OpenBSD Journal

Macppc G5 Support In Progress

Contributed by jolan on from the how-about-some-iHardware-iDocumentation-iApple-iAssholes dept.

Theo announced on misc@ today that work is in progress to add G5 support to the macppc port. G5 machines will be running in 32-bit mode but there is the possibility of a macppc64 port to follow to take advantage of these 64-bit processors. All Apple models are being targetted (iMac, Power Mac, and Xserve) so if you have such a machine and wish to run OpenBSD on it, your dreams are about to come true. As Theo stresses, this is very much a work in progress and not everything is supported (such as the on-board disk controller) or stable at this point in time.

Theo also put out a call for the donation of a dual CPU G4 or G5 system to the Netherlands in order for work on SMP support to begin.

(Comments are closed)


Comments
  1. By Anonymous Coward (67.64.89.177) on

    Donate people! g5 dual support, yum!

    Comments
    1. By Anonymous Coward (193.63.217.208) on

      Even better when OpenBSD gets SMP macppc64... :D

  2. By kokamomi (83.227.181.37) on

    i imagine there will be lots of surplus g5's in a year or so... would be nice to see full support by then!

  3. By Anonymous Coward (68.104.17.51) on

    doesn't drahn have one? jonathan walker helped raising the funds for it, IIRC.

    Comments
    1. By Anonymous Coward (216.138.195.228) on

      and the request was for a system in the Netherlands. whether drahn has a system or not is irrelevant.

    2. By Miod Vallat (217.33.215.220) miod@ on

      Yes, Dale Rahn has a single-processor G5 system, and he has been working on G5 support with Mark Kettenis.

      However, Mark is likely to have more spare time to spend on SMP G5 support than Dale, which is why we would prefer the SMP hardware to be in Mark's lab rather than collecting dust.

  4. By Ray (194.151.41.129) on

    No trolling intended when I ask: why bother supporting a platform that will be decommissioned in a year or two? Other than personal interest, that is.

    Comments
    1. By Chris (144.178.103.79) chriswareham@chriswareham.demon.co.uk on http://www.chriswareham.demon.co.uk/

      Well, personal interest should be enough of a reason to support a specific processor, but in this case the G5 is not going to disappear just because Apple stop using it. IBM have just announced a new line of machines with the Power5 processor (their name for the G5). As these machines become more common, porting to them should be far easier if it can be based off of the macppc port.

      Chris

      Comments
      1. By Anonymous Coward (195.224.109.30) on

        I was unaware that Apple were going to stop production of G5 Macs ?
        Not that I have any insider knowledge, but I haven't heard word to that effect.

        Apple will still be supporting the G5 for many years to come regardless.

        Comments
        1. By Donald (216.144.215.70) on http://www.donaldwilson.info

          Apple is switching to using Intel chips for their hardware.
          http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/06/06/1752234&tid=118&tid=179&tid=3

          Comments
          1. By Brad (216.138.195.228) brad at comstyle dot com on

            and Apple switching processors will not mean ALL systems will use Intel processors right away or if at all.

            Comments
            1. By knomevol (70.244.204.169) on

              none of the machines i buy, anyway

      2. By Anonymous Coward (195.224.109.30) on

        "Power5 processor (their name for the G5)."

        G5s were the PowerPC equivelant of Power4
        IBMs name for a G5 is PowerPC 970

      3. By Lennart Fridén (217.209.180.235) on

        Isn't the G5 a Power4 derivate? Nevertheless, when the day comes when Apple drops support for my 2x2GHz PowerMac I'd like to have the option of using OpenBSD.

    2. By autolycos (129.93.247.5) jjsolomon@gmail.com on http://www.teamevil.info

      IBM and Mercury HPC computing will be offering PowerPC platforms long into the future, so this is A Good Thing that this port is moving along.

      My question is, according to the Yellow Dog Linux site, Genesi is still offering Pegasos PPC stuff. Weren't they vaporware?

      Comments
      1. By Anonymous Coward (195.224.109.30) on

        well they still have a website, but from what I remember they were just crap at paying people.

    3. By Anonymous Coward (71.113.65.112) on

      This is a bad argument. Whether Apple continues developing PPC boxes or not is irrelevant. Any new port for OpenBSD is a good thing. Lots of people fail to realize that the entire OS as a whole has much to benefit from a new port. The work invested greatly helps to refine the system, as well as make the code better tested and possible catch bugs that would have otherwise gone unnoticed.

      Comments
    4. By Blake Willis (62.4.77.94) on two one one two dot net

      Two systems that are excellent reasons to keep the powerpc port alive and kicking:

      - XBox 360
      - Playstation 3

      The Playstation will likely be the more open-source friendly of the two given that Sony has been somewhat supportive of (or at least not against) Linux effors on the PS/PS2 in the past, whereas articles on the XBox 360 state that MS has invested lots of R&D in making the device "impossible" to crack...

      Both have incredible processors that are derivatives of IBM's Cell designs with off-the-charts floating-point performance, and of course will be widely available at consumer electroncs prices.

      Comments
      1. By Anonymous Coward (195.224.109.30) on

        Hopefully there will be machines with Cell processors other than in game consoles.

        However while you are at it, does the Nintendo Revolution contain a PowerPC derivative ?

        Comments
        1. By Blake Willis (81.57.19.80) on two one one two dot net

  5. By Anonymous Coward (195.224.109.30) on

    IBM are working on a BSD Licensed firmware that they are looking to run on their PPC 970 servers.

    http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/power/library/pa-dw-slof.html

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