Date: Wed, 2 Feb 2011 14:06:03 -0600 (CST) From: Nathan Whitehorn <nwhitehorn@freebsd.org> To: Michael Dinon <mdinon@gmail.com> Cc: freebsd-ppc@freebsd.org Subject: Re: FreeBSD on ibook G4 circa 2004 Message-ID: <alpine.BSF.2.00.1102021404070.35663@banshee.munuc.org> In-Reply-To: <AANLkTinSGgz=6NgfDnsSLo_rwX4LOi6Xf5yX5EJG1n7g@mail.gmail.com> References: <AANLkTinSGgz=6NgfDnsSLo_rwX4LOi6Xf5yX5EJG1n7g@mail.gmail.com>
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On Wed, 2 Feb 2011, Michael Dinon wrote: > Hello, > > I am looking for viable alternatives to keep an old ibook I have running > relevant software. I have in the past used Debian and various other Linux > distros but support for PPC seems to be becomes less and less viable. I had > looked previously at the BSD's as an option for PPC and found various > information although somewhat limited. I am curious how well supported is > PPC by FreeBSD, is there anyone on this list running similar hardware and > using FreeBSD on as a laptop as opposed to server duty? I know the Broadcom > Airport Extreme card is not well supported by most opensource OS's. When > looking at some of the FreeBSD info on PPC I saw that at one point certain > keyboards and trackpads were not supported which required USB keyboards, is > that still true? I also stumbled on a new installer bsdinstall, has anyone > used this on similar hardware? Also does one need to keep an hfs partition > still? I seem to remember Linux required an hfs partition, not sure if that > is true of the BSD. I don't plan on needing OSX. Anyway thank you in > advance for any help or suggestions. Hi Michael -- I'm typing you this message over wireless on a 1.4 Ghz G4 iBook in FreeBSD, so it works pretty nicely. The wireless driver (bwn) has some kind of issue with the antenna gain, so I need to be closer to the AP than in OS X, but otherwise the system works quite well. All hardware is supported except the internal modem. -Nathan
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