> Its odd that I can add a wifi card to my Powermac, but the team was
> considering support of the Powerbooks without it.

Could be that the PowerBooks don't have a PCI slot, couldn't it? ;-)

Andreas_Wolf,

Obviously not worded as well as it should have been. But by it, I think you know I meant Wifi not a PCI card.

> I think you know I meant Wifi not a PCI card.

Huh? AFAIK there's currently no other way on a PowerMac to directly use WiFi from *MorphOS* than using a WiFi card in a PCI slot. And the reason you can't use other means on a PowerMac to achieve this is the same reason "the team was considering support of the Powerbooks without it". Or put another way: If MorphOS supported the PowerMac's AirPort it would most certainly also support the PowerBook's PCMCIA.

Its my only major gripe on MorphOS that is has no direct wireless support at all for aitport in MacMini or usb dongles.

I can understand not bothering with Bluetooth but think lack of any wireless is a major drawback

Sure it is a drawback. But do you think the wireless support is left out by fun or chance? It is a matter of feasibility.

What's better though: A laptop w/o wireless (there is still the eth: jack) or no laptop at all? At least my answer to that question is pretty clear.

Bring it on. If one day Wifi will come, too - big, big applause. If not, well, then not.

Andreas,
I went to the barefeats links and missed the rest of the post. Thanks for pointing this out. So it looks a 7448 is the better option. Are there any incompatibilities reported with it (if I recall the 7448 support was experimental).

What is the reason for the difficulty of supporting the built in wifi ? Lack of doc ? Encryption schemes ?

For the first one are there simpler alternatives ?
- USB network cards or slot card
- Bluetooth

> it looks a 7448 is the better option.

Yes, and not surprisingly. After all, it's the most advanced G4 CPU ever built (as long as we don't count the lower clocked but better integrated SoC G4 CPUs that is).

> Are there any incompatibilities reported with it (if I recall the
> 7448 support was experimental).

None that I know of. I suggest to ask Ruud as he's the only MorphOS user with a 7448 that I'm aware of. As you can see (and as Jim already mentioned here in this thread) Ruud has reported rather low memtest results for his 7448 equipped Quicksilver 2002 machine:

https://morph.zone/modules/newbb_plus/viewtopic.php?forum=11&topic_id=7474&start=28

> What is the reason for the difficulty of supporting the built in wifi ?

AirPort:
https://morph.zone/modules/newbb_plus/viewtopic.php?forum=11&topic_id=6042&start=51
(You'd have to ask jacadcaps for the exact reason for the blacklisting.)

AirPort Extreme:
https://morph.zone/modules/newbb_plus/viewtopic.php?forum=32&topic_id=6869&start=12

Quote:

actually my efika with its 10" lcd monitor is quite transportable : )

A bit off topic, but not any more so than some of the other posts in this thread. I took apart my Dual 2.7GHz G5 PowerMac to move it from a dinged up case to a cleaner one that once housed a half dead 2.5GHz G5 system and found the following corrosion on the liquid cooled heat sink.

corrosion1.jpg

Can anyone tell me if this is caused by a slow leak of the coolant, or just a reaction of the dis-similar metals that might have been used in the fabrication of the heat sink?

I have cleaned the corrosion off the heat sink, but wonder if I should have the coolant, or the corrosion's cause, checked by an Apple Technician at the Apple Store before putting back together the system? I have not used the system extensively since I purchased it, but have had it running for a few hours with no obvious overheating, or warning messages. The Dual 2.7GHz G5 system runs very quietly, specially compared to my Dual 1.25GHz G4 PowerMac MDD. I would think if the system was getting very hot, it would become louder as it increased the fan speed to try to cope with any overheating that might be occurring, but that is not happening.

What do you all think I should do about this new found problem?

Edit: Now I understand why the G5 is so hard to cool, as the contact area between the G5 chips and the heat sink is so tiny, compared to any other CPU I have ever seen.

[ Edited by amigadave 06.04.2011 - 16:25 ]

That is a somewhat frightening picture Dave. I've run into corrosion in plumbing that used dissimilar metals, but that was always on the inside (where the liquid flowed).

The small contact area just reflects the size of the processor die.
Many other processors have a heat spreader over the die that is much larger than the die.(you still get better conduction of heat by removing these).