[Date Prev][Date Next] [Thread Prev][Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

Re: installation-reports: - succesfull installation on iMac G5 and powermac G5 Quad (ppc64)



Hi Adrian,

On 4/27/20 11:46 AM, MH wrote:

1) grub partition is not visible on mac early Startup Manager.
solution is simple - to "bless: file "/System/Library/CoreServices/BootX" on grub partition. Unfortunatelly I dont't know how to do it from debian itself. hfsutils: hattrib can "bless" directory, not file.
Do somebody know how to "bless" single file ( like ybin does ?)?
I fix it with MorphOs command HFSSetMacBoot, but this is not available without MorphOS.

Thanks for the feedback. I look into this and see if there is a solution for this.


I checked how ybin (yaboot package) made "blessing":
ybin changes powermac openfirmware attributes on both - file and drawer:
I fix it with this three commands from debian:

hmount /dev/sda2
hattrib -t tbxi -c UNIX untitled:System:Library:CoreServices:BootX
hattrib -b untitled:System:Library:CoreServices:

# /dev/sda2 is partition with installed grub (mounted via fstab as /boot/grub )
# hmount & hattrib are from hfsutils package.
# untitled is label of grub partition, may vary

after this, grub partition is visible in Powermac Startup manager. See attachment: from left: debian, OSX, MorphOS

on weekend I will try installation via latest NETINST.iso on powerbook G4(32bit) and I will send info, if there are any diffirencies compares to ppc64

ii) we can add menu entries for other operating systems manually to grub.cfg - I will test it later.

iii) every time boot to open firmware and manually type boot command for selected operating system. Very uncomfortable.


2) if OF "boot-command" is set to something other than "mac-boot" (in my case I have here exact boot-command with path for starting MorphOS) mac don't boot with grub, and if there is no grub visible on Startup manager, only way how to boot linux if OF command. It can be fixed by setting nvsetenv boot-device to "ofpath\grub" or to "mac-boot"

Not sure I understand how you end up in this situation. Can you explain in detail
how to reproduce this problem?

sorry I slightly mispelled this. Here is longer expalnation:
In open firmware are several nvram vars bor booting. Two of them is:

"boot-device" specify the boot device and root partition to load on boot. This variable is set correctly with debian installer. "boot-command" is command for booting the OS, mac default value is "mac-boot". In this default case mac boots according to boot-device value.
It works fine with linux.
In case with linux + OSX it also works, we can boot linux via grub automatically, and if you want to boot OSX, you can do it with Startup Manager.

In my case (+MorphOS) the variable boot-command is set to MorphOs bootable kernel, and not to default value (mac-boot)
Debian installer set correctly boot-device and don't change boot-command.
With this situation (after fresh debian installation) I cannot boot to debian ( only with direct command from open firmware). Grub partition is not visible to Starup Manager, thus cannot be selected, and automatic boot using nvrams boots to kernel specified in boot-command.

Quick fix is: set nvram "boot-command" to it's default ='mac-boot' by installer.

But as I said, it is no debian problem, I think it is waste of time try to add menus with other OSes to installer.
I can wrote how to do it to wiki.debian/powerpc.

Martine

Attachment: 20200428_184526u.jpg
Description: JPEG image


Reply to: