The simplest way to install BeOS on a fresh PCG-C1VFK (or similar) is to:
bootman so you no longer need the floppy.
Then it's a case of getting the screen working properly. Since porter is a PCG-C1VFK the graphics chipset is an ATI Rage Mobility, for which BeBits has a driver. I used ProposeMode to set up a 1024×480 mode, without that everything is strangely stretched.
The parameters I chose in ProposeMode were:
X: 1024; Y: 480; SH1: 120; SH2: 16; HSync: 64; SV1: 34; SV2: 1; VSync: 3; Pixel clock: 31.500. Hopefully, this will save you some trial and error.
APM works happily. You just need to install the APM Driver from BeBits. BatteryView is a handy little Deskbar app that shows the power and battery info.
That was all for BeOS R5. Nowadays the most modern version of BeOS that's legally available is YellowTab's Zeta.
Installing Zeta turns out to be a little tricky, as it comes on CD, which it's hard to see from the strangely mounted Sony CD drive. It would be nice if the installer could use a loopback-mounted image as an option.
To get Zeta installed, I found the easiest way was to install it on any other machine, then zip up (to preserve the attributes) the /boot/ partition, move it to the laptop, floppy-boot into BeOS Personal Edition as above and unzip to a fresh BFS formatted partition. Then you just need to copy the boot record to the start of the new BFS partition (proper detail to follow, but on properly installed machine run 'dd if=/dev/disk/ide/ata/0/master/0/0_0 bs=512 count=2 of=/wherever/zeta-mbr; then from within BeOS Personal Edition dd if=/some-other-partition/zeta-mbr bs=512 count=2 of=/dev/disk/ide/ata/0/master/0/0_0. Warning, you need to think about which disk you want to put the MBR on, the /dev paths I used here will only apply if it's the first partition on the master drive of the first IDE interface. If you get this wrong you could screw up booting your machine. I'll put longer instructions here eventually which take a proper backup of the MBR and how to undo any mess you make. Drop me a line if I can help before then.
So, Zeta boots happily, talks to my Compaq WL-110 (Orinoco) wireless network card and so forth. The Rage Mobility, apm, ProposeMode advice above all still stands. At installation there are a few little quirks (like making sure the right paths exist for apm).
BatteryView works fine under Zeta once apm is installed properly. The default icons are a shade ugly, though, so I knocked up some more Be-like ones. With the author's kind permission I have posted an updated package.
My EDIMAX EP-4101 wired network card also works perfectly happily, but only after I add the following lines to /boot/home/config/settings/kernel/drivers/pcmcia.default:
card { # Edimax EP-4101
manfid 0xffff 0x1090
bind ne2k
}
Support for sonypi (to alter the screen brightness and so forth), the in-built bluetooth and the camera will require some proper coding effort.