Computing /

FedoraCore4PowerPC

Running Linux on a PowerPC computer (like Apple Macs) is not an easy choice... especially on a laptop some effort is required to actually get all the functionalities. Also, considered that OsX allows you to run most of the stuff that you can find in Linux, it might be hard to justify. Unless you consider it kind of an hobby...

Even worse, I've chosen Fedora Core 4 - because it is the distribution that I used most on PCs. But Fedora Core 4 was the first release to officially support PPC, and it is not as polished as Mandriva or Yellow Dog. Actually, getting FC4 running on the G4 Server has been really hard; luckly I already had it running on my iBook, so that I've been able to "transplant" a more recent kernel from the portable to the G4, by copying all the files - installing the updated version of the kernel from the rpm required an updated udev package, which just did not want to install successfully.

tests with kernel 2.6.15-1.1831_FC4

  • @@snooze -f2@ worked
  • snooze worked
  • lid down with on AC power turns off backlight
  • lid down with on battery turns sleeps correctly

- it works like OsX !! :-)

Mapping the mostly unused "enter" key to the mouse-right key, put the following in /etc/sysctl.conf: 

 dev.mac_hid.mouse_button2_keycode= 97
 dev.mac_hid.mouse_button3_keycode= 96
 dev.mac_hid.mouse_button_emulation= 1

Fix the iBook keyboard mapping in X11 

 xmodmap -e "keycode 49 = section plusminus"
 xmodmap -e "keycode 94 = quoteleft asciitilde"

Not strictly related to PowerPC: Gnome-Pilot is broken in FC4: http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gnome-pilot-list/2005-August/msg00014.html The packages from updates-testing seem to work 

 yum --enablerepo updates-testing install gnome-pilot-conduits evolution
 gnome-pilot-2.0.13-5.fc4
 gnome-pilot-conduits-2.0.13-1
 evolution-2.2.3-3.fc4

Well, actually this version of Evolution seems to give quite some trouble.

Enabling power on after power failure

/etc/rc.local: 

# activate automatic restart on power failure
echo "server_mode=1" > /proc/pmu/options