Best hardware platform for native compiling...

[David Jander]

On Tuesday 21 July 2009 14:00:07 you wrote:
> On Tue, Jul 21, 2009 at 12:31:36PM +0200, David Jander wrote:
> > On Tuesday 21 July 2009 11:52:51 you wrote:
> > > On Tue, Jul 21, 2009 at 11:16:52AM +0200, David Jander wrote:
> > > > For bigger systems we often run a debian-derived OS like Ubuntu, and
> > > > many pieces are compiled natively on the target... just because it is
> > > > easy and quick to do, and cross-compiling certain packages can be a
> > > > real pain. But, a 400 MHz e300 core is not really fast for compiling,
> > > > so I have been considering buying some sort of PowerPC-based system
> > > > with a faster processor, just as a "build-server" (a G5 would do
> > > > wonders I guess).
> > > >
> > > > It seems like the only real option is one of the smaller IBM Power
> > > > servers, but that seems overkill to me. We also don't feel like
> > > > buying some old second-hand Apple gear.
> > > >
> > > > Is there any other available and affordable platform that can be used
> > > > to run linux and compile software natively for 32-bit PowerPC?
> > >
> > > Have a look at the YDL PowerStation:
> > >
> > > http://us.fixstars.com/products/powerstation/
> > >
> > > It is more or less a quad G5.
> >
> > This looks great! Thanks a lot for the tip.
> > I still have to figure out how to get one of these delivered to Europe,
> > but that shouldn't be such a big deal...
>
> Well, I got one recently here in Spain. Shipping charges are fairly
> large (it's not exactly a light and compact machine). But the current
> dollar exchange rate helps ;-)
>
> Now I have not yet found the way to install Debian on it
> (it refuses to boot Debian's CDROM), but I have not had
> time to investigate either.

If nothing else helps, try (manually) installing debootstrap from ubuntu 
sources and start from there with "debootstrap jaunty /mnt/partition" ;-)

Best regards,

-- 
David Jander
Protonic Holland.