Since the introduction of the newest iBooks, I have seen many posts from people wanting to run XFree86 4 on their iBooks, but who haven't succeeded. I describe how to make it work, and what still doesn't seem to work. Be warned that I'm pretty new to running Linux on Mac hardware, but I hope you will still find this to be of use.

1) Kernels older than 2.2.18 do not seem to support the Rage 128 mobility LF framebuffer. After you boot into linux, do the following:

grep fb /var/log/dmesg

If you see "aty128fb" as the type of framebuffer, then you are good to go. More likely you will either see nothing, or see that Linux tried to initialize the ATI Mach framebuffer (atyfb).

Installing 2.2.18 should fix this for you, although the version I tried didn't initialize my display correctly on boot. If you have this problem, try using fbset. A better idea is to try the 2.2.19-pre* kernels from bitkeeper.com

2) Next you will want to install XFree86 4. I personally built my copy from the sources, but their are starting to be packages, so try one of those. There are other resources about this issue on this site, so I'll leave this bit to you. The hard part is getting your XF86Config set up correctly. For the most part default settings will work. Right now, however, it seems that there is a big bug in the r128 display driver. If you do not use the "UseFBDev" option X hangs forever. Therefore I recommend you make your Device section look something like this:

Section "Device"
Identifier "Card0"
Option "UseFBDev"
Driver "r128"
VendorName "ATI"
BusID "PCI:0:16:0"
EndSection

And finally, here is my recommendation for your Monitor section:

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Unknown"
ModelName "Unknown"
HorizSync 28-38
VertRefresh 43-72
# 640x400 @ 70 Hz, 31.5 kHz hsync
Modeline "640x400" 25.175 640 664 760 800 400 409 411 450
# 640x480 @ 60 Hz, 31.5 kHz hsync
Modeline "640x480" 25.175 640 664 760 800 480 491 493 525
# 800x600 @ 56 Hz, 35.15 kHz hsync
ModeLine "800x600-56" 36 800 824 896 1024 600 601 603 625
# 640x480 @ 72 Hz, 36.5 kHz hsync
Modeline "640x480" 31.5 640 680 720 864 480 488 491 521
# 640x480 @ 75 Hz, 37.50 kHz hsync
ModeLine "640x480" 31.5 640 656 720 840 480 481 484 500 -HSync -VSync
# 800x600 @ 60 Hz, 37.8 kHz hsync Modeline "800x600-60" 40 800 840 968 1056 600 601 605 628 +hsync +vsync
EndSection

My final advice is that if you have problems with the r128 driver, use the "fbdev" driver. You can also see a complete copy of my XF86Config at , but be warned that I use the new input layer, so be a bit careful using my Input Device section.

Good luck! I probably answer email, and I hang out in #ppclinux on irc.openprojects.net

With SuSE linux the configurazion is a breeze. SaX2 configure perfectly the Ati 128 Mobility driver for Xfree. About 5 minute of work to have kde2 and all bells and whistels on your LCD.