diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index dace7f1b..c82ba823 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -8,6 +8,11 @@ SHELL:=bash
 
 OWNER:=jupyter
 # need to list these manually because there's a dependency tree
+ARCH:=$(shell uname -m)
+
+ifeq ($(ARCH),ppc64le)
+ALL_STACKS:=base-notebook 
+else
 ALL_STACKS:=base-notebook \
 	minimal-notebook \
 	r-notebook \
@@ -16,6 +21,7 @@ ALL_STACKS:=base-notebook \
 	datascience-notebook \
 	pyspark-notebook \
 	all-spark-notebook
+endif
 
 ALL_IMAGES:=$(ALL_STACKS)
 
@@ -31,12 +37,22 @@ help:
 	@echo
 	@grep -E '^[a-zA-Z0-9_%/-]+:.*?## .*$$' $(MAKEFILE_LIST) | sort | awk 'BEGIN {FS = ":.*?## "}; {printf "\033[36m%-30s\033[0m %s\n", $$1, $$2}'
 
+arch_patch/%: ## apply hardware architecture specific patches to the Dockerfile
+	if [ -e ./$(notdir $@)/Dockerfile.orig ]; then \
+		cp -f ./$(notdir $@)/Dockerfile.orig ./$(notdir $@)/Dockerfile;\
+	else\
+		cp -f ./$(notdir $@)/Dockerfile ./$(notdir $@)/Dockerfile.orig;\
+	fi;\
+	if [ -e ./$(notdir $@)/Dockerfile.$(ARCH).patch ]; then \
+		patch -f ./$(notdir $@)/Dockerfile ./$(notdir $@)/Dockerfile.$(ARCH).patch; \
+	fi
+
 build/%: DARGS?=
 build/%: ## build the latest image for a stack
 	docker build $(DARGS) --rm --force-rm -t $(OWNER)/$(notdir $@):latest ./$(notdir $@)
 
-build-all: $(ALL_IMAGES:%=build/%) ## build all stacks
-build-test-all: $(foreach I,$(ALL_IMAGES),build/$(I) test/$(I) ) ## build and test all stacks
+build-all: $(foreach I,$(ALL_IMAGES),arch_patch/$(I) build/$(I) ) ## build all stacks
+build-test-all: $(foreach I,$(ALL_IMAGES),arch_patch/$(I) build/$(I) test/$(I) ) ## build and test all stacks
 
 dev/%: ARGS?=
 dev/%: DARGS?=
diff --git a/base-notebook/Dockerfile.ppc64le b/base-notebook/Dockerfile.ppc64le
index 1dd208c9..940483f6 100644
--- a/base-notebook/Dockerfile.ppc64le
+++ b/base-notebook/Dockerfile.ppc64le
@@ -12,41 +12,30 @@ USER root
 # Install all OS dependencies for notebook server that starts but lacks all
 # features (e.g., download as all possible file formats)
 ENV DEBIAN_FRONTEND noninteractive
-RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -yq --no-install-recommends \
-    wget \
-    curl  \
-    bzip2  \
+RUN apt-get update && apt-get -yq dist-upgrade \
+ && apt-get install -yq --no-install-recommends \
+    build-essential \
+    bzip2 \
     ca-certificates \
-    sudo   \
-    locales \
-    git  \
-    bison \
-    byacc  \
-    cpp     \
-    csh \
-    make \
     cmake \
-    zip    \
-    build-essential  \
-    ksh \
-    binutils   \
+    git \
+    locales \
+    sudo \
+    wget \
     && apt-get clean && \
     rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
 
-RUN echo "LANGUAGE=en_US.UTF-8" >> /etc/environment
-RUN echo "LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8" >> /etc/environment
-RUN echo "LC_TYPE=en_US.UTF-8" >> /etc/environment
-RUN locale-gen en_US en_US.UTF-8 hu_HU hu_HU.UTF-8
-RUN dpkg-reconfigure locales
+RUN echo "LANGUAGE=en_US.UTF-8" >> /etc/default/locale
+RUN echo "LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8" >> /etc/default/locale
+RUN echo "LC_TYPE=en_US.UTF-8" >> /etc/default/locale
+RUN locale-gen en_US en_US.UTF-8
 
-
-#build and install Tini
+#build and install Tini for ppc64le
 RUN wget https://github.com/krallin/tini/archive/v0.10.0.tar.gz && \
     tar zxvf v0.10.0.tar.gz && \
     rm -rf v0.10.0.tar.gz
 WORKDIR tini-0.10.0/
 RUN cmake . && make install
-RUN ls -al
 RUN mv ./tini /usr/local/bin/tini  && \
     chmod +x /usr/local/bin/tini
 WORKDIR ..
@@ -77,42 +66,29 @@ RUN mkdir /home/$NB_USER/work && \
 # Install conda as jovyan
 RUN cd /tmp && \
     mkdir -p $CONDA_DIR && \
-    wget https://repo.continuum.io/miniconda/Miniconda3-latest-Linux-ppc64le.sh && \
-    /bin/bash Miniconda3-latest-Linux-ppc64le.sh -f -b -p $CONDA_DIR && \
-    rm Miniconda3-latest-Linux-ppc64le.sh && \
-    $CONDA_DIR/bin/conda install --quiet --yes conda  && \
+    wget https://repo.continuum.io/miniconda/Miniconda3-4.2.12-Linux-ppc64le.sh && \
+    /bin/bash Miniconda3-4.2.12-Linux-ppc64le.sh -f -b -p $CONDA_DIR && \
+    rm -rf Miniconda3-4.2.12-Linux-ppc64le.sh && \
+    $CONDA_DIR/bin/conda install --quiet --yes conda=4.2.12  && \
     $CONDA_DIR/bin/conda config --system --add channels conda-forge && \
-# no such option auto_update_conda on ppc64le 
-#    $CONDA_DIR/bin/conda config --system --set auto_update_conda false && \
+    $CONDA_DIR/bin/conda config --system --set auto_update_conda false && \
     conda clean -tipsy
 
 # Temporary workaround for https://github.com/jupyter/docker-stacks/issues/210
 # Stick with jpeg 8 to avoid problems with R packages
 RUN echo "jpeg 8*" >> /opt/conda/conda-meta/pinned
 
-RUN conda install conda-build && \
-    conda update conda  && \
-    conda update conda-build && \
-    conda install python=3.5
-
 # Install Jupyter notebook as jovyan
-##----------------------------------------------
-RUN pip install --upgrade pip
-RUN pip install notebook
-
-###-----------------------------------------------------------------
-# Install JupyterHub to get the jupyterhub-singleuser startup script
-RUN pip --no-cache-dir install 'jupyterhub==0.5'
-
-# Show the list of installed packages
-RUN conda list
+RUN yes | pip install --upgrade pip
+RUN yes | pip install --quiet --no-cache-dir \
+    'notebook==4.2.*' \
+    jupyterhub==0.7 
 
 USER root
 
 EXPOSE 8888
 WORKDIR /home/$NB_USER/work
 RUN echo "ALL            ALL = (ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL" >> /etc/sudoers
-RUN cat /etc/sudoers
 
 # Configure container startup
 ENTRYPOINT ["tini", "--"]
@@ -122,8 +98,6 @@ CMD ["start-notebook.sh"]
 COPY start.sh /usr/local/bin/
 COPY start-notebook.sh /usr/local/bin/
 COPY start-singleuser.sh /usr/local/bin/
-RUN  chmod 755 /usr/local/bin/start*.sh
-
 COPY jupyter_notebook_config.py /home/$NB_USER/.jupyter/
 RUN chown -R $NB_USER:users /home/$NB_USER/.jupyter
 
diff --git a/base-notebook/Dockerfile.ppc64le.patch b/base-notebook/Dockerfile.ppc64le.patch
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..9edebb55
--- /dev/null
+++ b/base-notebook/Dockerfile.ppc64le.patch
@@ -0,0 +1,103 @@
+--- Dockerfile	2016-12-07 14:36:13.998198003 -0500
++++ Dockerfile.ppc64le	2016-12-07 14:35:24.928197537 -0500
+@@ -1,36 +1,44 @@
+-# Copyright (c) Jupyter Development Team.
+-# Distributed under the terms of the Modified BSD License.
++# Copyright (c) IBM Corporation 2016 
++# Distributed under the terms of the Apache V2 License,
++# https://opensource.org/licenses/Apache-2.0 
+ 
+-# Debian Jessie image released 2016 May 03.
+-FROM debian@sha256:32a225e412babcd54c0ea777846183c61003d125278882873fb2bc97f9057c51
++# Ubuntu image 
++FROM ppc64le/ubuntu:trusty
+ 
+-MAINTAINER Jupyter Project <jupyter@googlegroups.com>
++MAINTAINER Ilsiyar Gaynutdinov <ilsiyar_gaynutdinov@ru.ibm.com>
+ 
+ USER root
+ 
+ # Install all OS dependencies for notebook server that starts but lacks all
+ # features (e.g., download as all possible file formats)
+ ENV DEBIAN_FRONTEND noninteractive
+-RUN REPO=http://cdn-fastly.deb.debian.org \
+- && echo "deb $REPO/debian jessie main\ndeb $REPO/debian-security jessie/updates main" > /etc/apt/sources.list \
+- && apt-get update && apt-get -yq dist-upgrade \
++RUN apt-get update && apt-get -yq dist-upgrade \
+  && apt-get install -yq --no-install-recommends \
+-    wget \
++    build-essential \
+     bzip2 \
+     ca-certificates \
+-    sudo \
++    cmake \
++    git \
+     locales \
+- && apt-get clean \
+- && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
+-
+-RUN echo "en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8" > /etc/locale.gen && \
+-    locale-gen
++    sudo \
++    wget \
++    && apt-get clean && \
++    rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
+ 
+-# Install Tini
+-RUN wget --quiet https://github.com/krallin/tini/releases/download/v0.10.0/tini && \
+-    echo "1361527f39190a7338a0b434bd8c88ff7233ce7b9a4876f3315c22fce7eca1b0 *tini" | sha256sum -c - && \
+-    mv tini /usr/local/bin/tini && \
++RUN echo "LANGUAGE=en_US.UTF-8" >> /etc/default/locale
++RUN echo "LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8" >> /etc/default/locale
++RUN echo "LC_TYPE=en_US.UTF-8" >> /etc/default/locale
++RUN locale-gen en_US en_US.UTF-8
++
++#build and install Tini for ppc64le
++RUN wget https://github.com/krallin/tini/archive/v0.10.0.tar.gz && \
++    tar zxvf v0.10.0.tar.gz && \
++    rm -rf v0.10.0.tar.gz
++WORKDIR tini-0.10.0/
++RUN cmake . && make install
++RUN mv ./tini /usr/local/bin/tini  && \
+     chmod +x /usr/local/bin/tini
++WORKDIR ..
+ 
+ # Configure environment
+ ENV CONDA_DIR /opt/conda
+@@ -58,11 +66,10 @@
+ # Install conda as jovyan
+ RUN cd /tmp && \
+     mkdir -p $CONDA_DIR && \
+-    wget --quiet https://repo.continuum.io/miniconda/Miniconda3-4.1.11-Linux-x86_64.sh && \
+-    echo "efd6a9362fc6b4085f599a881d20e57de628da8c1a898c08ec82874f3bad41bf *Miniconda3-4.1.11-Linux-x86_64.sh" | sha256sum -c - && \
+-    /bin/bash Miniconda3-4.1.11-Linux-x86_64.sh -f -b -p $CONDA_DIR && \
+-    rm Miniconda3-4.1.11-Linux-x86_64.sh && \
+-    $CONDA_DIR/bin/conda install --quiet --yes conda==4.1.11 && \
++    wget https://repo.continuum.io/miniconda/Miniconda3-4.2.12-Linux-ppc64le.sh && \
++    /bin/bash Miniconda3-4.2.12-Linux-ppc64le.sh -f -b -p $CONDA_DIR && \
++    rm -rf Miniconda3-4.2.12-Linux-ppc64le.sh && \
++    $CONDA_DIR/bin/conda install --quiet --yes conda=4.2.12  && \
+     $CONDA_DIR/bin/conda config --system --add channels conda-forge && \
+     $CONDA_DIR/bin/conda config --system --set auto_update_conda false && \
+     conda clean -tipsy
+@@ -72,15 +79,16 @@
+ RUN echo "jpeg 8*" >> /opt/conda/conda-meta/pinned
+ 
+ # Install Jupyter notebook as jovyan
+-RUN conda install --quiet --yes \
+-    'notebook=4.2*' \
+-    jupyterhub=0.7 \
+-    && conda clean -tipsy
++RUN yes | pip install --upgrade pip
++RUN yes | pip install --quiet --no-cache-dir \
++    'notebook==4.2.*' \
++    jupyterhub==0.7 
+ 
+ USER root
+ 
+ EXPOSE 8888
+ WORKDIR /home/$NB_USER/work
++RUN echo "ALL            ALL = (ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL" >> /etc/sudoers
+ 
+ # Configure container startup
+ ENTRYPOINT ["tini", "--"]