X11 for PPC (aka. help me de-doorstop this old machine)?

[bluehz]

I have an old Powerbook 1400 lying around and I was thinking about doing something useful with it...besides its current job as doorstop. I have some ideas, but all my ideas these days tend to be unix/x11/osx oriented... which ain't gonna happen on the Powerbook.

I was wondering if anyone has ever heard or seen an implementation of XFree / X11 or similar that I might be able to install on PPC Powerbook. Even though I did upgrade the machine to G3 several years ago... it is challenged at best. Max RAM is 64mb... you figure it out. I was thinking something along the lines of running it in console mode - maybe using it for a network monitor or something, anything.

Any ideas accepted..... thx!

[slowco]

try running linux on it!

see http://nubus-pmac.sf.net to get started. the port is coming along well, although there are a few limitations. your g3 upgrade card might not work for instance.

i have my 1400 running Debian/GNUstep. thats almost os x!

post here if you need any help.

[bluehz]

I don't believe it - someone answered... I have posted everywhere and YOU are the first response... thank you!

Actually I tried doin the Linux thing last year and had no luck with it on the 1400... for one thing there was no support for ethernet PCMCIA card - which makes it rather useless if it can not be hooked into our household LAN. I am going to go check it out again though just in case. I love Linux and woul DIE to get Linux up and running on the 1400 - just never had any luck.

---

Just checked and it looks like nothing has been updated since Jan 2002. Do you know something I don't?

[tjj]

With the extensive help of a thread here at the forums I managed to get Debian (woody) on a PB 3400. (I'm afraid I haven't had the time to do much more with it yet; it has a ram block and a hard drive waiting to be installed). I think woody for ppc has pcmcia support (but for your ethernetcard?). During the many (many!:D)) searches I ran into a site where the installation was detailed for a 1400....If it's been a while since you last searched, you might want to do it again. The installation itself went rather smooth using just the 1st CD, if that's an option for you.
Good luck, and do post as to your success!

[slowco]

Although the main project page hasnt been updated in a while, development continues at a steady clip, with the latest 2.4 kernels supported.

recently support has been added for some ethernet expansion cards (not pcmcia) and those oldtime scsi-to-ethernet adapters. sometimes you can find these on ebay, especially the latter.

my current setup has the 1400 connected to the network via ppp over a serial line, ie a very long printer cable. ironically, the crappy pb serial ports work much better in linux than in mac os. i get about 10k/sec ... woohoo! sometimes i hook it up to an old supra modem and that works great too!

you can hack pmud so that sleep sort of works. someone could probably hack in full support with a little poking around.

as you said, pcmcia support remains the major hurdle. someone has gotten it to work on a pb2400 (not nubus but still ... ) which was thought to be unsupported. the problem is, unlike the 2400, the 1400 uses a custom ic, called TREX. apples dev info only says that it conforms to the pcmcia standard.

so far no one has really tried to come up with a driver for the TREX. this could be trivial ... or not. its place in memory *is* known.

any takers?