[Debian-ppc64-devel] G5 install tips

[Felix Domke]

Hi,

>> What I'm after is install advice more than design discussions.  How
>> would I best proceed?  Even if I took your approach?  Don't I need a
>> 64bit kernel either way?  Given my requirements don't I have to build
>> it?  Given that, what's the best starting point?
>> The PPC64 wiki claims 98% of userland is done.  What it does not cover
>> is "getting started."  I need install advice.  There's no up-to-date
>> installer that I found.
> As far as I can tell, debian-ppc64 is pretty much dead at this point.
> The archive is in a pretty poor state, and it seems that nobody really
> cares. For a simple reason: most people actually run a 64bit kernel
> with a 32bit userland and occasional 64bit apps using libc64... And
> that's probably what you should do too...
Still, please let's don't give up on this, even if it's just for
completeness and forcing apps to be 64bit clean for a reason (which is a
"good thing", after all).

I've been using debian-ppc64 on a couple of machines, and like to keep
it that way. Yes, I know about the performance deficiencies, but if I
would be after performance, I'd switch to another architecture anyway
(unless shiny new hardware becomes available for an effortable price).

Is there a way how we could help here? Do we need a new autobuilder
setup, or can the old one be revived? There are some pretty annoying
bugs (the broken "laptop-detect" package, for example) in the current
package database, which could be fixed easily for a start.

Felix