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alyssais merged 2 commits into from
Jun 10, 2026
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linux: Adjust config to allow booting of installer ISO on ppc64 #486572

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e07ad9d
linux: Build-in HFS+ support on POWER
OPNA2608 Feb 3, 2026
48d00af
linux: Build-in IDE & MacIO support on POWER
OPNA2608 Feb 8, 2026
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10 changes: 10 additions & 0 deletions pkgs/os-specific/linux/kernel/common-config.nix
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Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -786,6 +786,10 @@ let
DEVTMPFS = yes;

UNICODE = yes; # Casefolding support for filesystems
}
// lib.optionalAttrs stdenv.hostPlatform.isPower {

@alyssais alyssais May 31, 2026

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Does 64-bit POWER also need this?

@OPNA2608 OPNA2608 May 31, 2026 •
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I only have 64-bit POWER hardware, and isPower is included under that.

Did you mean specifically the built-in HFS support, since the line right below it also builds-in HFS+ support?

@OPNA2608 OPNA2608 May 31, 2026

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Let me expand on that I guess…

For booting, there needs to be a HFS+ (or apparently HFS) partition with some special magic applied to it. #488831 would end up using HFS+ for our ISOs, but I don't yet know what would happen if you were to install a system to disk and boot from that. I imagine these settings would still be necessary there though.

Now AFAIU, booting from HFS should work the same way, and would presumably run into the same requirement. I'm not sure if xorriso can produce such an installer, and I have no real reason to mess with that since my G5 supports HFS+. My machine is also busy with a world rebuild right now, so doing any testing there is gonna take some days…

When it comes to booting an installed system though, the user will be taking care of the partition format, and they could maybe select HFS there. I got a spare disk for my machine recently, so I could give that a try some time… I think actually installing NixOS will need further module changes first though, and I would prolly work on those with HFS+ as the intended boot partition format before trying with HFS.

Can drop HFS_FS for now and re-add it later if desired - doesn't look like it's a requirement for HFSPLUS_FS.

@OPNA2608 OPNA2608 Jun 1, 2026

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Dropped HFS_FS for now, assuming that's what the comment was about.

@alyssais alyssais Jun 2, 2026

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No, I just meant I thought maybe this should be a Power32 check, because I thought Apple only used 32-bit. Evidently I was wrong!

@OPNA2608 OPNA2608 Jun 2, 2026

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Well… I'll prolly still leave HFS_FS dropped for now, until I can actually try that out much later and see how it behaves ^^".

I thought Apple only used 32-bit.

The last series of POWER systems that they released, the G5 series (2003 - 2006), had 64-bit IBM PPC970 CPU(s) in them: PowerMac G5 desktop, iMac G5 AIO, Xserve G5 rack server.

# Needed to use the installation iso image formatted for tbxi booting (ISO9660 w/ hybrid HFS+ partition).
HFSPLUS_FS = yes;
};

security = {
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -1611,6 +1615,12 @@ let
# > round to working out why. The workaround is to build it in[…].
# > (It won't do any harm on non-Mac systems.)
I2C_POWERMAC = yes;
}
// lib.optionalAttrs stdenv.hostPlatform.isPower {
# Needed for booting PowerMacs from disc
# (the only nice way that doesn't involve messing around with internal drives or in Open Firmware)
ATA = yes;
PATA_MACIO = yes;
};

accel = {
Expand Down
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