Re: Why it's so difficult to fix PowerMac booting for good
On 06/02 2023 22:38 Ben Westover wrote:
Hello,
On 6/2/23 1:56 AM, Linux User #330250 wrote:
One thing that concerns me a bit is putting Linux's CHRP boot script
into /System/Library/CoreServices/BootX, which is specific to Mac OS X.
Why is this necessary?
It's not necessary, it's just that the existing script placed by GRUB to
load itself is already in that location, so putting the new one there a)
removes the existing entry for GRUB and b) saves you a blessing step.
The only special thing I found about that particular spot is that none
of the PowerMacs I've used will display a blessed script on a USB drive
unless it's in that specific location. Another bonus is if the script is
in that directory along with a 'Volume Name Icon' file it will have a
nice label of your choosing under the icon like OS X does.
Wow, thanks, I didn't know that. None of my PowerMacs support USB
booting (over the OS Picker). Well, the Late-2005 Power Mac G5 might,
but I think this is the only one. (The manual way over the OF command
line has always been possible...)[1]
In this case I take back what I previously wrote and state the opposite. ;-)
Given the possibility to put an internal disk into an external FireWire
or USB enclosure, it would make sense to keep it as compatible to the
supported boot process as possible. I know that Mac OS X is
hyper-compatible in this sense, it can boot from each and every internal
and external boot path. Very impressive. Considering how easy it is for
Mac OS X to boot from everywhere, Linux should be configured like this
as well...
So, if /System/Library/CoreServices/BootX is the way to make it
compatible on USB media, and additionally with the "Volume Name Icon"
file as means to labeling it for the OS Picker, I now think we should
definitely do that for Linux as well!
I think, Debian (and Gentoo; Linux on the PowerMac in general) should
make it's own Apple_Bootstrap (would Apple_Boot also work?) partition
with the mentioned files in order to be bootable no matter what.
I'm still in favor of UUIDs though. And I'm still in favor of
dynamically configuring the boot process to the actual UUIDs. Like Mac
OS X, Linux booting should still work if partition numbers and
identifiers change, like external HDD instead of internal, or like
inserting or deleting partitions in front of the Linux partitions...
Linux User #330250
[1] https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/the-open-firmware-wiki.2225024/
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