my new laptop

December 1st, 2007 at 00:04 (libre) · short url

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"

6. 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

7. update portage

emerge --sync

8. download and compile kernel (gentoo-sources)

9. configure fstab

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

10. 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

11. 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 :)

linux on apple

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