[debian-mips] Lemote mini-pc pmon + grub.elf + grub

[Javier Vasquez <j.e.vasquez.v@gmail.com>]

Hi,

In the documentation I've read about using grub under lemote products,
whether the laptop or the mini-pcs (I have loongson-2F mini-pcs),
there are 2 methods:

1.-  Using grub as firmware for pmon.
2.-  Using a grub.elf which calls grub (so first pmon loads, it starts
grub.elf, then grub loads).

I don't know if both have reached the debian grub-yeeloong package,
but any ways, I don't like option 1, and I've been trying option 2 on
debian since last year, and it has never worked.  So I'm writing to
see if I'm doing something wrong.

My grub.cfg menu for pmon includes:

default 0
timeout 5
showmenu 1
...
title	Boot with GNU GRUB2
kernel	(wd0,0)/grub.elf
args	console=tty no_auto_cmd

Then the following exist:

% ls /boot/grub.elf
/boot/grub.elf

% ls /boot/grub/grub.cfg
/boot/grub/grub.cfg

When selecting on the pmon menu the option to call grub.elf, the
mini-pc just goes to limbo.  Nothing happens.  So I'm wondering if
there's a set of steps I'm missing or something.  Grub gets installed
whether automatically or through:

grub-install --root-directory=/boot --no-floppy --recheck /dev/sda

And whether automatically installed or with manual installation,
/boot/grub.elf gets generated.  No matter how grub gets installed, the
result is always the same though...

I have not tried gnewSense, but option 2  (the one I like and I've
been trying), has been advertised for quiet a while, so I'm wondering
if it's just that debian hadn't gotten it to work, or it's that I'm
missing something.

If anyone has gotten this to work, please let me know.  Any howto or
link showing what I'm not doing, or I'm doing wrong would also be very
valuable...

Thanks,

-- 
Javier.