I have just created the first test image for debian-installer on ia64 with grub-efi as a bootloader instead of elilo. The changes have not been committed to git yet but a test image can be found at [1]. Could someone test whether this image does something useful for them? For anyone interested, the patches for d-i and debian-cd are attached. Adrian[1] https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/ports/grub-test/
I test-booted it on RX2660 (booted into installer fine) and RX1600 (grub loads, kernel starting reboots as do most kernels on RX1600, RX1620 and RX2800). Did not try how it installs grub (yet) because I did not have a vacant disk there. -- Meelis Roos