Re: Updated installation images for Debian Ports 2019-04-09
On 4/13/19 12:56 AM, John Ogness wrote:
> Since you are still using yaboot for the CD boot, it would be really
> helpful if you could fix the boot problem for many iBook G4 models. I
> reported[0] the problem and provided a fix[1] back in October 2017.
> (...)
> This problem does not exist after applying the fix. I do not understand
> why you seem to have no interest in fixing this issue that is affecting
> real hardware.
What makes you think I don't have any interest in fixing bugs?
As I have explained before, the problem with Yaboot is that the codebase
is unmaintained and it's therefore not straight-forward to get it to build
in a modern environment.
For example, it depends on an outdated version of ext2libs which is no longer
part of the Debian archive and also requires some hacks to get it to build
if I remember correctly.
I also wasn't aware that this particular problem exists as I had no problems
booting Debian sid on my iBook G4 last time I tested around 1-1/2 years ago
and I'm quite confident that Yaboot wasn't updated ever since.
The reason that the CDs still boot with Yaboot is simple: No one has worked
on converting the CD from Yaboot to GRUB yet which certainly involves a lot
of work and testing.
I'm doing all this in my personal free time and I'm not getting paid or
receiving any donations, so I think I should be able to choose what I spend
time on and how much I spend. And my decision was to rather work on getting
GRUB into usable shape on these architectures rather than working on Yaboot
or SILO.
However, now that I know this particular issue exists and there a patch to
address it, I have no problems uploading an updated version of the Yaboot
package with the patch included as I still have the sources laying around
from when I built the package for re-upload after it was purged from the
archives with the powerpc removal. I merely reuploaded it to be able build
debian-installer and the CD images.
Thanks,
Adrian
--
.''`. John Paul Adrian Glaubitz
: :' : Debian Developer - glaubitz@debian.org
`. `' Freie Universitaet Berlin - glaubitz@physik.fu-berlin.de
`- GPG: 62FF 8A75 84E0 2956 9546 0006 7426 3B37 F5B5 F913
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