On Fri, Jun 23, 2006 at 11:42:59AM +0200, p2@mind.be wrote: > > quik uses the input-device and output-device of openfirmware as the > > console. Unfortunately many old world macs default to a serial console > > for openfirmware thus the user never sees the quik boot screen, and > > can't select what image to boot (or MacOS using image=$bye). > > > > The kernel is afflicted with the same problem until the virtual > > terminals are activated, thus no boot messages are available to the > > typical oldworld mac user. > > I know. I think the best solution is to have the installer modify the > input-device and output-device variables to point to keyboard/screen. I was thinking of doing this; I wanted to see if there was an easier way first. I'll be hacking on quik-installer next week to see about doing this. AIUI quik needs boot-device to be eg. /bandit/ohare/mesh/sd@x:0 to boot the master boot record anyway (maybe this is model dependant as well?). At least my mac-clone doesn't boot the mbr unless I specify the boot-device. > There are a few cases in which you still want serial console. Some > models (eg 7200, I'm not sure if there are others) don't have OF support > for the onboard framebuffer. Serial console is your only option then. > The ANS (Apple Network Server) is likely to be run headless, so serial > OF console may be the right thing to do there. I think the installer > should propose a default I/O choice to the user based on the model and > then modify the OF vars based on the users choice. That's a good idea. I also need a big scary warning with option to abort before modifying boot-device. I'm thinking that at the most detailed debconf priority there could be input fields for the user to specify input-device, output-device, and boot-device themselves (with defaults to what normally would happen). What do you think? -- And that's my crabbing done for the day. Got it out of the way early, now I have the rest of the afternoon to sniff fragrant tea-roses or strangle cute bunnies or something. -- Michael Devore
Attachment:
signature.asc
Description: Digital signature