After 691 days of not using Progear I unpacked it and got it running again. Why “691 days”? It was written by fsck during booting.
Progear support in OpenEmbedded is a bit updated now. New kernel (2.6.27) gives VESA frame buffer which finally utilize XGA resolution (in 2.6.19-rc5 it was VGA centered on screen). It still lack good AC/Battery support anyway. External modules which were used (progear-ac, progear-battery) do not build with current kernels (not strange as they were hacked ACPI modules) so I tried to write driver to get at least AC status. It works more or less.
I currently do not have any plans for this machine. Will use it to learn how to write ugly kernel drivers which probably no one will use (how many Progear users plays with current kernels?) and sooner or later it will go back to basement as other toys will need space on desk.