Re: Why it's so difficult to fix PowerMac booting for good

[Frank Scheiner <frank.scheiner@web.de>]

Hello again,

On 26.05.23 13:44, John Paul Adrian Glaubitz wrote:
> Hello!
>
> On Fri, 2023-05-26 at 13:07 +0200, Frank Scheiner wrote:
> > On 24.05.23 15:25, John Paul Adrian Glaubitz wrote:
> > > ==================================================================================
> > >
> > > Installing on a FAT filesystem does not work at all. grub-install actually refuses
> > > the installation if the target directory for --macppc-directory is not an HFS/HFS+
> > > filesystem.
> >
> > Oh it works - or let's say it worked for me back when I tested it in
> > 2018 on a Mac mini G4 and a 11,2 Power Mac G5.
> >
> > According to the relevant line in my PR ([1]) you have to omit
> > `--macppc-directory` from the `grub-install` command.
> >
> > [1]:
> > https://salsa.debian.org/frank-scheiner-guest/grub-installer/-/commit/cfe145228adaa34aae780cbb527dce5408107083#ae6e84c2dbfeefe14b039001e1b64254dada292b_895_899
>
> That makes no sense as this parameter just provides the path to the HFS
> filesystem. If you don't provide this paramemter, how is grub-install
> supposed to know where to install the files?

As per `grub-install(8)`:

```
grub-install copies GRUB images into boot/grub.
```

As the call to `grub-install` is performed by `chroot` inside the root
FS of the new installation, I assume the FAT bootstrap partition is
already mounted as `/boot` at this time of the installation. I think
this happens after all data partitions were formatted earlier during the
Debian installation but before any files are installed. Thus making the
call succeed w/o an explicit boot device or target directory argument.

Cheers,
Frank