[OT] Fedora Core 2 on iBook

[Krischan]

Hello=20

I installed Fedora Core 2 on an iBook G3 800MHz during the last couple days=
=2E=20
This is supposed to be a brief report how it went:=20
(Quick answer: it is cool! ;-)


I used an article from Colin Charles (on the OReilly OSDir.com web page:=20
http://osdir.com/Article833.phtml  =E2=80=93 a link posted on the ydl list =
a couple=20
of month or weeks ago) as a reference. I downloaded the boot image from=20
http://fedora.linux.duke.edu/fedorappc/  (about 7 =E2=80=93 8 MB) and follo=
wed the=20
instructions step by step. I did not mirror the tree to an nfs server and=20
used http://fedora.linux.duke.edu/fedorappc/ as network installation source=
=20
instead.

The anaconda installer did a good job and after some clicks the iBook tried=
 a=20
reboot.You have to boot from the boot cd again into the rescue mode (step 1=
4.=20
see article above) by passing yaboot =E2=80=9Cmac rescue=E2=80=9D as the bo=
ot kernel.  Steps=20
up to 19. went well and the system could reboot properly.

Sounds too nice to be true? Yes, the xserver (xorg) was not set up correctl=
y=20
and I had to edit             =E2=80=9C/etc/X11/xorg.conf=E2=80=9D. Add =E2=
=80=9COption "UseFBDev"=E2=80=9D=20
to Section =E2=80=9CDevice=E2=80=9D (see below)
######## shnip#######
Section "Device"
	Identifier  "Videocard0"
	Driver      "radeon"
	VendorName  "Videocard vendor"
	BoardName   "ATI Radeon Mobility 7500"
	Option	    "UseFBDev"     ###### add this if you have an iBook g3=20
EndSection
#######shnapp########

The next thing I noticed was that there was no mouse emulation active. I us=
ed=20
the ydl 3.0.1 scripts =E2=80=9C/etc/init.d/mouse-emulation=E2=80=9D and=20
=E2=80=9C/etc/sysconfig/mouse-emulation=E2=80=9D and activated this service=
 with the cool=20
tool =E2=80=9Csystem-config-services=E2=80=9D. Hint: If you don't like to u=
se the F10 and F11=20
key use =E2=80=9Cshowkey=E2=80=9D and edit =E2=80=9C/etc/sysconfig/mouse-em=
ulation=E2=80=9D. I use the second=20
enter key (besides the right  apple key) as a right mouse click =E2=80=93 w=
orks well!=20

I =E2=80=9Cyumed=E2=80=9D the install and changed =E2=80=9C/etc/yum.conf=E2=
=80=9D to a more recent development=20
tree such as =20
http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/core/development/ppc/
(maybe choose a mirror instead). Yum upgraded the install with the newest=20
stuff such as Mozilla 1.7, OpenOffice 1.1.2, KDE 3.2.2 etc. It also upgrade=
d=20
the kernel (from 2.6.5) to 2.6.8. However: The kernel upgrade was not a goo=
d=20
idea if you want to use k3b (cd burning -> www.k3b.org). Kernel 2.6.8 does=
=20
behave strange cooping with k3b. Normal (non-root) users can't burn cd's =
=E2=80=93=20
don't ask me why. Check the project web page instead, okay ;-)
If you want a more recent kernel then 2.6.5 compile 2.6.7  from surce ->=20
www.kernel.org.=20

There was no support for the power management yet. I downloaded the source=
=20
from pbbuttonsd and compiled these excellent tools (make sure you get=20
gtk-pbbuttons and powerprefs as well from=20
http://pbbuttons.sourceforge.net/ ). First you need to =E2=80=9Cyum install=
 MAKEDEV=E2=80=9D=20
and run MAKEDEV in order to create some missing dev's (=E2=80=9C/dev/pmu=E2=
=80=9D and=20
=E2=80=9C/dev/adb=E2=80=9D). Once again I was happy I had a backup from my =
ydl 3.0.1 install:=20
Copy =E2=80=9C/etc/init.d/pbbuttonsd=E2=80=9D and run =E2=80=9Csystem-confi=
g-services=E2=80=9D. Hint: When=20
you compile pbbuttons from source the config files and the scripts are in=20
=E2=80=9C/usr/etc/power/=E2=80=9D. Just link it to =E2=80=9C/etc/=E2=80=9D.=
 Adjust these scripts to your=20
needs and try if it works.

In my case shutting the display lead to a proper suspend =E2=80=93 however =
resuming=20
did not always work. The system crashed and it took me days to figure out w=
hy=20
it worked sometimes and sometimes it caused a crash. I believe =E2=80=9Caut=
omout=E2=80=9D is=20
evil. Every time automout was running in the background the system crashed.=
=20
automount is supposed to mount the cdrom drive. I switched it off and now=20
pbbuttonsd works perfect.=20

If you want to use the iBook key to change the volume and eject the cdrom=20
drive _and_ get a nice visual feedback use =E2=80=9Cgtkpbbuttons=E2=80=9D. =
I copied=20
=E2=80=9C/etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d/pbbuttons=E2=80=9D from my ydl backup. No=
w gtkpbbuttons=20
starts automatically when my kde desktop comes up.

I also tried to compile mol =E2=80=93 with now success yet.=20

After all this I now know what a great job the people at terrasoft did with=
=20
ydl 3.0.1! Fedora Core may become a good alternative to ydl4. But right now=
=20
it is far away from being a user friendly ppc distribution. But since I don=
't=20
have any Lego anymore it was worth it ;-)
The system runs nice and is faster then my ydl install (maybe just a=20
subjective impression?). However I love it.
So, for all you desperate, who can't wait for ydl4: Go for it! (Don't blame=
 me=20
if anything goes wrong ;-)=20

Krischan Keitsch