Failure to Install minimals on iBook G3

Robert Blackstone

19 Oct 2010 19 Oct '10

10:27 a.m.

Hello, I tried in vain to install the minimals on an old (2003) but still functional iBook G3, running under OSX 10.4.11. After having received some 4MB, I get the message: "dyld: incompatible cpu-subtype" plus a reference to line 103 of first-setup.sh. Does anybody on this list know what could be done about this. Btw, this iBook can handle TeX and ConTeXt. I installed MacTeX 2009 and everything works. But I would prefer the minimals. Thanks in advance. Robert Blackstone

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Arthur Reutenauer

19 Oct 19 Oct

10:44 a.m.

Hello Robert, On Tue, Oct 19, 2010 at 06:27:44PM +0200, Robert Blackstone wrote:

...

I tried in vain to install the minimals on an old (2003) but still functional iBook G3, running under OSX 10.4.11. After having received some 4MB, I get the message: "dyld: incompatible cpu-subtype" plus a reference to line 103 of first-setup.sh.

This is a binary compatibility problem: the LuaTeX executable for Macs running on PowerPC processors are built on an Intel Mac using a cross-compilation technique. I'm afraid nothing can be done at the moment.

...

Does anybody on this list know what could be done about this. Btw, this iBook can handle TeX and ConTeXt. I installed MacTeX 2009 and everything works. But I would prefer the minimals.

Yes, for MacTeX (actually TeX Live) the binaries are built on a actual G3. But we can't use TeX Live binaries in the Minimals because we need a more recent LuaTeX. Arthur

Mojca Miklavec

10:58 a.m.

On Tue, Oct 19, 2010 at 18:44, Arthur Reutenauer wrote:

...

Hello Robert,

On Tue, Oct 19, 2010 at 06:27:44PM +0200, Robert Blackstone wrote:

...
I tried in vain to install the minimals on an old (2003) but still functional iBook G3, running under OSX 10.4.11. After having received some 4MB, I get the message: "dyld: incompatible cpu-subtype" plus a reference to line 103 of first-setup.sh.

This is a binary compatibility problem: the LuaTeX executable for Macs running on PowerPC processors are built on an Intel Mac using a cross-compilation technique. I'm afraid nothing can be done at the moment.

The "nothing can be done" is not entirely true. We should still be able to compile a new binary on an older machine (yours, for example), it only makes it very clumsy to compile on several machines. However, in one way this is a bit weird. We have a non-neglegible number of PPC users of minimals and nobody has complained about that problem so far, so nobody was even aware of the problem. Back in May we had a complaint from Tiger users (on Intel) that we were able to solve after two days of debugging. So ... there is a hope to fix this, but only after quite some debugging, if anyone is ready to do the debugging. But the other side of the coin is that ... Mac OS X Lion is approaching with inevitable speed. Once that one is out and installed on our machines, we'll have serious problems anyway since 10.7 won't allow cross-compilation for Tiger. And the number of Tiger users is not neglegible at all ... As far as TeX Live is concerned, the binaries for PPC are compiled on Panther. Mojca

Martin Schröder

2:35 p.m.

2010/10/19 Mojca Miklavec :

...

allow cross-compilation for Tiger. And the number of Tiger users is not neglegible at all ...

Maybe you should ask for donations to get a Tiger PPC build machine for the minimals? Best Martin

Henning Hraban Ramm

3 p.m.

Am 2010-10-19 um 22:35 schrieb Martin Schröder:

...

2010/10/19 Mojca Miklavec :

...
allow cross-compilation for Tiger. And the number of Tiger users is not neglegible at all ...

Maybe you should ask for donations to get a Tiger PPC build machine for the minimals?

I can donate a G4/400, it's just sitting idle under my desk anyway. Greetlings from Lake Constance! Hraban --- http://www.fiee.net/texnique/ http://wiki.contextgarden.net https://www.cacert.org (I'm an assurer)

Henning Hraban Ramm

2:59 p.m.

I've still my old G3 iBook running 10.4.11 and could compile PPC binaries on that - but not very regularly, i.e. you would have to remind me if new binaries are needed, and it may last a few days, since the iBook is normally stowed away. I just try the compilation, I guess it'll need some hours on that machine... Greetlings from Lake Constance! Hraban --- http://www.fiee.net/texnique/ http://wiki.contextgarden.net https://www.cacert.org (I'm an assurer)

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Arthur Reutenauer
Henning Hraban Ramm
Henning Hraban Ramm
Martin Schröder
Mojca Miklavec
Robert Blackstone