Re: Using macports 2.6.2 on a powerbook G4 1.33GHz and Leopard 10.5.8 ppc

[Riccardo Mottola via macports-users]

Ken Cunningham wrote:



Your Leopard machine (PPC or intel) is quite well supported, in a 
non-official-fashion, with MacPorts, as are almost all macOS systems. Bring all 
your friends!


I would say Leopard forever! ALmost the bast MacOS done. 
Actually, I think it is 10.6, but it lost PPC. 10.5 has some "bugs" e.g. 
in Bonjour... that apple didn't fix in 8 revisions (just check your log) 
but is otherwise very capable and more modern enough than 10.4 that 
porting software to it can be hard but "doable".


I have Leopard on PPC, i386 and amd64 because some of the HW it suports 
is the best ever! PowerPC rocks!

However, the best supported target currently is intel 32bit.
I have some strange issues on 64bit (I think due more to MacPorts trying 
to build some "tools" like python or perl in 64bit fashion too and then 
fail) and PPC. But wil try a re-run right these days.


Getting ArcticFox on them would be the runner, but right now we can use 
TenFourFox.


Read mail with GNUMail and use some other apps like PRICE ad 
LaternaMagica and enjoy!


Riccardo

Re: Using macports 2.6.2 on a powerbook G4 1.33GHz and Leopard 10.5.8 ppc

[Jeffrey Walton]

On Wed, Mar 11, 2020 at 10:09 PM Ken Cunningham
 wrote:
>
> Some MacPorters are totally uninterested in older systems. That's fine, of 
> course. However, MacPorts has about 10% of the market, and HomeBrew has about 
> 90%, and if you ask me, one of the main thing that keeps MacPorts alive these 
> days is the very robust support for all the orphaned Apple systems that it 
> provides.

+1. MacPorts is the gold standard because of its rich system support
and quality bug fix support.

Brew is a non-starter because it does not support my G5. And I was not
impressed with Brew bug handling from an issue I encountered on Travis
(Travis uses Brew for OS X images).

Jeff

Re: Using macports 2.6.2 on a powerbook G4 1.33GHz and Leopard 10.5.8 ppc

[Ken Cunningham]

> I don't know where to start. Maybe someone can me point into the right 
> direction, and give me some hints, how to apply patches

I have operating 10,4, 10.5, and 10.6 systems running hundreds to thousands of 
ports that I keep humming along. My PPC machines are running right now, and run 
many ports that I use all the time.

To do this, I have made a "port overlay" for each system. A "port overlay" is a 
directory of Portfiles that "shadows" the main MacPorts tree. It is in the 
search path prior to the usual MacPorts ports tree. This allows the ability to 
make quick, local modifications to ports to suit the local situation long 
before such fixes may (or may not) ever be acceptable to the general MacPorts 
user base. I try to keep  these repos as up to date as I can, but it's a 
one-man show so far.

For example, I have a very nice version of "libsdl2" that works on 10.4 and 
10.5 PPC and Intel. It will never be accepted into MacPorts general repo, but 
it works very well (not perfectly). I use it to run a LOT of software that 
requires SDL2 on 10.4 and 10.5.

So, for example, when such-and-such a port doesn't build after an update, I 
hold back the version update in my github repo until such time as I (or 
someone) gets around to fixing the error, if it can be fixed. That allows me to 
move on with the port tree, and address these things when I have time.

Sometimes, when I fix something, like python38 for 10.4 and 10.5, there can be 
a LOT of discussion about the perfection or lack thereof of the fix. Mostly, 
this is not too relevant to me -- a workable fix that does no harm is better 
than a broken system -- and perhaps we can fix it better someday, or perhaps we 
can't. Either way, not a big issue for what I want it for.

So, with all this in mind, I have repos for all these systems available at 
  Look around there, and you'll find your system. I 
might split off a 10.5 PPC and 10.5 Intel at some point -- refinements can be 
made. Feel free to contribute.

To use it, you "clone it" to somewhere local, and then tell macports to use it 
ahead of your main repo by editing /opt/local/etc/macports/sources.conf and 
adding it as a file:/// location before (above) the main macports repo. Look in 
the MacPorts guide, and you'll find more information about this. It is a very 
cleverly designed, very robust, and very flexible system and I thank all those 
who came before me who set it up so well.

Things can change as the situation evolves, so please note it is not so 
carefully vetted as the main repo.

Also, it is not fair to open MacPorts tickets about issues that might be 
related to these shadow ports -- nobody could ever figure out what is going on. 
So don't open tickets about broken ports unless you know for certain that it 
has nothing to do with the shadow repo.

Some MacPorters are totally uninterested in older systems. That's fine, of 
course. However, MacPorts has about 10% of the market, and HomeBrew has about 
90%, and if you ask me, one of the main thing that keeps MacPorts alive these 
days is the very robust support for all the orphaned Apple systems that it 
provides.

If you want to run current software on a G4 PowerBook 1.33GHz, you will have be 
both a bit flexible, and also spend some time to learn how to make MacPorts 
work for you. It's not hard -- and to be honest, it's actually kinda fun.

Best,

Ken

Re: Using macports 2.6.2 on a powerbook G4 1.33GHz and Leopard 10.5.8 ppc

[Ryan Schmidt]

On Mar 9, 2020, at 14:47, ggrubb...@web.de wrote:

> I'm not sure, if I should simply wait for macports 2.6.3, or whenever the 
> patches are updated

Updates to MacPorts base are infrequent. MacPorts 2.6.3, whenever we get around 
to releasing that, would contain bug fixes for MacPorts base, but would not 
usually help you with issues building individual ports.

Updates and fixes to individual ports are released constantly. It takes up to 
an hour for changes to sync from our git repository to the main rsync server; 
up to a few more hours to sync to our rsync mirrors. Run "sudo port sync" or 
"sudo port selfupdate" to receive these changes.

Re: Using macports 2.6.2 on a powerbook G4 1.33GHz and Leopard 10.5.8 ppc

[Gerhard Gaussling]

Hi, thank you Ken.

I don't know where to start. Maybe someone can me point into the right 
direction, and give me some hints, how to apply patches (because I already did, 
but they didn't work). Also I don't know how I can integrate your special 
old-mac repository the right way, because, as I mentioned, I didn't use 
macports for several years.

Also, I don't understand, if your patches will go e.g. into 2.6.3, and 
therefore waiting would be an option too (or not?).  
 
Gerhard
 
 

Gesendet: Montag, 09. März 2020 um 22:37 Uhr
Von: "Ken Cunningham" 
An: macports-users@lists.macports.org
Betreff: Re: Using macports 2.6.2 on a powerbook G4 1.33GHz and Leopard 10.5.8 
ppc
This will fix libgcc7, I believe, but I have to test it formally first:

<https://trac.macports.org/ticket/59832#comment:14>

I have fixed python38 (twice, sigh), but the current fix looks robust and 
should make it through once it is properly vetted by the maintainer:

<https://github.com/macports/macports-ports/pull/6542[https://github.com/macports/macports-ports/pull/6542]>

and then you're pretty much good to go.

I do maintain a shadow repo of ports that I have fixed for Leopard that are not 
yet into the main MacPorts repo that you can look at / use / make fun of / 
trash as you see fit :>

<https://github.com/kencu/LeopardPorts/[https://github.com/kencu/LeopardPorts/]>

Your Leopard machine (PPC or intel) is quite well supported, in a 
non-official-fashion, with MacPorts, as are almost all macOS systems. Bring all 
your friends!


Best,

Ken

Re: Using macports 2.6.2 on a powerbook G4 1.33GHz and Leopard 10.5.8 ppc

[Ken Cunningham]

This will fix libgcc7, I believe, but I have to test it formally first:



I have fixed python38 (twice, sigh), but the current fix looks robust and 
should make it through once it is properly vetted by the maintainer:



and then you're pretty much good to go.

I do maintain a shadow repo of ports that I have fixed for Leopard that are not 
yet into the main MacPorts repo that you can look at / use / make fun of / 
trash as you see fit :>



Your Leopard machine (PPC or intel) is quite well supported, in a 
non-official-fashion, with MacPorts, as are almost all macOS systems. Bring all 
your friends!


Best,

Ken