Re: Linux on the Mac Mini -- Updated

[William R Sowerbutts <will@sowerbutts.com>]

Hi Sven,

On Fri, Feb 11, 2005 at 12:18:08PM +0100, Sven Luther wrote:
>  1) debian-installer provided libparted based partman partitioner should be
>  able to resize HFS and HFS+ partititons, i have not personally played much
>  with it, but it should work. Feedback is welcome.

That's clever. I'll have to give it a go one day. Does it support journalled
HFS+?  The Mac Mini ships with a single journalled HFS+ partition spanning the
entire disk. I'm not sure how journalling was implemented in HFS+, presumably
it's backwards-compatible?


>  2) you say "Build an optimized kernel". I strongly object to this
>  recomendation, and ask you to remove it from your howto. The existing debian
>  kernel should be enough for everyone, and i don't believe that you can
>  further optimize it.

Is there no performance difference resulting from removing the PPC 601 sync
workarounds, which are built into the Debian kernel but not necessary on the
G4? The kernel documentation for "CONFIG_PPC601_SYNC_FIX" says "These extra
instructions reduce performance slightly".

You are quite right, though, the kernel shipped by Debian does work very well
on the mini, and there is no pressing reason to replace it. I've changed the
phrasing to make it sound less like a recommendation. It now reads: "If you
wish to build your own kernel, here is my kernel .config for 2.6.9, which you
may find useful. Building a new kernel is very quick and simple with the
Debian tools, just install "kernel-package" and follow the documentation."

Thanks,

Will

_________________________________________________________________________
William R Sowerbutts                                  will@sowerbutts.com
"Carpe post meridiem"                               http://sowerbutts.com
         main(){char*s=">#=0> ^#X@#@^7=",c=0,m;for(;c<15;c++)for
         (m=-1;m<7;putchar(m++/6&c%3/2?10:s[c]-31&1<<m?42:32));}