[clug] Linux on Powerbook 15"

[Andrew Pollock]

On Fri, Aug 13, 2004 at 04:26:43PM +1000, Neill Cox wrote:
> I have a new toy, a 15" Powerbook.  It's real purdy, but I won't feel 
> like a proper geek until it's running linux.
> 
> I've reserved some space and downloaded the first ISO for debian_ppc 
> 3.0r2 from AARNET, but the machine won't boot from the resulting cd.
> 
> I've found a source for weekly builds of debian_ppc testing and have 
> started to download the first ISO, but I don't know if this will work 
> either.
> 
> Does anyone have experience on getting linux working on this hardware?  
> Does anyone already have a set of debian_ppc disks that I could get a 
> copy of? I would prefer debian, but will consider other distributions.

Don't bother trying to install Woody. Test the new installer[1] and install
Sarge. I've got a 15" PowerBook, and I've managed to get Sarge installed,
but I was most disappointed to discover that the AirPort Extreme card is not
supported by Linux, and apparently unlikely to ever be. The thought of
having to resort to a PCMCIA wireless card which stuck out of the purdy
laptop was too gross for me to contemplate, so I've stuck with MacOS X for
the time being :-( I didn't get to the point of trying to get X working, so
I'm unsure of what hoops you have to jump through in that respect.

regards

Andrew

[1] http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/