PowerBook and Yellow Dog Linux

[Tim Seufert]

On Dec 27, 2003, at 9:45 PM, David George Hogg wrote:

> Oh and sorry for the grammar mistake =96 its 5 in the morning.

Don't worry about it.

I don't recommend buying a 5300 or 1400.  Neither of them is well=20
supported by Linux.  You can get it working but it involves installing=20=

a special kernel for NuBus Macs.  Last I heard, even then you won't=20
have support for essential things like PCMCIA.

Either of the first generation PCI PowerBooks (2400, 3400) is a decent=20=

minimum YDL machine.  The 2400 can be difficult to install on though,=20
since it lacks a CD-ROM.  It's possible to install from an external=20
SCSI CD-ROM, but not all SCSI CD-ROMs can be used to boot the 2400.

For best results, consider a Wall Street or later machine.  They're=20
much faster due to the G3 CPU (especially if you make sure to get one=20
of the models with L2 cache -- some early 233 MHz Wall Streets had no=20
L2).  Also, they have much better memory expansion than earlier=20
PowerBooks, and memory is cheaper and more available since they use=20
SDRAM SODIMMs.  The 2400 only goes up to 80MB, or 112MB with special=20
expensive modules.  That's a huge limitation.  3400 is a little better,=20=

but not much.  I can tell you that my 80MB 2400 runs out of gas running=20=

any kind of modern desktop environment -- they're just not designed to=20=

run on low memory computers.

Oh, and if you're planning on using the machine on battery power, be=20
prepared to spend $100 - $200 on a working battery.  Batteries are=20
almost always dead on used notebooks more than a year or two old.