Re: Installing 5.0.2 on a PowerBook G4

[Michael <macallan%netbsd.org@localhost>]

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Hello,

On Oct 7, 2010, at 8:28 AM, Frank Wille wrote:

> two days ago I got my PowerBook from eBay and wanted to try it with
> NetBSD. Last time I installed NetBSD/macppc was 3.1 on a PowerMac G4,
> but the installation procedure didn't become easier since then. ;)
>
> Some notes I made during the first day:
>
> 1. What I cannot understand is that the hfstools are not included on  
> the
> installation ISO, to be able to copy ofwboot and the kernel.

The kernel doesn't need to be on a HFS filesystem or anything else OF  
understands - ofwboot understands NetBSD ffs just fine.

> 3. Ofwboot can still only read the kernel from filesystems known to  
> OF?

ofwboot understands ffs since ~forever ( as in, at least since 1.6 ).  
It uses OF calls to read blocks from the disk but that's about it.

> It shouldn't be difficult to make ofwboot read the Apple partition map
> and create a disklabel to find the NetBSD root partition.

You have to point it at the right partition number which may be  
confusing and annoying since OF's numbering may or may not agree with  
anything else.

> I added RDB partition support to ofppc's ofwboot some time ago, and  
> I would try to
> improve macppc's ofwboot as well, when there are no reasons against  
> it.

It would be nice if it could find the first ffs partition  
automagically if none is given.

> 4. My PowerBook has a 1.5GHz G4, but dmesg says it is running at  
> 750MHz.
> Is that just a calculation bug, or will it really run so slow? ;)

Some *Books can switch CPU or bus speeds and on those OF will start up  
at low speed. On the iBook G4 there is a gpio to switch it to full  
speed ( see sysctl machdep.cpu_speed ) but I have no idea if your  
PowerBook uses the same mechanism. I'd need an ofctl -p dump to check.

> Or is something needed to switch the CPU into full speed (I remember  
> the
> PowerBook can run at slower speeds to save energy)?

Yes ;)

> 5. This PowerBook has a german keyboard, which is recognized as an USB
> keyboard (ukbd0). Unfortunately the layout is wrong when switching  
> wscons
> into encoding=de. For example the "^ °" key responds as "< >" and "#  
> '" as
> "|" (I still haven't found the '#' on this keyboard). Is there  
> anything
> I can do?

Yes, the german keymap should live somewhere in sys/dev/usb - nothing  
keeps you from making one for the PowerBook.

> 6. The card bus slot (cbb0) is recognized but does not work. When I  
> plug
> in a card nothing happens. Vmstat shows that the device didn't cause  
> any
> interrupt. Known problem or defective hardware (I forgot to check the
> card bus under OSX) ?

Works on my hardware ( a 3400c and a Pismo, both have CardBus bridges,  
the 3400c needs a hack to make the cardbus part work since Apple  
decided to support only 16bit cards, the Pismo Just Works(tm) ) - it  
should just work. Does it attach completely?
As in, do cardslot, cardbus and pcmcia attach?
And, did you try -current?

> 7. The BCM43xx wireless is unknown to the kernel. But I was happy to  
> find
> out that it is supported in current. I will try that soon! :)

The bwi driver has quirks, it works to a degree but not very well.  
Unfortunately it's one of those BorgCom devices we don't have docs for.

> 8. Is any work being done on the power management? Would be very nice
> when running NetBSD/macppc with a battery.

The CPU will drop into low power modes when idle, you can set an idle  
timeout for the disk via atactl but there is no sleep support. I  
didn't do any actual measurements but all my Apple laptops stay nice  
and cool unless you torture them with stuff like build.sh.

> 9. Controlling the display brightness and the keyboard illumination  
> would
> be great. But I guess there is no documentation available?

What kind of graphics chip do you have? I just added generic backlight  
control support via OF calls and radeonfb supported it for a while.  
Since you have a USB keyboard I have no clue where events from the  
brightness / volume control buttons end up, if they send PMF events  
they should Just Work(tm) in -current.
Otherwise there's wsconsctl, the display related properties should  
list something to control backlight if the relevant driver supports it.
About making the keyboard light up - I have no clue but there might be  
hints in the ofctl -p dump ( that's how I found the CPU speed control  
mechanism for my iBook for example )

> I still have to test if X11 works...

Depends entirely on the graphics chip. If it's a radeon it probably  
will, if it's some nvidia part I have no clue how well nv would handle  
it - all my *Books have ATI or C&T graphics.

have fun
Michael

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