Re: Testing GRUB from other distros.
On 3/7/19 15:41, aggaz wrote:
I managed to re-install openSUSE, still without success.
[...]
Given that the first (unsuccessful) install was done by GPT, this time I
used MS-DOS.
[...]
This is how it looks like on fdisk:
Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/sdb1 * 2048 18431 16384 8M 41 PPC PReP Boot
/dev/sdb2 18432 542719 524288 256M 83 Linux
/dev/sdb3 542720 1591295 1048576 512M 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdb4 1591296 320173055 318581760 151,9G 83 Linux
After install I was unable to boot OpenSUSE. Openfirmware is unable to
open the partitions.
Looks like OpenSUSE for ppc64 is tailored to POWER machines (see 8 MiB
PReP "partition"). I assume OpenFirmware on NewWorld Power Macs doesn't
know what to do with that.
In conclusion, OpenSUSE's installer does not give the possibility to set
up an apple partition table.
It also does not give the possibility to create a bootstrap partition.
I think that this port is not conceived for apple-macs.
Is it possible to create a FAT(16) partition as first partition instead
of the PReP one?
The question then is if the GRUB installation then uses the correct
method for NewWorld Power Macs at all if the installation seems to be
tailored to POWER machines. The GRUB installation method differs between
bootstrap from HFS (`grub-install --macppc-directory=[...]`) and
bootstrap from FAT(16) (`grub-install`) and of course from bootstrap
from PReP on POWER machines.
All this made me think about some time ago when I installed OpenBSD in
this same machine.
OpenBSD can be run by formatting the hard drive either with HFS
partitioning or MBR partitioning [1].
Maybe I should try to install the contents of /boot in a FAT/MS-DOS
partition?
Would it even make sense?
Only the contents of `/boot/grub`, but the best method would be to use
`grub-install` (per default installs files to `/boot/grub`) for that and
mount the FAT partition to `/boot/grub` beforehand.
Cheers,
Frank
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