News Archive


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December 27, 2003
Add supported Ethernet card information
Add pages detailing supported Ethernet cards. Work is in progress to add additional support to the smc9194 driver.

December 06, 2003
Update to Linux 2.4.23
TREX PCMCIA driver is updated by Jonas Majauskas, and now included in pre-compiled kernel and bk-tree on nubus-pmac.bkbits.net.

November 03, 2003
Driver for TREX PCMCIA controller on PowerBook 5300/1400 is finally available!
See instructions at http://www.muru.com/linux/ppc/ by Tony Lindgren.

October 17, 2003
Update to Linux 2.4.23-pre5
- Fix cuda interrupt bug with pmac_set_rtc_time(), which got mixed in -r1.713.1.61 (2003-02-15) and -r1.728 (2003-02-19).

July 10, 2003
Kernel with YellowDogLinux 3.0 installer posted.

June 15, 2003
Updated to Linux 2.4.21
- Improved 8390 based NIC support by Ray Knight

June 08, 2003
After a long silence, maintenance of the nubus-pmac.sf.net web page is back in full swing. Now Etsushi Kato, Francois Jacques, and Mehul N. Sanghvi have joined the nubus-pmac.sf.net project!

Nubus-pmac source repository is created on http://nubus-pmac.bkbits.net/, see Latest Kernel Source section for more info about how to retrieve source from the bk tree.

Updated to Linux 2.4.21-rc7
- PDM SCSI driver has changed to use NCR53C9x.c rather than mac53c94.c since 2.4.21-rc2.

January 28, 2002
I just realized why I couldn't use miBoot on my 5300c today. I was just feeding a wrong image to the booter! Here is a Kernel 2.4.6-pre3 binary (with input driver support necessary for LinuxPPC 2000Q4 or Yellow Dog Linux 2.0 or later) which works with miBoot contained in BootX 1.2.2 archive distributed else where on PowerBook 5300c. It may or may not work with other machines. Here is a source patch against Etsushi Kato's 2.4.6-pre3 kernel source mentioned somewhere below and else where to create a proper miBoot image.

August 1, 2001
The bk and rsync servers are down, and they won't be back in foreseeable future.I'm moving pretty soon, and I have absolutely no idea what I can do then.
Anyhow, I've updated the links for the kernels as I do recommend using 20010619 version for all; that is, if they work at all.

June 6, 2001
Updated to Linux 2.4.5

- Improved Performa 5/6200 SCSI support
- Fixed boot time hang with Apple AV PDS card
- Removed obsolete "nocmap" and "noariel2" options from nbpmacfb driver

June 4, 2001
 Updated to Linux 2.4.5-pre5

I was waiting for the main PPC bitkeeper repository to sync up with Linus 2.4.5, but it looks like it's not going to happen. So, the release is against 2.4.5-pre5.

New in this release (bk tag "v20010604") are:
- Performa 5/6200 support
- "font:" option for nbpmacfb and ariel2fb drivers
- "off" option for nubus card probing code
- tons of internal changes


June 1, 2001
Updated kernels for LinuxPPC 2000 Q4 and YDL 2.0.
Updated kernel with LinuxPPC 2000 Q4 installer.
Kernel with YellowDogLinux 2.0 installer posted.

3rd test kernel for Performa and all NuBus PowerMacs posted.

- improved Performa 5/6200 SCSI support. If a device is recognized, it may even work ;)
- fixed video support for Performa 5/6200 and motherboard video (aka ariel2) on PowerMacs

The kernel is here.

Performa 5/6200 (not 6115/6) users should use valkyriefb instead of nbpmacfb now. I.e.,
mach_options= video=valkyriefb:font:VGA8x8


May 29, 2001
Posted an updated memory command reporter.

2nd test kernel for Performa (actually for all NuBus PowerMacs) posted.

- supports PDS or LC network card based on 8390
- now supports serial ports
- SCSI support is still not finished
- video support is limited, use 16 bit color mode for best result.

In addition to Performa changes, there has been a new option added to the kernel video drivers. With this kernel, you can specify smaller fonts than default 8x16 VGA font.
For example, if you are using PowerMac 6/7/8100's motherboard video, you can do

video=ariel2fb:font:VGA8x8

to use "VGA8x8" font for console. For all other video cards, replace "ariel2fb" above by "nbpmacfb". Other available fonts are "PEARL8x8", "Acorn8x8", and "VGA8x16".

Anyway, the kernel is here.

May 15, 2001
Updated to 2.4.4.
- integrated DP8390-based NuBus network card support
- floppy disk drive support for PowerMacs 6/7/8100 and compatibles
- PowerBook battery/AC status report support [See below for updated pmud]
- PowerBook LCD level access support
- fixed cursor palette for HPV card

I've encountered some strange behaviour with 2.4.4. If you have a boot problem on PowerBook, try rebooting a few times. If "turn swap off" portion of reboot/shutdown process seems to hang, be patient and wait for a few minutes.


Mar. 12, 2001
Test kernels for NuBus network card (8390 based) are up. Please try them if
you have a network card and want to use it.

Cabletron card will probably work.
Asante, Farallon, Apple, Interlan cards may or may not work.
Dayna or Kinetics will most probably not work.

Kernel for BootX
Kernel for Apple Booter

Mar. 01, 2001
Updated to 2.4.2. I believe it still crashes frequently on machines with an AV card.
- 8bit color support is added for PowerBook.
- 64MB SIMM support is added.
- Completely in sync with BitKeeper PowerPC Linux tree at fsmlabs.com
- Incorporated cross-compile fix by Paulo Tribolet Abreu


Feb. 04, 2001
20010202 kernel crashes hard on 7100AV. It runs nicely on a plain 6100 and on PowerBook, but that's about it :(

Feb. 02, 2001
Seagate ST52160N 2GB HD should work with this kernel. As I said else where, I've been running Linux on PowerBook 5300 without a crash for two days. It looks okay to use now with serial and all. But do note that there are some quirks such as programs dying mysteriously with "Bus Error" on my PowerBook. YMMV. Oh, one more thing... I'm hoping this kernel to be the last of 2.4.0, so I tried very hard to make it run stably. Please give it a try and let me know how it goes. I'll update the installer kernels if I get good reports.

Jan. 29, 2001
PowerBook support has been added. There are still issues to be worked out, and it is not at all recommended for those who need stable machines. Both SCSI and IDE interface work, but serial port doesn't work well. :( PowerBook 1400's media bay is not supported either.

Jan. 23, 2001
Recently, it was noted that Linux/Nubus Pmac's order of detecting SCSI devices on Power Mac 8100 and its compatibles (Power Computing, Radius, etc.) was NOT compatible with the way MkLinux handles things. Thus, from 20010123 version, Linux/Nubus Pmac's SCSI order has been changed to be the same as MkLinux's. This means that one can use the same /etc/fstab for both MkLinux and Linux in most circumstances. If you have had the problem of this sort before or never used MkLinux, then you might have to edit your /etc/fstab (again). So, please be aware of this change if you have used the kernel older than 20010123!

Oct. 15, 2000
If you find that you get strange color with 001015 or later kernels, please try "video=nbpmacfb:nocmap" and/or "video=nbpmacfb:noariel2". "nocmap" will disable the code to access cmap on A/V and HPV, and "noariel2" will let ariel2fb handle PDM class PowerMac's motherboard video with HDI45 connector.

The structure of "nubus_simm=" kernel argument has changed somewhat since 000915. If you are using a fake Mach Kernel, *remove* "nubus_simm=" from your lilo.conf. It should work without it. If it is vmlinux with BootX, please try the new mem_cmd_reporter. It should be able to tell the correct argument for your machine.
Please send any comments/questions to admin team.