From owner-freebsd-ppc@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Dec 12 06:27:38 2003 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-ppc@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 85C6F16A4CE; Fri, 12 Dec 2003 06:27:38 -0800 (PST) Received: from selene.hmdnsgroup.com (selene.hmdnsgroup.com [63.247.134.231]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1FBF743D1F; Fri, 12 Dec 2003 06:27:36 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from ly5t5@allthingscomputed.com) Received: from dialup-67.30.254.17.dial1.atlanta1.level3.net ([67.30.254.17]) by selene.hmdnsgroup.com with asmtp (Exim 4.24) id 1AUoGQ-0007Xb-HF; Fri, 12 Dec 2003 09:27:31 -0500 In-Reply-To: <3FD956C9.1040002@freebsd.org> References: <46789A62-2C14-11D8-890E-000A95A0485E@allthingscomputed.com> <3FD956C9.1040002@freebsd.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v606) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed Message-Id: <51187461-2CAF-11D8-8C7F-000A95A0485E@allthingscomputed.com> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit From: Barry Hawkins Date: Fri, 12 Dec 2003 09:27:29 -0500 To: Peter Grehan X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.606) X-AntiAbuse: This header was added to track abuse, please include it with any abuse report X-AntiAbuse: Primary Hostname - selene.hmdnsgroup.com X-AntiAbuse: Original Domain - freebsd.org X-AntiAbuse: Originator/Caller UID/GID - [0 0] / [47 12] X-AntiAbuse: Sender Address Domain - allthingscomputed.com cc: FreeBSD PowerPC Subject: Re: FreeBSD on an nVidia-based PowerBook G4 17" 1GHz X-BeenThere: freebsd-ppc@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Porting FreeBSD to the PowerPC List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 12 Dec 2003 14:27:38 -0000 On Dec 12, 2003, at 12:48 AM, Peter Grehan wrote: > Hi Barry, > >> I will list the items about this particular PowerBook model that >> are problematic for Debian, or more specifically, the Ben H. Linux >> kernel, and if anyone sees something that shouts "waste of time", >> please let me know. > > Ben H is a pretty sharp guy, I doubt very much that we'd have > solved problems that he hasn't. > >> The Problem Issues with a 1GHz 17" PowerBook G4 >> -The 100MHz bus >> -The 1MB L3 cache > > Not sure why these would be a problem: perhaps some tricky timing > issues. > >> -The nVidia GeForce Go 440 card >> -The Airport Extreme wireless card (Broadcom chipset) >> -The USB software modem > > No go for any of these, except as mentioned by Peter Hessler that > XFree will support the NVidia card soon. But, FreeBSD/PPC doesn't > have XFree yet, hopefully soon. > >> Thanks in advance for your time. I noticed that there was a >> binary FreeBSD driver on nVidia's website for my particular card. >> That shocked me. Is there some reason that nVidia would come up with >> a FreeBSD binary and not a Linux one? > > The FreeBSD/i386 Nvidia driver is relatively recent: there's no PPC > one. A Linux/i386 driver has been available from Nvidia for a long > time. > > later, > > Peter. > Peter, Yeah, Ben is great. He amazes me. He actually gave me the tip to pass the "nol3" directive to the kernel to get it to even boot up. He mentioned that the L3 cache was problematic. Funny thing is that if you go look at the current model for the 17", they have gone back to the 512K SRAM L2 cache. This unit has eBay written all over it more and more with each passing day. Sorry for not checking that the FreeBSD driver was i386 only; I should have known. :^) Regards, -- Barry C. Hawkins All Things Computed site: www.allthingscomputed.com weblog: www.yepthatsme.com