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

ibook

i only saw mac os once and for 10'' since i already started installing linux. gentoo of course :) so here are the short steps:

ibook

  1. boot with the gentoo install cd for ppc

  2. re-partition the disk with mac-fdisk

    /dev/hda1: Apple_partition_map /dev/hda2: Apple_bootstrap /dev/hda3: swap /dev/hda4: root filesystem

  3. create the filesystems

    mkfs.ext3 /dev/hda4 mkswap /dev/hda3 swapon /dev/hda3

    mount /dev/hda4 /mnt/gentoo

  4. 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"

  5. 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

  6. update portage

    emerge --sync

  7. download and compile kernel (gentoo-sources) 9. configure fstab

    /dev/hda4 / ext3 noatime 0 1 /dev/hda3 none swap sw 0 0

  8. 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

  9. 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 :)

ibook