Gentoo Linux PowerPC Development

Gentoo Project script generated

Updated May 3, 2007

1.  Project Description

The Gentoo/PPC Project works to ensure that Gentoo is the most up to date and robust PowerPC distribution available for both server and desktop applications.

Bugs are tracked and resolved from the Gentoo bug tracker. For PowerPC bugs, please see this link. Correspondence is maintained on the PowerPC related mailing lists, gentoo-ppc-user and gentoo-ppc-dev. For more information on PowerPC mailing lists, please see the Gentoo Mailing list overview. Additionally, the PowerPC team is almost always available in #gentoo-ppc on freenode.

2.  News

2006-07-01: New toolchain and Xorg

We switched to gcc-4.1.1 and glibc-2.4 this week. For upgrading read the GCC Upgrade Guide. When you upgrade Xorg-7, read the Migrating to Modular X HOWTO.

2005-07-31: Next PPC Meeting

Our next general meeting will be held on July 31st, 2005 at 19:00 UTC, in #gentoo-ppc-meeting on freenode. We hold our monthly meetings on the last Sunday of each month. There is an open floor at the end of each meeting. See you there!

2005-05-28: Elections

The PowerPC team had some available positions which were filled uncontested. The structure of the Gentoo/PPC team is now:

Position Developer Nickname
Strategic Lead David Holm dholm
Operational Lead (PPC) Luca Barbato lu_zero
Operational Lead (PPC64) Tom Gall tgall
Release Engineer Liason Lars Weiler Pylon
Security (PPC) Michael Hanselmann hansmi
Security (PPC64) Markus Rothe corsair
Profile Maintainer Daniel Ostrow dostrow
Documentation Lead Joseph Jezak JoseJX

3.  Project Goals

The goal of the Gentoo PowerPC development project is to guarantee that the PowerPC packages built using Gentoo meta-data (ebuilds) are functional and up to date. By continuously testing new packages, maintaining existing packages and providing user support, the Gentoo PowerPC team provides the PowerPC user with a modern distro based on community, performance and freedom. Utilizing Gentoo's meta-data based distribution allows a user to to be as bleeding edge or as conservative as is desired.

Gentoo is unique because all of its supported architectures share the same generic meta-data information (ebuilds) which describe how to build packages. These packages are combined to form the foundation of this distribution. The PowerPC developers are responsible for building and testing ebuilds and marking them as tested (~ppc) or stable (ppc). Our users can use this information, along with the portage application, to build a system that suits their needs, whether it is a stable server or a bleeding edge desktop system.

4.  Developers

Developer Nickname Role
Doug Goldstein cardoe Developer ( Gentoo/PPC )
Tony Vroon chainsaw Developer ( Gentoo/PPC )
Timothy Redaelli drizzt Developer ( Gentoo/PPC )
René Nussbaumer killerfox Developer ( Gentoo/PPC )
Matti Bickel mabi Developer ( Gentoo/PPC )
Krzysiek Pawlik nelchael Developer ( Java )
Steve Arnold nerdboy Developer ( Gentoo/PPC )
Gysbert Wassenaar nixnut Developer ( Gentoo/PPC )
Mounir Lamouri volkmar Developer ( Gentoo/PPC )
Stephanie J. Lockwood-Childs wormo Developer ( Gentoo/PPC )
Tom Gall tgall Operational Manager ( Gentoo/PPC64 )
Joseph Jezak josejx Operational Manager, Documentation Lead ( Gentoo/PPC )
Daniel Ostrow dostrow Profile Maintainer ( Gentoo/PPC )
Pieter van den Abeele pvdabeel Project Founder ( Gentoo/PPC )
Markus Rothe corsair Security ( Gentoo/PPC64 )
Tobias Scherbaum dertobi123 Security ( Gentoo/PPC )
Luca Barbato lu_zero Toolchain ( Gentoo/PPC )

All developers can be reached by e-mail using nickname@gentoo.org.

5.  Subprojects

The Gentoo PPC project has the following subprojects:

Project Lead Description
Xorgautoconfig Joseph Jezak Xorgautoconfig is a tool that automatically generates an X.org configuration file and autodetects common hardware configurations. It is based on Xautoconfig and has been changed to accommodate Gentoo's needs, such as supporting Xorg instead of XFree86. Xorgautoconfig will be used to automatically configure X.org on future PPC LiveCDs.
Gentoo/PPC Arch Testers Joseph Jezak The Gentoo/PPC Arch Testers (AT) program is modeled after the successful Gentoo/AMD64 AT program. ATs are responsible for responding to test requests in a timely manner, including: keywording, security, marking packages stable and requests from developers on IRC. ATs must ensure that the application works, the ebuild contains no obvious errors and that changing the keyword does not break other applications. ATs must keep their system up to date, use reasonable CFLAGS and use the current profile.
Documentation Joseph Jezak Maintenance and enhancement of PPC specific documentation and website.

6.  Herds

The Gentoo PPC project maintains the following herds:

Herd Members Description
ppc cardoe, chainsaw, corsair, dertobi123, dostrow, drizzt, josejx, killerfox, lu_zero, mabi, nelchael, nerdboy, nixnut, pvdabeel, tgall, volkmar, wormo PowerPC porters
ppc64 dostrow, ranger, tgall Gentoo/PPC64 Team

7.  How to Participate

Can you make computers do amazing things? Are you excited about exploring areas of computing never explored before? We are continuously looking for volunteers willing to spend some of their free time on this project.

If you are interested in helping, but don't have a niche that you are interested in filling, you can always look through our bugs. There are always packages that need to be tested, bugs waiting to be found and fixed and enhancements waiting for someone to code them. Feel free to ask the PPC development team on IRC what you can help us with!

for more information on how the PPC team recruits please read our recruitment page.