot on the command prompt.
If none of the above works or if you do not own an apple-keyboard, there is an alternative way to make the cd boot. Please note that a existing installation of OS X is required for this method:
Boot into OS X and insert the Arch Linux PPC Boot CD into the drive. Now open a terminal window and wait until the CD has been auto-mounted. Run "mount" and search the output for a line similar to "/dev/disk1s1s2 on /Volumes/arch-boot". In this example the CD-ROM device is "/dev/disk1s1s2". Now run: "sudo bless -device /dev/disk1s1s2 -setBoot" to change the Open Firmware boot device. You can now reboot the machine and install Arch Linux PPC. Once yaboot has been installed, the primary boot device should have been reset to your harddisk automatically.
Configure the network
If your machine is e.g. a powerbook 5,6 with an airport extreme wifi card (bcm43xx), you won't be able to install over a wireless lan unless you've got the firmware ready on disk or on a separate cd/dvd/usb memory stick, see Wireless Setup for details. If your machine has an older "airport" wifi card built in (titanium; older iBooks), you can simply run
modprobe airport
to get wireless working. If you use the ethernet port, the required kernel module should have been auto-loaded. Usually this is one of "sungem" or "bmac". If the module hasn't been auto-loaded, you'll have to do it by hand (e.g. sungem):
modprobe sungem
Once you've choosen the networking device to use, run
dhcpcd <your interface>
to connect your machine to a network. To list all available interfaces execute
ifconfig -a
If dhcp is unavailable, you have to manually configure your network connection:
ifconfig <interface> <IP> route add default gw <GATEWAY>
and edit /etc/resolv.conf with vi(m)/nano to add your DNS:
nameserver <IP.OF.NAMESERVER1> nameserver <IP.OF.NAMESERVER2>
Creating and formatting partitions
Partition
run mac-fdisc:
mac-fdisk /dev/hda
Initialize the partition scheme
Erase all existing partitions (don't forget to backup if necessary): type "i" in mac-fdisc
Create Apple Boot partition
Type "p" to display the the starting sector, then "b" and input this number.
Create partitions
Create a partition scheme like
/ -> 15G swap -> 1,5G /home -> 55 G
Type "c", to create a partition. "p" to list current partitions and sectors to see where you can add new partitons. For the swap partition use the name "swap".
Example result:
# type name length base
( size ) system
/dev/hda1 Apple_partition_map Apple 63 @ 1
( 31.5k) Partition map
/dev/hda2 Apple_Bootstrap bootstrap 1600 @ 64
(800.0k) NewWorld bootblock
/dev/hda3 Apple_UNIX_SVR2 root 31457280 @ 1664
( 15.0G) Linux native
/dev/hda4 Apple_UNIX_SVR2 swap 3072000 @
31458944 ( 1.5G) Linux swap
/dev/hda5 Apple_UNIX_SVR2 home 121770544 @
34530944 ( 58.1G) Linux native
Block size=512, Number of Blocks=156301488
DeviceType=0x0, DeviceId=0x0
Format partitions
ext3 is recommended on powerpc. Format your partitions:
mkfs.ext3 /dev/hda3 mkfs.ext3 /dev/hda5
(Note: reiserfs was said to be unstable, but all bugs should have been fixed nowadays, I've been using it for almost a year and haven't experienced any problems - Armin)
Format swap
mkswap /dev/hda4
Create chroot
You can both install using the Arch-Setup script (/arch/setup) or quickinstall (be warned there's a bug: no wget on the iso, so you need to correct to snarf manually)
Mount partitions
partitions are mounted on /mnt
mount /dev/hda3 /mnt mkdir /mnt/home mount /dev/hda5 /mnt/home
Install base
Install base on /mnt with the quickinstall script. The quickinstall script can't create a directory for pacman's database so add it:
mkdir -p /mnt/var/lib/pacman
Also quickinstall will need wget:
snarf ftp://ftp.archlinuxppc.org/core/os/ppc/wget-*ppc.pkg.tar.gz pacman -U wget-*ppc.pkg.tar.gz
Start the quickinstall script:
cd /tmp /arch/quickinst ftp /mnt ftp://ftp.archlinuxppc.org/core/os/ppc
Note: My notes on installing can be found here: Installing ArchLinux PPC on my Powerbook Titanium
Mount chroot
cp /etc/resolv.conf /mnt/etc/resolv.conf mount -t proc none /mnt/proc mount -t sysfs none /mnt/sys mount -o bind /dev /mnt/dev chroot /mnt /bin/bash source /etc/profile grep -v rootfs /proc/mounts > /etc/mtab
Edit configurations files
(See the Official Install Guide for more information)
/etc/fstab; /etc/rc.conf, /etc/hosts files...
Example of /etc/fstab with previous partition schema
none /dev/pts devpts defaults 0 0 none /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0 #tmpfs /tmp tmpfs defaults 0 0 /dev/cdrom /media/cd auto ro,user,noauto,unhide 0 0 #/dev/dvd /media/dvd auto ro,user,noauto,unhide 0 0 /dev/hda3 / ext3 defaults,noatime 0 0 /dev/hda4 swap swap defaults 0 0 /dev/hda5 /home ext3 defaults,noatime 0 1
Example of /etc/rc.conf
LOCALE=en_US.utf8 HARDWARECLOCK="localtime" TIMEZONE=Europe/Paris KEYMAP=mac-fr-ext_new CONSOLEFONT=lat9w-16 CONSOLEMAP= USECOLOR="yes" MOD_AUTOLOAD="yes" MOD_BLACKLIST=() MODULES=(sungem !usbserial) USELVM="no" HOSTNAME="name-mac" lo="lo 127.0.0.1" eth0="eth0 192.168.0.4 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 192.168.0.255" INTERFACES=(lo eth0) gateway="default gw 192.168.0.254" ROUTES=(gateway) DAEMONS=(syslog-ng !hotplug !pcmcia network netfs crond sshd)
Note : If you want to use airport, add airport to modules.
Example of /etc/hosts
The hostname you entered in /etc/rc.conf needs to be added to /etc/hosts:
127.0.0.1 name-mac localhost
/etc/locale.gen
Select your localization in /etc/locale-gen, save the file and run:
locale-gen
Install kernel and openssh
pacman -Sy kernel26-pmac openssh
Install Yaboot Bootloader
Yaboot can be installed automatically or manually.
Automatic Installation
To automatically generate the bootloader configuration file (/etc/yaboot.conf) and install yaboot on the bootstrap partition:
yabootconfig
When it asks for your kernel image, input /boot/vmlinux26 and for the initrd /boot/kernel26.img.
Manually
The Yaboot configuration file will need to be edited in /etc/yaboot.conf. An example:
boot=/dev/hda2 device=/pci@f4000000/ata-6@d/disk@0: partition=3 delay=10 timeout=40 install=/usr/lib/yaboot/yaboot magicboot=/usr/lib/yaboot/ofboot image=/boot/vmlinux26 label=Linux root=/dev/hda3 initrd=/boot/kernel26.img read-only
Note: To find the device path run this in the shell:
ofpath /dev/hda
Then install yaboot to the bootstrap partition by:
mkofboot ybin -v
Change root password
passwd
Add a user
adduser <your username>
Reboot
Exit chroot:
exit
Umount partitions :
umount /mnt/proc /mnt/sys /mnt/home /mnt/dev /mnt
Execute the command :
reboot
Voilà, Arch Linux PPC is installed. You only need to install X, ... like in Arch Linux :)
Post-Install
To update your system here are a few tips.
Adding Packages
Some packages are available in the main repository (core and extra) and can be added with Pacman.
ABS
Arch Linux PPC includes many packages in common with it's i686 and x86_64 but not all of them. If you need a package that is a part of the i686/x86_64 repository you can install the Arch Build System. ABS "is a 'ports-like' system for building and packaging software from source code" and is used to build the current packages in the i686, x86_64, and ppc repositories.
The abs tools package is not in the PPC repository and will need to be added manually. First the development tools will need to be added:
pacman -S base-devel
Then as a regular user:
mkdir abs && cd abs wget http://ftp.archlinux.org/extra/os/i686/extra.abs.tar.gz tar -xvf extra.abs.tar.gz cd extra/abs/
Add ppc to PKGBUILD. Now the package can be built (and dependencies installed) with:
makepkg -s PKGBUILD
To add the abs package, as root:
pacman -U /home/<user>/abs/extra/abs/abs*-ppc.pkg.tar.gz
The abs tool can now be used to download the ABS tree. More on ABS can be found on the ABS page.
Other Packages
The Arch User Repository (AUR) has more packages that are available. There are even a few PPC binary packages available. Adding a package from AUR can be done with Yaourt. For packages that are built from source in AUR you can add 'ppc' to the PKGBUILD when Yaourt prompts you and most packages will be able to build.