Re: Why it's so difficult to fix PowerMac booting for good
Hi!
On Sun, 2023-05-28 at 07:54 +0200, Linux User #330250 wrote:
> > Perhaps GRUB could use whatever yaboot uses to create the
> > Apple_Bootstrap partition and bless it with ybin, or was yaboot
> > violating Debian license rules with its ybin and use of HFS? Similarly,
> > perhaps GRUB could be enabled to boot Mac OS X or Mac OS 9 volumes in
> > the same way that yaboot already does.
>
> As I understood it, the problem is that the parts required to do that
> are non-free...
Yes, that is the main problem. FWIW, I have reached out to Apple's Legal
Department and asked them whether it would be possible to relicense the
»hfs« package under a more permissive license such as MIT or any of the
BSD licenses.
The source code for the HFS(+) filesystem utilities used to be part of the
»diskdev_cmds« [1] package but was later split into its own package called
»hfs« [2].
I argued that the »hfs« package is required for interoperability and it would
make it for distributions much easier to ship the »hfs« package if its covered
by a truly free license.
I guess that the fact that the HFS code got split out of »diskdev_cmds« could
make it easier for Apple to change the license.
Adrian
> [1] https://github.com/apple-opensource/diskdev_cmds
> [2] https://github.com/apple-opensource/hfs
--
.''`. John Paul Adrian Glaubitz
: :' : Debian Developer
`. `' Physicist
`- GPG: 62FF 8A75 84E0 2956 9546 0006 7426 3B37 F5B5 F913
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