SHAOS » photo https://shaos.net/blog { Personal Blog of Shaos } Mon, 04 Aug 2025 00:15:41 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.9.1 New PowerMac G4 Dual as Linux Server https://shaos.net/blog/2010/11/new-powermac-g4-dual-as-linux-server.html https://shaos.net/blog/2010/11/new-powermac-g4-dual-as-linux-server.html#comments Thu, 25 Nov 2010 17:09:29 +0000 http://shaos.net/blog/?p=133 PowerMac G4 dual

PowerMac G4 dual 1.25 GHz MDD

My “new” home server/router: PowerMac G4 Dual 1.25 GHz MDD ($400 with monitor) with Debain/GNU Linux 5.0. It has 123 days uptime already!

]]> https://shaos.net/blog/2010/11/new-powermac-g4-dual-as-linux-server.html/feed 0 Beige G3 as lab PC https://shaos.net/blog/2009/10/beige-g3-as-lab-pc.html https://shaos.net/blog/2009/10/beige-g3-as-lab-pc.html#comments Fri, 09 Oct 2009 01:57:00 +0000 http://shaos.net/blog4/?p=38 After some evenings I had increased screen size of my Beige G3 from 800×600 to 1152×864 (65536 colors):

Then I installed 2 cheap ($20 each) PCI-cards in it: first is 2xCOM-ports:

and second is 1xLPT-port:

Basically it is the same card with different assembling.

Now I can use it as a regular Linux PC for example to connect El Cheapo PIC-programmer to Debian’s Piklab:

Kernel recompilation was required to allow using of module ppdev that creates device /dev/parport0

So this machine officially became my hobby lab machine ;)

P.S. Unfortunately I was not able to run on this machine any USB PCI-card that I had…

]]> https://shaos.net/blog/2009/10/beige-g3-as-lab-pc.html/feed 0 Black big-endian and little-endian https://shaos.net/blog/2009/08/black-big-endian-and-little-endian.html https://shaos.net/blog/2009/08/black-big-endian-and-little-endian.html#comments Fri, 21 Aug 2009 04:52:00 +0000 http://shaos.net/blog4/?p=37 This is my home working place where I can port software from little-endian machine to big-endian:

Red table bought in IKEA. Right-bottom: Systemax server with Intel Core 2 Duo 2.6 ГГц (Slackware 12.2). Right-top: PowerMac G4 Cube (colored to black) with Debian 5.0 and preloaded libfreevec. Left-bottom: subwoofer Logitech, power adapter for Cube and Gigabit switch. Left-top: UPS CyberPower 1500AVR. In the center under the table: KVM IOGEAR (switching USB keyboard+mouse and VGA between both machines). In the center on the table: display SAMSUNG SyncMaster 204B (20.5′ with ratio 4:3), Logitech audio speakers and microphone RadioShack. Also you can see black “Das Keyboard” that doesn’t have any characters on it ;)

]]> https://shaos.net/blog/2009/08/black-big-endian-and-little-endian.html/feed 0 PowerMac G4 as Linux server https://shaos.net/blog/2009/07/powermac-g4-as-linux-server.html https://shaos.net/blog/2009/07/powermac-g4-as-linux-server.html#comments Mon, 06 Jul 2009 01:52:00 +0000 http://shaos.net/blog4/?p=36 My PowerMac G4 400MHz with Debian GNU/Linux 4.1 (that works as my home server and internet gateway since last summer) just got 157 days uptime (without reboots since January 28th 2009) before yesterday strange hanging that was resolved by manual rebooting…

P.S. Electric power stability is provided by APC Back-UPS ES 750 that may keep the server working without electricity for more than 40 minutes!

P.P.S. Last “north-easter” poweroutage proved that my system’s up time without electricity is 75 minutes!!!

]]> https://shaos.net/blog/2009/07/powermac-g4-as-linux-server.html/feed 1 Power Mac G3 for 10 bucks! https://shaos.net/blog/2009/06/power-mac-g3-for-10-bucks.html https://shaos.net/blog/2009/06/power-mac-g3-for-10-bucks.html#comments Sat, 13 Jun 2009 19:47:00 +0000 http://shaos.net/blog4/?p=34 Recently I bought Power Mac G3 (300MHz, 64MB RAM, Ethernet, CD-ROM and no HDD) for $9.99 (plus shipping $32.50):

To make it working I added CompactFlash 2GB (around $10) and CompactFlash-to-IDE adapter (around $5):

Adapter has female IDE connector to allow connection direcrly to motherboard. Also I put new battery ($5) there:

Then I installed Debian Linux on it and got working 300MHz PowerPC G3 system for below than $70. I think it’s pretty cheap ;)

]]> https://shaos.net/blog/2009/06/power-mac-g3-for-10-bucks.html/feed 0 My G4 Cube turns BLACK https://shaos.net/blog/2009/02/my-g4-cube-turns-black.html https://shaos.net/blog/2009/02/my-g4-cube-turns-black.html#comments Sat, 28 Feb 2009 03:10:00 +0000 http://shaos.net/blog4/?p=31 I decided to use G4 Cube as my second desktop computer. But my first desktop PC is black. So I bought black enamel spray for a reason to paint Cube to black color. The subject to turn black is internal metallic case:

Now I have stylish black colored G4 Cube with Debian GNU/Linux 5.0 “Lenny” on board :)

P.S. Lenny believes that X.org became smart enough to do all configuration by itself (xorg.conf is almost empty by default). In result I had 800×600 instead of 1280×1024, and to make correct resolution working I manually added parameters HorizSync and VertRefresh to section “Monitor” of xorg.conf…

Update: Black big-endian and little-endian

]]> https://shaos.net/blog/2009/02/my-g4-cube-turns-black.html/feed 0 G4 Cube https://shaos.net/blog/2009/02/g4-cube.html https://shaos.net/blog/2009/02/g4-cube.html#comments Sat, 07 Feb 2009 07:00:00 +0000 http://shaos.net/blog4/?p=29 Finally I did it – I bought G4 Cube for myself! $250 (plus shipping) for PowerPC G4 450 MHz system is a little bit expensive, but it’s CUBE:

It even has “cracks” (as probably all G4 cubes ;)

Of course I put Debian GNU/Linux on it and removed MacOS 9.2 that was preinstalled there.

One strange (for me) thing about G4 Cube is its power button that is not a button at all…

Now I can measure power usage of my electric devices, and as we can se Cube eats only 30 watts (actually it goes between 25 and 45 watts):

Probably I will use this G4 Cube in my home “grid” network for distributed computing…

Updated: Cube became black!

]]> https://shaos.net/blog/2009/02/g4-cube.html/feed 0 Desktop Power Macintosh G3 "Beige" https://shaos.net/blog/2009/02/desktop-power-macintosh-g3-beige.html https://shaos.net/blog/2009/02/desktop-power-macintosh-g3-beige.html#comments Fri, 06 Feb 2009 10:57:00 +0000 http://shaos.net/blog4/?p=28 A few days ago I bought Power Macintosh G3 with PowerPC G3 processor (300MHz) for 25 dollars (and 45 shipping):

It has old Apple monitor connector and because of that I needed VGA-adapter (5 dollars on ebay) to connect my Samsung 19″ monitor to this machine:

It was shipped with MacOS 9 onboard that can handle screen dimension up to 1280×1024 (with 256 colors):

After setup Internet connection through Ethernet, I immediately tried to install Debian GNU/Linux 4.0 on it, BUT it is last “OldWorld” macintosh with buggy Open Firmware v2.4 that can boot only from MacOS (trick with patch from “SystemDisk 2.3.1″ didn’t help). I used BootX 1.2.2 to boot Debian installer directly from MacOS and removed MacOS to install Debian (it was my mistake) and after that this machine refused to boot. So now I’m waiting for MacOS 9.2.2 disk (another 20 dollars) to install it again and then I will use Debian through BootX only…

Updated: Success story of Debian installation is here

]]> https://shaos.net/blog/2009/02/desktop-power-macintosh-g3-beige.html/feed 3 Dirigible https://shaos.net/blog/2008/07/dirigible.html https://shaos.net/blog/2008/07/dirigible.html#comments Sat, 12 Jul 2008 19:48:00 +0000 http://shaos.net/blog4/?p=21

Sent from my Treo 680

]]> https://shaos.net/blog/2008/07/dirigible.html/feed 0 Next oil change will be at 1970… https://shaos.net/blog/2008/07/next-oil-change-will-be-at-1970.html https://shaos.net/blog/2008/07/next-oil-change-will-be-at-1970.html#comments Tue, 01 Jul 2008 23:49:00 +0000 http://shaos.net/blog4/?p=20 Now oil company where I usually change oil uses new computerized system, so now I should change oil after 3 months since zero unixtime – April 1st, 1970 (or it may be April 1st, 2070? ;)

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