EN_Install_UbuntuSrv14.04_LTS_PPC64_EmuGUI
Ubuntu 14.04 is an LTS release made and released by Canonical in April 2014. Its normal support ended in April 2019, so don't expect to do certain things. Anyway, here we are going to install Ubuntu Server for PowerPC64 on QEMU with EmuGUI.
- In testing, the operating system was bricked by applying updates. Please, don't update this system under any circumstances.
- For this architecture, Ubuntu Server is the only variant of Ubuntu to be available, but it only comes with a terminal. You might be able to install a desktop environment, however, this has not been tested and assuming that you get it working, even Xfce would be very slow unless you can use KVM on real PowerPC64 hardware.
- The BIOS will recognize your keyboard as the US one, which is not changable by Ubuntu.
Screenshot made by Nicolas Lucien/lucien-rowan, CC BY-4.0 applies. Picture is at: https://codeberg.org/lucien-rowan/EmuGUI-Pictures/src/branch/main/pics
- You will need QEMU and EmuGUI to follow this tutorial. An installation tutorial for Windows is here. For Linux hosts, a tutorial will follow.
- You also need the ISO file for Ubuntu Server 14.04 LTS on PowerPC64 little-endian.
- You are going to need a few hours, depending on your machine.
With EmuGUI opened, check if it can use qemu-img and qemu-system-ppc64. If not, please select the binaries in question. Then, click on "New virtual machine" and select the following:
- Name: (your-name-here)
- Architecture: ppc64
- Machine: Let QEMU decide
- CPU: Let QEMU decide
- RAM: at least 2 GB, 4 GB and more are recommended
- VHD: Create a new VHD, qcow2 format, at least 20 GB (to install some programs, 40 GB and more are recommended)
- VGA: Let QEMU decide
- Network: e1000
- Mouse: PS/2 Mouse
- Sound card: none
- CPU cores: at least 1 core
- Keyboard: PS/2 Keyboard
- USB support can be added (usb-ehci)
- Additional arguments (for VMs with at least 2 cores):
-accel tcg,thread=multi
You can then click on "Finish" and wait up to 10 seconds for the machine to pop up.
Please select your newly created VM and click on "Start virtual machine". Here, select your Ubuntu 14.04 ISO file, boot from d and set the time to your current one. After that, QEMU should popup and a bootloader should appear. From there, navigate to "Install" and press Enter.
You should arrive at a DOS-interfaced installer. From here:
- Select your desired language (Description will be in English).
- Navigate to your country. If it isn't listed, go to other, then select your continent and here, you will be able to select your country. If your country isn't listed, it means that it didn't exist at the time this system was released - in that case, select a random one.
- If you set a language not spoken in the selected country, you may have to choose another country for the locale settings.
- Select the US keyboard layout when prompted - if you used the "-kbd (your-locale-here)" argument, you can try your desired one.
- Please type in your hostname.
- Then, you will be asked for your name.
- A username for the login will be suggested.
- You must set a password unless you decided to abort the installation.
- Don't encrypt your home directory.
- Correct your time zone if necessary.
- Use the guided partitioning method.
- Select the hard drive suggested by the installer.
- When prompted, please confirm the changes.
- It will take a while to install the base system. Please be patient.
- After a long time, you will be asked for a proxy. Unless you need one, you can leave it empty.
- Do not allow your system to install any updates by itself - otherwise, it is going to brick.
- After another long wait, select "Yes" to use the UTC.
- It won't take too long anymore until the installation is complete. Press "Continue" when you are prompted to do so.
Even though Ubuntu wanted to restart, it ended your session entirely. To use your newly installed system, select your VM again and click on "Start virtual machine", but don't put in your ISO file. Also, boot from c instead. After a few minutes, you will then be greeted with the login screen - type in your username (not the full name) and then your password. As long as the system doesn't get in contact with any updates, you can now do whatever you want with your virtual machine.