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- <!DOCTYPE html><head><meta charset="utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1, shrink-to-fit=no" /><meta name="keywords" content="GNU, Emacs, Libre Software, Hurd, Guile, Guix" /><meta name="description" content="GNUcode.me is a website focusing on libre software projects, especially the GNU project." /><link type="application/atom+xml" rel="alternate" title="GNUcode.me -- Feed" href="/feed.xml" /><a rel="me" href="https://fosstodon.org/@thegnuguy"></a><link type="text/css" href="css/footer.min.css" rel="stylesheet"></link><link type="text/css" href="css/header.min.css" rel="stylesheet"></link><link type="text/css" href="css/main.min.css" rel="stylesheet"></link><title>Installing Fedora on Power9 — GNUcode.me</title></head><body><header><nav><ul><li><a href="index.html">GNUcode.me</a></li><li><a href="services.html">Services</a></li><li><a href="about.html">About</a></li><li><a href="business-ideas.html">Business-ideas</a></li></ul></nav></header><h1>Installing Fedora on Power9</h1><main><section class="basic-section-padding"><article><h3>by Joshua Branson — March 06, 2023</h3><div><p>My friend has a <a href="https://www.raptorcs.com/TALOSII/">TalosII</a> machine. He currently uses void linux, but void has
- dropped their <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_ISA">Power ISA</a> support. So I convinced him to give Debian Gnu/Linux a
- try. First we downloaded the <a href="https://www.debian.org/">debian</a> image:</p><p>We navigated our way around the website to download a <a href="https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current/ppc64el/iso-dvd/">complete debian DVD image</a>,
- which was about 5 GB. We then tried to figure out how to <a href="https://www.debian.org/CD/verify">verify the installer
- image</a>, which basically means, to check that the file we downloaded was not
- malware.</p><p>Well let’s first import the debian GPG keys:</p><pre><code>gpg --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-key \
- "1046 0DAD 7616 5AD8 1FBC 0CE9 9880 21A9 64E6 EA7D"
- gpg --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-key \
- "DF9B 9C49 EAA9 2984 3258 9D76 DA87 E80D 6294 BE9B"
- gpg --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-key \
- "F41D 3034 2F35 4669 5F65 C669 4246 8F40 09EA 8AC3"</code></pre><p>Let’s double check that we have those signing keys:</p><pre><code>gpg --list-keys | grep debian
- uid [ unknown] Debian CD signing key <debian-cd@lists.debian.org>
- uid [ unknown] Debian CD signing key <debian-cd@lists.debian.org>
- uid [ unknown] Debian Testing CDs Automatic Signing Key <debian-cd@lists.debian.org></code></pre><p>Sweet. Now what? How do we actually and practically, via what commands,
- verify the installer images? Well the debian page is not specific about
- what to do next. So I had to searching the internet for how to verify debian
- images. And I found this awesome <a href="https://danilodellaquila.com/en/blog/how-to-verify-authenticity-of-downloaded-debian-iso-images">blog post</a>. Here’s how we do it:</p><pre><code>wget https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current/ppc64el/iso-dvd/SHA512SUMS
- wget https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current/ppc64el/iso-dvd/SHA512SUMS.sign
- gpg --verify SHA512SUMS.sign
- gpg --verify SHA512SUMS.sign SHA512SUMS
- sha512sum -c SHA512SUMS 2>/dev/null | grep debian-11.6.0-ppc64el-netinst.iso
- debian-11.6.0-ppc64el-netinst.iso: OK</code></pre><p>We then tried to boot the usb debian power image. That failed to boot. Then we
- tried burning that image to a DVD. That did not work.</p><p>So I am guessing that Debian GNU/Linux will work on power, BUT the graphical
- installer does not currently work on Debian (I found out later that the Debian
- ncuruses installer does work on power).</p><p>My friend then installed Ubuntu server. Ubuntu server's installer actually
- worked! Then we just turned Ubuntu server into a Xubuntu like environment via
- command like: <code>sudo apt install xfce -y</code>.</p><p>Then we rebooted and everything worked! Well, <code>Gnome</code> did not. And <code>Xubuntu</code> did
- not, but then we used <code>gdm</code> to log into <code>xfce</code> desktop. That worked flawlessly.</p><p>The <code>netsurf</code> web browser also worked really well! Which meant we could use any
- website that had virtually no javascript.</p><p>Then I thought, it would be great to have a modern web browser working on my
- friend’s desktop...</p><p>Well it looks like Firefox can run on Power9!</p><p><a href="https://www.talospace.com/search/label/Firefox">https://www.talospace.com/search/label/Firefox</a></p><p>The latest blog post says that you can run Firefox version 110 on
- Power9. You can either add in a <code>--disable-webrtc</code> in your
- <code>.mozconfig</code> or you can compile Firefox with a tiny patch.</p><p>AND nonguix has a recipe for building Firefox. Let’s see if I can
- just install <code>guix</code> set up the <code>nonguix channel</code> and build Firefox that way!</p><p>If the nonguix packaged Firefox doesn’t work, then I can try to set
- build firefox from source via this video:</p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hx42tyEWPxk">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hx42tyEWPxk</a></p><p>Devaun was also a possiblity. That is a fork of debian that does not use
- <code>systemd</code>. My friend is not a big fan of systemd.</p><p>I was also told that Fedora is probably the easiest linux distribution, in which
- to run GNU/Linux on Power9.</p><p>Well installing Fedora was actually easy. The installer just worked.
- (Apparently Debian GNU/Linux disables the ast driver by default, which means a
- VGA display will not work). And I have a working Firefox. Apparently I can run
- a slightly older version of firefox that has a <a href="https://copr.fedorainfracloud.org/coprs/sharkcz/talos/">working javascript JIT.</a></p><p>My friend now has a working Xfce desktop courtesy from <a href="https://getfedora.org/">Fedora GNU/Linux</a>. My only
- concern is that this <a href="https://www.talospace.com/2022/12/fedora-37-mini-review-on-blackbird-and.html">blog post</a> seems to suggest that updating Fedora on a Power9
- machine is going to be quite annoying. I would not want to have to re-install
- Fedora every time they upgrade. I personally no longer have any issues upgrading
- my laptop to my distro latest release, because I have found that GNU Guix System
- just works really well. And if an upgrade breaks, then I can always roll back
- to the previous known working system during the boot process.</p><p>It looks like Fedora can support something like this:</p><p><a href="https://sysguides.com/install-fedora-36-with-snapper-and-grub-btrfs/">https://sysguides.com/install-fedora-36-with-snapper-and-grub-btrfs/</a></p><p>Maybe it is already enabled by default. Who knows.</p><p>I would personally love to recommend my friend to use GNU Guix System, but
- currently you cannot boot Guix System from Power9. The next step for me in this
- journey to help my friend set up his TalosII is to make sure his AMDGPU works.
- This <a href="https://wiki.raptorcs.com/wiki/Troubleshooting/GPU,">wiki article</a> should help with that.</p><p>Also from the <code>#talos-workstation</code> chat log on irc, I found out that the Linux
- kernel is having some issues with the graphics drivers on Power9. Currently the
- user is required to do some manual fiddling. However those workarounds should
- not be necessary by kernel 6.3ish. So until my friend runs Linux 6.3, he will
- probably have the best desktop experience in Xfce or KDE. Gnome has some minor
- issues apparently.</p></div></article></section></main><footer><p>© 2020 Joshua Branson. The text on this site is free culture under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike 4.0 International license.</p><p>This website is build with Haunt, a static site generator written in Guile Scheme. Source code is <a href="https://notabug.org/jbranso/gnucode.me">available.</a></p><p>The color theme of this website is based off of the famous <a href="#3f3f3f" target="_blank">zenburn</a> theme.</p></footer></body>
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