Re: Request to introduce support for ppc64el in LTS

[Aurelien Jarno <aurel32@debian.org>]

Hi,

On 2026-01-12 19:51, Emilio Pozuelo Monfort wrote:
> On 28/11/2025 17:46, Santiago Ruano Rincón wrote:
> > Dear Debian fellows,
> > 
> > You may be aware that there is user interest in adding ppc64el to the
> > supported architecture set for Debian LTS. I am actually answering one
> > of the mails sent to the debian-lts mailing list about that. I would
> > like to ask then: is it OK for you to add ppc64el as an LTS architecture
> > starting with bookworm?
> > 
> > I understand there are/were some concerns regarding the hosting of
> > related POWER machines. Does that still stand? Is there anything
> > resource-wise that could help here?
> 
> In principle, ppc64el will be supported in Debian forky [1], so the buildds
> will stay. If that is the case, I think it should be little overhead to add
> it for bookworm LTS. There will be some extra space requirement on the
> (security) archive, but hopefully that's not a blocker.

Please note that Bookworm LTS != "ppc64el as an LTS architecture 
starting with Bookworm", which from my understanding implies Trixie LTS 
and possibly more.

> Cheers,
> Emilio
> 
> [1] unless something happens before the release, e.g. DSA concerns with the
> hardware, RC bugs in core components...

DSA definitely have concerns with the hardware, as we have it on loan 
from IBM for a one year term, and we rely on our hosters to renew the 
contract every year with IBM.

We got offers to get non-IBM provided hardware, but at this stage we 
haven't been able to secure the hosting for it. Therefore it's difficult 
to provide an answer about ppc64el as an LTS architecture.

Regards
Aurelien

-- 
Aurelien Jarno                          GPG: 4096R/1DDD8C9B
aurelien@aurel32.net                     http://aurel32.net