Date: Thu, 11 Dec 2003 14:57:40 -0500 From: Barry Hawkins <ly5t5@allthingscomputed.com> To: FreeBSD PowerPC <freebsd-ppc@freebsd.org> Subject: FreeBSD on an nVidia-based PowerBook G4 17" 1GHz Message-ID: <46789A62-2C14-11D8-890E-000A95A0485E@allthingscomputed.com>
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List, Hello. I have used FreeBSD on a x86 box I have at home and have been very pleased with it. My primary machine is a 17" PowerBook G4 1GHz - the one with the nVidia card. I have just spent the better part of my time away from work for two weeks trying to get a decent Debian installation on my PowerBook only to learn that the particular hardware components of this laptop don't bear much hope for running it. When I saw the traffic start to pick up on this list, I thought I would ask about trying FreeBSD on my PowerBook. I must say that the initial install sounds daunting, but if I would be able to contribute to the effort by trying installs and documenting results or anything, I'd love to help out. On PCs I have usually installed from ISOs that I get with my subscription at FreeBSD mall. 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. The Problem Issues with a 1GHz 17" PowerBook G4 -The 100MHz bus -The 1MB L3 cache -The nVidia GeForce Go 440 card -The Airport Extreme wireless card (Broadcom chipset) -The USB software modem 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? Regards, -- Barry C. Hawkins All Things Computed site: www.allthingscomputed.com weblog: www.yepthatsme.com
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