SSD drive in Powerbook 3400

[tendim]

Hi group.

I'd like to start doing some more work on my Powerbook 3400.  My intent is to make it into a triple boot (if not triple, dual boot) machine with:

• Mac OS
• Linux
• NetBSD (if I can get triple boot; Linux is priority)

Biggest bottleneck on the machine is the hard drive (both in terms of speed and capacity).  I searched here for SSD options and it looks like something like this may do the trick, with a 2GB mSATA drive (or whatever size I can find that works for me).

Has anyone had any success with this type of setup?

Thanks,

-10d

 

[galgot]

I have a kanga, essentially a 3400c with a G3 proc, booting Mac OS 9.0.4 and Ubuntu 9.1.0. 

Installed on a Kingspec SSD, can't remember the size right now... maybe 16GB.

Edit: think it's that one :

https://www.amazon.fr/KingSpec-pouces-Solid-contrôleur-SM2236/dp/B008RVYW5S

Tried the same setup on a 3400c/200, worked but a bit slower.

Remember I tried several Linux distros before finding the one working. Ubuntu 9.10 is fine but video doesn't work out of the box, plus it's so old the sources file need to be edited to get some softwares.

To have video working, you need to have the correct xorg.conf file in /etc/X11/ . Check the attached xorg.conf working for me.

And to be able to access 9.10 repos, you need to edit the /etc/apt/sources.list file with other server address (old-releases.ubuntu.com...) . See also attached working the sources.list I have on that Kanga.

Other than that works very fine, with a light wm like WindowMaker, XFCE or LXDE.

One link that helped me a lot for the xorg driver file was this one :

https://www.kubuntuforums.net/showthread.php?t=46476&page=2

This link also helped me for install procedure on an old-world Powerbook :

https://gonz.wordpress.com/2006/03/22/installing-ubuntu-510-breezy-badger-on-an-old-world-powerbook-g3-wallstreet/

It's for a Wallstreet, but basic install procedure is the same, just don't use the video setting mentioned.

As for triple booting, never tried. I've only tried dual booting a powerbook Ti 1Ghz in Tiger and openBSD.

Installing OpenBSD for dual boot was a bit tricky, and I can't remember how I did it ... Think only version 5.4 worked cause more recent versions dropped video drivers the my machine.

3400c_xorg_and_sources.list.zip

 

[Compgeke]

I personally had no luck getting one of the cheap 16 gig Sandisk mSATA drives to work in my 3400, it just never got past a grey screen, not even to the "?" or happy mac. The 1 gig Simpletech SSDs do work fine, albeit a bit slow. In the end I just threw a 60 gig spinning rust drive in, was less headache than flash.

 

[Opardalis]

Just to chime in... I've been trying to get a Kingspec 32gb SSD to work for the past 2 days in my PB3400. It sounds like other people have had success, maybe I got a dud?

I just can't seem to finish an install, it will hang on driver update, or I just get a random error with disk. When the original disk is in there, no issues. I have the ssd pinned for master. I might buy another and try again

John

 

[galgot]

Hi,

Have you tried formatting but without updating the driver ? Seems to remember I had that issue too.

There also the option for non updating the HD driver in the installer.