Attempt to install FreeBSD on G4 mac mini failed reddit / freebsd ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [deleted] · 2020-09-15 12:07 [deleted] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- dnabre · 2020-09-15 14:22 It can be picky with bootloaders, so you may have to try a few things. The OF commands you list aren't the ones I've seen in tutorials for this machine. It has been a long time since I install an OS on mine. Here's a couple pages I have bookmarked that might be helpful: https://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd- ppc/2007-September/002346.html https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/freebsd-9-or-10-on- macmini-g4-1-42-ghz.46243/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [deleted] · 2020-09-15 14:37 [deleted] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- InternalMulberry · 2020-09-16 07:21 I installed FreeBSD to such a MacMini. I burned the image to a DVD (using another mac) and pressed c on boot to select the DVD as boot disc. But that machine is ancient. If you just want to test FreeBSD you're better off with a VM. For example, you will most likely have to compile all the programs you need from ports (no pre-compiled binaries). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- RogerLeigh · 2020-09-28 21:44 So USB boot on G4 hardware is iffy; I never managed to make it work on my Mac Mini. But CD/DVD boot works just fine. However, even if you get it booting, you'll run into more serious problems. The G4 Mac Mini worked fine with early releases of FreeBSD 10. Last time I tried it, it failed horribly on FreeBSD 11 and IIRC later FreeBSD 10 releases. Edit: https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=216123 was I think the issue, and looks like it was recently fixed, so you might be lucky. Overall, if you've got the time to invest in it, the hardware was nice for its time and it's a nice bit of kit to play with. But it's obsolete, and both the hardware and the software support are living on borrowed time. I ended up throwing the G4 into the bin. It was a shame, but I didn't have the time to spare any more. The hardware support is bitrotted, 2.5in IDE storage is no longer obtainable if the HDD fails, and it's no longer getting any real maintenance. You have to build all the ports from scratch and it takes days, and it's dog slow once they are all built. Others may have a different take. It may be that the kernel bug I hit has since been fixed (I no longer have the hardware to test), but the fact that serious regressions happen with not much noise tells you that the userbase for the hardware has dwindled to nearly zero, and there's no one actively maintaining or testing this particular platform. Given that it's nearly 20 years old, it's sad but not unsurprising. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [deleted] · 2020-09-30 08:06 [deleted] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- RogerLeigh · 2020-09-30 19:27 Yeah, don't let me put you off having fun! I used the G4 for several years as my main system (running Debian back then) and got a lot of use out of it. Later I put FreeBSD on and it was still reasonable for a spare system to mess around with. But today, 32-bit PPC support is missing from so much software, and a lot of software is too large to even compile and link on 32-bit systems. The last straw was no longer having a monitor I could plug it in to now everything is HDMI and DisplayPort. I could have found an adapter, but it also disables the Radeon GPU acceleration if the screen size is too large! You just get a large framebuffer, and even that has its limits. I did look at moving to better storage, but the Mini is annoyingly limited for expansion. Best you can do is external FireWire 400. I actually tried exporting a ZFS zvol over FireWire on my FreeBSD NAS so the Mini could use the storage directly over the wire. Would have been better than the internal storage, would support snapshots, and no worry about 2.5" IDE replacements (I was already on the second one). But I ran into issues with that--IIRC some kernel bug in the FireWire sbp driver or the tool to use to export the block device to the FireWire driver. Like the G4, FireWire is also lacking a large user and developer base to look at that type of integration detail. Would be an interesting project if you had the time though! But that was the point where I threw in the towel.