I was driving around a couple days ago and noticed that there were quite a few signs for garage sales.  I stopped by at one and picked up an aviator headset.  Those things are typically very expensive, though for $5 I couldn't say no.  As I was walking away I noticed that there was a PowerBook box.  I took a look and it was mint.  No scratches, vanity cover still had the vinyl cover over it, and everything was included.  The owner took me inside, I plugged it in, and started without a problem. 

I told him it was worth $20 to me.  He accepted.  I would have gone lower but I figured I should pay a little more since the headset was cheap.

Now comes the hard part.

I have formatted it, runs properly still, have all the CD's and floppies that came w/ it so I can start from scratch.  Linux is what I really want to run. 

If anyone has experience installing Linux on a NuBus PPC I could use some advise. 

If anyone has suggestions for a mod, that isn't a picture frame, let me know.  I'm open for ideas and may incorporate them into the machine. 

Depends on how much memory it has. Just google for 68K Linux or 68K BSD and you'll find something.

the powerbook 1400 uses a 603e powerpc cpu..

adam:  nice score dude!  I am 99% sure that you could get yellow dog linux running on that but you would need an external cd drive to do it.

a couple links:

http://www.applefritter.com/node/8582

http://nubus-pmac.sourceforge.net/

I just had a great idea..  newertech made G3 250mhz upgrades for the pb 1400 back in the day.  I bet you could find one of those cards now for about the same cost as the laptop.  then it would be a much better experience.

Someone made a solar panel for the back. fun.

Linux on a NuBus Mac is not fun. 

I have the bootloader installed, though the kernel it tries to load keeps bailing.  Just to make sure it was one that would work, I used the MkLinux distro (DR3) kernel and that's what is happening.  I could burn off a different Kernel, though I don't know any good OS X apps that can burn off CD's for the old file system.

On another note: Solar panel?  Weird...but they get props.

OpenBSD - Nope
Linux - Loader doesn't see the Kernel properly

Guess I'm stuck w/ OS 7.6...

Sorry to say, my experience mirrors yours - Getting Linux to work on a NuBus PPC machine is far more trouble than it's worth.

In my experience the main problem has something to do with the kernel being unable to properly interface with the IDE bus - which, interestingly enough, some folks had trouble with in later years when trying to install Linux on the Rev. 1 Blue and White G3s with their dodgy main IDE bus chip.

Matt

Well.. technically those machines will max OS 9.1.
You can get the G3 upgrade and run classic.. and with a lot more RAM.. bigger HD and XPostFacto *maybe* OS X. I can't remember the terms of the PostFacto installation but I know it's been done.

http://homepage.mac.com/techedgeezine/2004-0129_pb1400-upgrade1.htm
Found this page, and it enticed me to get one myself actually. Just for the novelty I guess.

It takes some trial and error to get linux on a 1400, but it most certainly can be done.  I have a pair of 1400's here that used to boot linux.  I did it as a novelty really, but the last Apple distribution of MKlinux works with a few patched files that I found on sourceforge and a patched loader.

I originally wanted to tinker with linux since I could not get my ancient WaveLAN card to function properly under any other system then 8.6, which was too heavy for the 40M of ram, so I figured that a stripped-down Linux build would run faster... but I have since gotten the card working 100% under 7.6.1, so I ditched the linux idea since it runs adequately fast on bothgh my 117mHz/16Meg machine and my 166mHz/40Meg machine.