Powerpc client on x64 server
 

Hi!

An old iMac appeared and practically begged me to add it as a client to our
wonderful Edubuntu network.

The question is how. ltsp-build-client on the server doesn't seem to want to
create a powerpc boot enviroment for the iMac. Shouldn't it be possible for
gcc to compile powerpc-stuff on any architecture?

What is the best way to do it? I thought of installing Edubuntu server on the
iMac and exporting the client directory from there..but since the iMac has
only 160MiB of RAM and the installation requires 320MiB (really?) I'm not
sure if that would work. What more is - how can the client image be kept
updated on the server, the same as the i386 and x86 client dirs?

Isn't there a sane way to do this?

/ Olle
--
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Powerpc client on x64 server
 

On Jan 8, 2008 8:40 AM, Carl Olof Englund <realdiskdoc@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi!

An old iMac appeared and practically begged me to add it as a client to our
wonderful Edubuntu network.

The question is how. ltsp-build-client on the server doesn't seem to want to
create a powerpc boot enviroment for the iMac. Shouldn't it be possible for

gcc to compile powerpc-stuff on any architecture?
What happens when you do:
sudo ltsp-build-client --arch=powerpc


What is the best way to do it? I thought of installing Edubuntu server on the
iMac and exporting the client directory from there..but since the iMac has
only 160MiB of RAM and the installation requires 320MiB (really?) I'm not

sure if that would work. What more is - how can the client image be kept
updated on the server, the same as the i386 and x86 client dirs?

If the above command works, you should be able to do the update image command for that image like this:

sudo ltsp-update-image -a powerpc

Charles

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Powerpc client on x64 server
 

Hi,

On Tue, 08 Jan 2008, Charles Austin wrote:

> > The question is how. ltsp-build-client on the server doesn't seem to
> > want to create a powerpc boot enviroment for the iMac. Shouldn't it be
> > possible for gcc to compile powerpc-stuff on any architecture?
> >
> What happens when you do:
> sudo ltsp-build-client --arch=powerpc

Sadly this doesn't work. The trouble is that the build process runs sets
up and installs apt, dpkg, etc. within the chroot and then runs them to
install other stuff but as they're compiled for powerpc, they won't run on
the x86 machine. The only way to build the client for powerpc is using a
powerpc machine.

Some info on suggested ways to do it is here:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UbuntuLTSP/LTSPCrossArchSetup

Alternatively, I think Ogra used to have a tarball of the root for download
which might get you going more quickly. Oli?

> If the above command works, you should be able to do the update image
> command for that image like this:
> sudo ltsp-update-image -a powerpc

This bit would probably work, but only once you've built the root.

Gavin


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Powerpc client on x64 server
 

On Tuesday 08 January 2008, you wrote:
> I can't seem to find the darn wiki doc, but I know it is out there. You
> need to boot from a PPC machine and build the environment, then move it
> over to the server. Then you need to customize your dhcpd.conf to boot the
> PPC tree when a mac is detected. That is about the best description I can
> give you without the docs.
>
> Hope that puts you on the right track,
> Jim

Yes, that's what I meant. I read some hints about people having more or less
successfully done it this way. But I don't think it's a good solution, a
better one should be possible.

It would be better if there was some kind of maintained Edubuntu PPC client
(i.e. on a website) that could be downloaded and installed. If people are
maintaining a Edubuntu install image for Powerpc, perhaps they could do that
too?

I'm wondering if the best way technically would be to have some script
compiling the PPC client enviroment from source on the (amd64 (not x64, lol
sorry :) a la Gentoo. Once working, it would be way easier than the current
solution (install ppc server on ppc client, move ppc client enviroment to
real server, fret over the ppc client enviroment not being updated and
expanded with programs like the other client enviroments)

/ Carl

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Powerpc client on x64 server
 

Carl Olof Englund wrote:
> On Tuesday 08 January 2008, you wrote:
>
>> I can't seem to find the darn wiki doc, but I know it is out there. You
>> need to boot from a PPC machine and build the environment, then move it
>> over to the server. Then you need to customize your dhcpd.conf to boot the
>> PPC tree when a mac is detected. That is about the best description I can
>> give you without the docs.
>>
>> Hope that puts you on the right track,
>> Jim
>>
>
> Yes, that's what I meant. I read some hints about people having more or less
> successfully done it this way. But I don't think it's a good solution, a
> better one should be possible.
>
> It would be better if there was some kind of maintained Edubuntu PPC client
> (i.e. on a website) that could be downloaded and installed. If people are
> maintaining a Edubuntu install image for Powerpc, perhaps they could do that
> too?
>
I don't have a Mac, and don't plan to get one anytime soon, so I
couldn't maintain it. However, if the image isn't too big, I'd be happy
to host it.

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Powerpc client on x64 server
 

(talking to myself here...)

Daniel J. Summers wrote:
> Carl Olof Englund wrote:
>
>> On Tuesday 08 January 2008, you wrote:
>>
>>
>>> I can't seem to find the darn wiki doc, but I know it is out there. You
>>> need to boot from a PPC machine and build the environment, then move it
>>> over to the server. Then you need to customize your dhcpd.conf to boot the
>>> PPC tree when a mac is detected. That is about the best description I can
>>> give you without the docs.
>>>
>>> Hope that puts you on the right track,
>>> Jim
>>>
>>>
>> Yes, that's what I meant. I read some hints about people having more or less
>> successfully done it this way. But I don't think it's a good solution, a
>> better one should be possible.
>>
>> It would be better if there was some kind of maintained Edubuntu PPC client
>> (i.e. on a website) that could be downloaded and installed. If people are
>> maintaining a Edubuntu install image for Powerpc, perhaps they could do that
>> too?
>>
>>
> I don't have a Mac, and don't plan to get one anytime soon, so I
> couldn't maintain it. However, if the image isn't too big, I'd be happy
> to host it.
>
Could this be obtained from a PowerPC ISO of Edubuntu? That would be
the easiest way for it to be maintained - let the project itself do it! :)


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E-mail - daniel@djs-consulting.com <mailto:daniel@djs-consulting.com>
Website - http://www.djs-consulting.com <http://www.djs-consulting.com/>
Technology Blog - http://www.djs-consulting.com/linux/blog

GEEKCODE 3.12 GCS/IT d s-:+ a C++ L++ E--- W++ N++ o? K- w !O M--
V PS+ PE++ Y? !PGP t+ 5? X+ R* tv b+ DI++ D+ G- e h---- r+++ y++++

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Powerpc client on x64 server
 

On Tue, Jan 08, 2008 at 03:40:14PM +0200, Carl Olof Englund wrote:
> Hi!
>
> An old iMac appeared and practically begged me to add it as a client
> to our wonderful Edubuntu network.
>
> The question is how. ltsp-build-client on the server doesn't seem to
> want to create a powerpc boot enviroment for the iMac. Shouldn't it
> be possible for gcc to compile powerpc-stuff on any architecture?

Sorry, a bit late responding.

It's been a while since I did this but IIRC I booted the mac with
xubuntu live cd. Then I nfs mounted /opt/lstp. And then built the
client chroot.

The trickier part was getting the macs to boot from what the dhcp
server returned -- which this list was very helpful in solving.

I'll attach my test setup's dhcp that works with my Macs.

I'd welcome comments explaining what some of the config options do. ;)


Oh, also it seems as if lts.conf is fetched from a different location
for the powerpc. I have a single lts.conf symlinked. Wireshark was
helpful to track that down.






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moseley@hank.org

#
# Default LTSP dhcpd.conf config file.
#
# imac 00:14:51:32:BA:44
#

ddns-updates off; # Don't attempt to do any DNS updates (default is on)
ignore client-updates; # Default is to allow
authoritative;

# Deal with broken mac clients. Not sure what these first options do.
option option-128 code 128 = string;
option option-129 code 129 = text;
option dhcp-parameter-request-list 1,3,6,15,17,43,44,46,60;

# Define a class for Apple Powerpc
# http://www.afp548.com/article.php?story=20061220102102611

class "AppleNBI-ppc" {
match if substring (option vendor-class-identifier, 0, 13) = "AAPLBSDPC/ppc";

option dhcp-parameter-request-list 1,3,6,12,15,17,43,53,54,60;

# The Apple Boot Loader binary image. This file will in turn TFTP the
# kernel image and extension cache.
filename "/ltsp/powerpc/yaboot";


option vendor-class-identifier "AAPLBSDPC"; # now sure what this does

if (option dhcp-message-type = 1) { # DHCP Discover
option vendor-encapsulated-options 08:04:81:00:00:09;
}

elsif (option dhcp-message-type = 8) { # DHCP Inform
option vendor-encapsulated-options 01:01:02:08:04:81:00:00:09;
}

else {
option vendor-encapsulated-options 00:01:02:03:04:05:06:07;
}


option root-path "192.168.0.254:/opt/ltsp/powerpc";
}

# Old imacs don't supply a vendor string so match by MAC address.
group {
option dhcp-parameter-request-list 1,3,6,12,15,17,43,53,54,60;

# The Apple Boot Loader binary image. This file will in turn TFTP the
# kernel image and extension cache.
filename "/ltsp/powerpc/yaboot";


option vendor-class-identifier "AAPLBSDPC"; # not sure what this does

if (option dhcp-message-type = 1) { # DHCP Discover
option vendor-encapsulated-options 08:04:81:00:00:09;
}

elsif (option dhcp-message-type = 8) { # DHCP Inform
option vendor-encapsulated-options 01:01:02:08:04:81:00:00:09;
}

else {
option vendor-encapsulated-options 00:01:02:03:04:05:06:07;
}


option root-path "192.168.0.254:/opt/ltsp/powerpc";

host imac1 {
hardware ethernet 00:05:02:91:cb:17;
fixed-address 192.168.0.18;
}
}


class "PC-i386" {
match if substring( option vendor-class-identifier, 0, 9 ) = "PXEClient";

filename "/ltsp/i386/pxelinux.0";
}




subnet 192.168.0.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
range 192.168.0.20 192.168.0.250;
option broadcast-address 192.168.0.255;
option subnet-mask 255.255.255.0;


# LAN config
option domain-name "<my domain>";
option domain-name-servers 192.168.1.1;
option routers 192.168.0.254;

}

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