Bug#523035: libvlccore0: VLC shuts down with "Illegal Instruction" warning opening any media

[Reinhard Tartler]

severity 523035 important
retitle 523035 vlc does not run on G3 Macs
stop

Gunther Furtado <gunfurtado at gmail.com> writes:
> That is an iMac G3 333MHz. I don't realy know about altivec.

okay, then the issue is clear. libvlccore0 contains altivec code, which
cannot be executed on G3 macs.

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altivec

AltiVec is a floating point and integer SIMD instruction set designed
and owned by Apple, IBM and Freescale Semiconductor, formerly the
Semiconductor Products Sector of Motorola, (the AIM alliance), and
implemented on versions of the PowerPC including Motorola's G4, IBM's G5
and POWER6 processors, and P.A. Semi's PWRficient PA6T. AltiVec is a
tradename owned solely by Freescale, so the system is also referred to
as Velocity Engine by Apple and VMX by IBM and P.A. Semi, although IBM
has recently begun using AltiVec as well.


In ffmpeg, we solve this problem by building the libraries twice on
powerpc: a generic one in /usr/lib for G3 macs, and an altivec enabled
on in /usr/lib/altivec. I think we need to do the same in vlc :-(

-- 
Gruesse/greetings,
Reinhard Tartler, KeyID 945348A4