i wanted a small (12'' at most) and lightweight laptop. my old one (an hp) had some issues with its monitor so i decided to use it as a desktop pc with external tft, keyboard and mouse. besides that it weights 3.70kgs!
i didn't want to spent much money so i searched around ebay for a nice offer. i found some vaios and a cool toshiba tablet, but after some unsuccessful bids i decided to search for a mac! so now i have a ibook g4 :) it arrived just yesterday after paying 70€ to greek customs (aggrrr).
processor: powerpc ram: 768MB hard drive: 30GB screen size: 11.8'' wireless net: broadcom 4320
i only saw mac os once and for 10'' since i already started installing linux. gentoo of course :) so here are the short steps:
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boot with the gentoo install cd for ppc
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re-partition the disk with mac-fdisk
/dev/hda1: Apple_partition_map /dev/hda2: Apple_bootstrap /dev/hda3: swap /dev/hda4: root filesystem
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create the filesystems
mkfs.ext3 /dev/hda4 mkswap /dev/hda3 swapon /dev/hda3
mount /dev/hda4 /mnt/gentoo
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download and install stage3 and portage 5. set the compile options at make.conf
CHOST="powerpc-unknown-linux-gnu" CFLAGS="-O2 -mcpu=7450 -mtune=G4 -maltivec -mabi=altivec \ -fno-strict-aliasing -pipe -mpowerpc-gfxopt -fomit-frame-pointer" CXXFLAGS="${CFLAGS} -fpermissive"
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mount proc and dev and chroot
mount -t proc none /mnt/gentoo/proc mount -o bind /dev /mnt/gentoo/dev chroot /mnt/gentoo /bin/bash env-update source /etc/profile
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update portage
emerge --sync
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download and compile kernel (gentoo-sources) 9. configure fstab
/dev/hda4 / ext3 noatime 0 1 /dev/hda3 none swap sw 0 0
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install the bootlader yaboot
exit mount -o bind /dev /mnt/gentoo/dev mount -o bind /sys /mnt/gentoo/sys chroot /mnt/gentoo /bin/bash /usr/sbin/env-update && source /etc/profile
emerge yaboot exit
yabootconfig --chroot /mnt/gentoo
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reboot
exit umount /mnt/gentoo/proc /mnt/gentoo/dev /mnt/gentoo/sys /mnt/gentoo reboot
wireless worked with the bcm43xx module and soundcard with snd_powermac. i still have to fix: suspend and 3button mouse emulation, but i guess they won't take me long :)
