CRUX PPC

I like very much CruxPPC (trying it on my ibook g4) and I will install crux 2.2 whenever it will be released :D But the thing I don't appreciate of Crux is the lack of precompiled packages (I was very well accustomed by Slackware on x86 :) ), at least I'd like not to compile big packages as

* Gnome
* Kde
* Openoffice
* Firefox
* Thunderbird

ports works well, but they take too much time :( I think that such packages are very popular, so why don't include them in Crux? And what about a repository where users can share packages compiled by them?
Bye

Hey Rnatella,
glad that you enjoy crux-ppc... There was a crux-ppc iso called "Crux-PPC Evolution" with lots of precompiled packages on it (Gnome, KDE and printing support), it was maintained by NcrFgs, a retired Crux-PPC developerd. The Crux Evolution for x86 developed by Slash, who also developed the tool "Ilenia", is unmaintained as well.
At the moment we lack developers, so our efforts are focusing toward producing a working, stable iso with 64bit support. When that will be done we might focus on something else.

In the while, you can try the whole Crux-PPC Evolution, or you can try installing the packages of it on a newer release... they should work as well.

Acrux will produce a Crux-PPC iBook Memorial Edition, it will be fully G4 optimized, and it might include more packages than the plain install iso... it will, of course, only work on G4 processors.

Of course users can share their repos of ports the way they usually share them with crux... i don't know if that's a good idea to share precompiled binaries for crux-ppc... one of the reasons of crux performance and stability is that it's source based... furthermore the many processors of Power and PowerPC families have deep differences among them, so G3 optimized binaries won't work on G4 and the way 'round, plus packages compiled against some libraries might work unstable on systems with different set of libraries...
Anyway we might think about that, but for now we need new developers (do you want to join?? ;-)), need a working stable 2.2 iso, and we need to expand the site with more documentation, tips, config templates etc.

cheerz, :)

Forgot to tell... if you need OpenOffice, go have a look here:
ftp://ftp.cusoo.org/ooo/LINUXPPC/RPM/2.0.3RC4/
This should be the latest build, i don't remember wether the archive contains the installer, the rpms, or the whole directory... anway just drop the result of untar of the rpm2tgz of the single rpms in /opt/openoffice and run it from there... you will be surprised of how smooth it runs on PowerPC.
2.0.3rc3 and m161 have been tested and work allright on crux-ppc 2.0 and never-released-as-stable 2.1.
If you need some other localization, we just need to ask to the developer who builds them... ;-)

bye,

Hi,
thank you for your answer. I heard about crux-evolution, but I didn't try it because it is unmantained. I asked here about packages because some software works good with crux (I compiled gnome 2.12 with crux-x86 ports using prt-get, and it worked), but it takes too long to have a working desktop, and I think users would like to have at least an un-optimized desktop right after installing. Just my 2 cents ;)
I understand your difficulties with the lack of developers.. maybe I can do some testing after the exams period :)
Bye

About Openoffice... at this point we can convert rpms or debs from fedora or ubuntu :D

Hey Rnatella, if you want to join the team you're welcome of course! ;-)
You can both become tester/developer, or compile packages... we were thinking to have a "second cd" with unessential things, to save time of compilation to users... but that remains a good intention as far as there are other issues to solve...
We can also talk about that on the NaLug mailing list, or even meet in Napoli as i see you're from Napoli too...
Talking about OpenOffice.org, we are in contact with the developer that builds the binaries for linux/ppc, give a look here
ftp://ftp.cusoo.org/ooo/LINUXPPC
to find the latest (so far m175 and 2.0.3rc4). We might in future have a port that downloads OOo from that site, or better, have a port that cleanly builds it from scratch... but as i told before this is second stage, after 2.2 is released... if you have such a port, please submit that, so we can arrange a small repo of ppc-specific ports... that would be really useful!

Cheerz :)

giorgio

Of course, packages are the fastest way to install software that require a long time to be built, but there are some problems and a part of them is:
1) Building options
2) For which version of CRUX-PPC we have to build them?

For the first question, we can use the lowest optimization available and so G3's users can install packages. Otherwise, G4 users would want more fast packages, to use, for example, altivec istructions.
To solve this problem, we should build more packages of the same software, but this way requires too much time.

Now, imagine that we have to build some of packages: what release we have to use? Before a new distro release, we have many changes in the base system and the binary packages could not work properly. I think that the best solution for this problem is to build packages only for the stable release.

How to solve the first question?

Note that with the packages, we lose the meaning of source based distro.

@ rnatella

maybe you'll find your heaven in ArchlinuxPPC, good luck.

Acrux,
thank you for the hint :) For now, I'm fine with Debian/PPC :oops:

hehe, good for you :wink: but you probably don't imagine what you're missing! :lol:
We have OpenOffice ports now, plus ibm java, mplayer vlc and lots of new stuff... emulators like mol, qemu, euae coming up soon in the next release (we have some ports ready but they're not published yet)... probably the things you were missing from Crux-PPC one year and half ago...

But above all the upcoming 2.4 is the fastest distro ever; you won't believe nor imagine it till you try!! :P

ROTFL!
It is exactly what I was searching for a year ago... there is also gnome :) I will take it into consideration!