From owner-freebsd-ppc@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Feb 2 20:06:05 2011 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-ppc@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0AD711065675 for ; Wed, 2 Feb 2011 20:06:05 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from nwhitehorn@banshee.munuc.org) Received: from banshee.munuc.org (unknown [IPv6:2001:4978:11f:d600::d610]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id CC4058FC0C for ; Wed, 2 Feb 2011 20:06:04 +0000 (UTC) Received: from nwhitehorn (helo=localhost) by banshee.munuc.org with local-esmtp (Exim 4.72 (FreeBSD)) (envelope-from ) id 1Pkixn-000AIi-J5; Wed, 02 Feb 2011 14:06:03 -0600 Date: Wed, 2 Feb 2011 14:06:03 -0600 (CST) From: Nathan Whitehorn X-X-Sender: nwhitehorn@banshee.munuc.org To: Michael Dinon In-Reply-To: Message-ID: References: User-Agent: Alpine 2.00 (BSF 1167 2008-08-23) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed Sender: Nathan Whitehorn X-SA-Exim-Connect-IP: X-SA-Exim-Mail-From: nwhitehorn@banshee.munuc.org X-SA-Exim-Scanned: No (on banshee.munuc.org); SAEximRunCond expanded to false Cc: freebsd-ppc@freebsd.org Subject: Re: FreeBSD on ibook G4 circa 2004 X-BeenThere: freebsd-ppc@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Porting FreeBSD to the PowerPC List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 02 Feb 2011 20:06:05 -0000 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