singularity's Journal: The PowerBook Duo 2300c Challenge (TM)

I have mentioned this to several of my friends over the past few months, and figured it was high time to finally sit down and write it up all formal-like.

Before my beloved 12" Powerbook came into my possession, I had a Powerbook Duo 2300c. Now that I have the new Powerbook, and the battery on the Duo is pretty much shot, I have no need for the old laptop and the value is almost nothing. I tried listing it on Craig's List, but no one bit at the offer of an old laptop with a dead battery.

So I came up with the Challenge. (TM)

The basic idea? Get an operating system not sold by Apple Computer [MkLinux, *BSD, etc.] to work on this machine. I am also leaning towards requiring that internet access be working after the install.

The information:
1) The PowerBook Duo 2300c was a hack of a machine. Apple took a PowerPC 603e processor and "grafted" it onto a laptop motherboard designed for the 680x0 line of processors.

2) The computer has 20megs of RAM and an 800 meg hard drive.

3) The machine has no real ports to speak of. It has an Apple serial port and an ADB port.

4) The machine is currently running MacOS 7.6.1

5) I am in possession of a Duo Dock II which provides most normal ports.

6) The DuoDock II has an ethernet port, so I can currently connect the computer to the rest of my network and, in turn, to the Internet. I have heard reports, however, that AppleTalk will not connect together a Panther machine and a machine running MacOS 7.x anymore (so I would not be able to mount it as a network drive to install onto)

7) I currently do not have a CD-ROM drive capable of hooking up to the machine.

I have researched this topic quite a bit, and have not found a definitive "Yes, you can install this on the 2300c". Almost everyone says the exact opposite, in fact. Some look somewhat promising, but are lacking in several areas. I leave you to retrace some of my steps and learn the same things I did.

Your reward: For most of my friends I have offered up the computer in question. In addition, you get the satisfaction of saying "Hey, I actually installed [#OS_OF_CHOICE] on a machine not officially supported."

[And, before you say anything...]

AppleTalk on old Macs and OS X

[EMDischarge]

IIRC, you just need to get the a newer version of AppleTalk installed on that 7.6.1 client. 3.8.3, I think: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=583 60