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ppc (aka PowerPC, PPC64, PowerISA)

Processor compatibility

The ppc architecture was introduced by an Apple-IBM-Motorola alliance in 1991 and has 64-bit support since 1997. PowerPC CPUs can operate in two modes: big-endian and little-endian.

  • The ppc and ppc64 stages are big-endian stages and can be used with any PowerPC CPU, including some old Apple™ hardware.
  • The ppc64le stages are little-endian stages and are created for running on POWER8 and newer CPUs.
  • The power9le stages are little-endian stages optimized exclusively for POWER9 CPUs.

Downloads

Gentoo Handbook Please see the Gentoo Handbook for the complete installation documentation. It explains which files you need at what stage of the installation process. In brief,
  • Boot media allow you to boot from, e.g., an USB stick or CD and install Gentoo using a Stage.
  • A Stage (previously called Stage 3) is a minimal set of Gentoo binaries to build a system in any way possible.
  • Containers and Images provide a ready-to-use Gentoo system, e.g. for cloud or virtual machine usage.
  • All release files are signed with an official OpenPGP key and distributed via world-wide download mirrors.

Boot media

Minimal Installation CD

PPC/PPC64 Minimal Installation CD 2026-01-15 PPC64LE Minimal Installation CD
Minimal Installation CD

This is a small bootable ISO image that can be burned on CD or written onto USB sticks. It contains system administration tools (for installing Gentoo), but no automated installer and no compilers or graphical environment. Use the handbook!

Stages (advanced)

Hardened / musl stage archives

PPC stage musl | openrc 2026-01-15 PPC stage musl | systemd PPC64 stage musl | openrc PPC64 stage musl | systemd PPC64LE stage musl | openrc 2026-02-18 PPC64LE stage musl | systemd PPC64LE stage musl | openrc | power9 2026-02-18 PPC64LE stage musl | systemd | power9
musl stages

For additional information on using musl based Gentoo systems, please see the musl usage guide. Note that users of musl stages will need to be comfortable filing bug reports and sometimes providing patches.

time64 stage archives

PPC stage t64 | openrc 2026-02-12 PPC stage t64 | systemd 2026-01-29
Experimental time64 stages

The time64 stages of 32-bit glibc architectures are using 64-bit time values to be year-2038 proof (details). This will become the default for Gentoo in the near future, and if you make a new 32-bit Gentoo installation and are feeling a bit experimental, we recommend using these stages already.
Switching over an existing installation from 32-bit time values to 64-bit time values is possible but not entirely trivial; instructions including helper software will be published soon. This applies to glibc only; musl has already switched to 64-bit time values in 2020.