FreeBSD 8.1-release on PowerBook G4 - is firewire disks supported?

[Torfinn Ingolfsen]

On Fri, 15 Oct 2010 01:30:41 +0200
Torfinn Ingolfsen <torfinn.ingolfsen at broadpark.no> wrote:

> On Sun, 10 Oct 2010 17:12:32 -0400
> Paul Mather <paul at gromit.dlib.vt.edu> wrote:
> 
> > I recently ran into the same problem.  Firewire support is built in to the kernel but not, I discovered, the sbp device support.  So, to get FireWire drives to show up, you need to "load sbp" from the FreeBSD boot > loader.  The easiest way to do this is to press space when you get the countdown to booting the kernel from the FreeBSD boot loader.  This will drop you into the FreeBSD boot loader prompt. 
> > Then, type "load sbp" followed by "boot" to boot FreeBSD.  The booted system will then recognise your external FireWire drive as a daX device.
> 
> That worked nicely - thanks!
> And loading sbp from /boot/loader.conf also works, so I finally was
> able to install FreeBSD on this PowerBook (well, on the external drive
> really), even if it wasn't easy. More info here:
> http://sites.google.com/site/tingox/powerbook_g4_freebsd
> 
> I'll write more later. Now I need to sleep.

Ok, this is later.
Things I noticed during the install on the PowerBook G4:
- the "language selection / keyboard layout" in sysinstall doesn't
appear to have an effect (on PPC). When the installer booted, it came
up, I selected Norwegian, and the main menu came up. However, I still
had to use US layout on the keyboard, both in sysinstall and in a shell
from the Fixit menu.
- installing from sysinstall didn't work for some reason; it always
complained that it couldn't write to the drive. However, going to a
shell and doing it manually worked fine. 

Note: I tried this several times, rebooting in between.
HTH
-- 
Torfinn