Bug#664128: debian-installer: please default to grub-ieee1275 on powerpc instead of yaboot
On Tue, Oct 23, 2012 at 10:18:00AM -0400, Milan Kupcevic wrote:
> On 10/23/2012 09:52 AM, Daniel Kahn Gillmor wrote:
> > On 10/22/2012 05:55 PM, Milan Kupcevic wrote:
> >> We can allow d-i grub installation on powerpc machines for wheezy, but
> >> not make it default.
> >
> > [...]
> >
> >> Manual creation of the appropriate partition in d-i (/boot/grub) will
> >> enable grub installation in wheezy d-i. Thus, we will be able to
> >> experiment with d-i grub installation on powerpc machines.
> >
> > ok, this sounds like a good step to me. Are you saying this is present
> > in the current wheezy beta3 ?
> >
>
>
> No. It will eventually hit the daily builds soon. See attachment.
>
>
> Milan
>
>
>
> commit cf2fc86abf0fd34963afb49047c21e94a2cde40e
> Author: Milan Kupcevic <milan@physics.harvard.edu>
> Date: Mon Oct 22 17:46:06 2012 -0400
>
> Allow grub installation on PowerPC machines
>
> * Allow grub installation on PowerPC machines if /boot/grub partition
> is present. Closes: #664128
>
> diff --git a/debian/changelog b/debian/changelog
> index 9105cdb..204cc11 100644
> --- a/debian/changelog
> +++ b/debian/changelog
> @@ -1,3 +1,10 @@
> +grub-installer (1.83) UNRELEASED; urgency=low
> +
> + * Allow grub installation on PowerPC machines if /boot/grub partition
> + is present. Closes: #664128
> +
> + -- Milan Kupcevic <milan@physics.harvard.edu> Mon, 22 Oct 2012 17:39:07 -0400
> +
> grub-installer (1.82) unstable; urgency=low
>
> [ Updated translations ]
> diff --git a/debian/isinstallable b/debian/isinstallable
> index e66bac1..89fadb7 100755
> --- a/debian/isinstallable
> +++ b/debian/isinstallable
> @@ -15,11 +15,11 @@ case $ARCH in
> exit 1
> fi
> ;;
> - powerpc/chrp_pegasos)
> - ;;
> powerpc/*)
> - log "GRUB not yet usable on PowerPC systems other than Pegasos/Efika"
> - exit 1
> + mount | grep "on /target/boot/grub" 1>&2 || {
> + log "GRUB requires OF bootable partition mounted at /boot/grub on PowerPC systems"
> + exit 1
> + }
> ;;
> mipsel/loongson-2f)
> ;;
And that would be wrong. That is NOT how grub works on IBM powerpc
machines. That is true of powermac and possible a few other types.
The IBM OF does NOT support filesystems. It executes the ELF binary in
the PReP partition, which can not be mounted. grub-install simply dd's
the grub core image into that partition and that's it. When creating the
image it passes and argument to the grub-mkimage to set which partition
to look at to get the grub modules and config files since in the IBM
case it won't be the boot partition (since it has no filesystem).
So please don't make such a wrong change. You will just make life harder
for IBM users.
The correct thing to check for on an IBM is that a PReP boot type
partition exists. That is all. It can not be mounted.
For example:
root@rceng03:~# parted
GNU Parted 2.3
Using /dev/sda
Welcome to GNU Parted! Type 'help' to view a list of commands.
(parted) print
Model: IBM MBE2147RC (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 147GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 1049kB 8389kB 7340kB primary boot, prep
2 8389kB 10.0GB 10.0GB primary raid
3 10.0GB 147GB 137GB primary raid
In this case the setup is RAID1 across sd[abc]2 for / and RAID5 across
sd[abc]3 for LVM.
grub is happily installed to /dev/sda1 (and sdb1 and sdc1 as well for
redundancy) using grub-install. This works.
--
Len Sorensen
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