From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with archive (Exim 4.43) id 1KsPtl-00085u-Sg for mharc-grub-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 21 Oct 2008 18:40:21 -0400 Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1KsPtk-00085i-M8 for grub-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 21 Oct 2008 18:40:20 -0400 Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1KsPth-000846-AI for grub-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 21 Oct 2008 18:40:20 -0400 Received: from [199.232.76.173] (port=53185 helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1KsPth-000841-2Q for grub-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 21 Oct 2008 18:40:17 -0400 Received: from e34.co.us.ibm.com ([32.97.110.152]:43728) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS-1.0:DHE_RSA_AES_256_CBC_SHA1:32) (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1KsPtc-0000ga-Cv; Tue, 21 Oct 2008 18:40:12 -0400 Received: from d03relay04.boulder.ibm.com (d03relay04.boulder.ibm.com [9.17.195.106]) by e34.co.us.ibm.com (8.13.8/8.13.8) with ESMTP id m9LMeAIA001619; Tue, 21 Oct 2008 18:40:10 -0400 Received: from d03av04.boulder.ibm.com (d03av04.boulder.ibm.com [9.17.195.170]) by d03relay04.boulder.ibm.com (8.13.8/8.13.8/NCO v9.1) with ESMTP id m9LMe9r0026884; Tue, 21 Oct 2008 16:40:09 -0600 Received: from d03av04.boulder.ibm.com (loopback [127.0.0.1]) by d03av04.boulder.ibm.com (8.12.11.20060308/8.13.3) with ESMTP id m9LMe96B017964; Tue, 21 Oct 2008 16:40:09 -0600 Received: from [9.53.41.42] (slate.austin.ibm.com [9.53.41.42]) by d03av04.boulder.ibm.com (8.12.11.20060308/8.12.11) with ESMTP id m9LMe9K2017948; Tue, 21 Oct 2008 16:40:09 -0600 From: Hollis Blanchard To: Pavel Roskin In-Reply-To: <1224626697.3267.19.camel@dv> References: <1224622323.31194.81.camel@localhost.localdomain> <1224626697.3267.19.camel@dv> Content-Type: text/plain Organization: IBM Linux Technology Center Date: Tue, 21 Oct 2008 17:40:06 -0500 Message-Id: <1224628806.31194.99.camel@localhost.localdomain> Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Evolution 2.22.3.1 (2.22.3.1-1.fc9) Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-detected-operating-system: by monty-python.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.4-2.6 Cc: The development of GRUB 2 , Carlos Roberto do Nascimento Costa , Manoel Subject: Re: PPC64 X-BeenThere: grub-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list Reply-To: The development of GRUB 2 List-Id: The development of GRUB 2 List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 21 Oct 2008 22:40:20 -0000 On Tue, 2008-10-21 at 18:04 -0400, Pavel Roskin wrote: > > util/ieee1275/grub-install.in is not suitable for PowerPC. It worked great for me. :) > It assumes that /boot is on the HFS boot partition. I documented the partitioning assumptions it uses: http://grub.enbug.org/TestingOnPowerPC > It's not the case for Fedora > and perhaps any distro. The HFS boot partition is not mounted and > should be accessed by hfstools. The modules should be installed > under /boot/grub. The path to /boot/grub should be embedded into the > core image. We have support for embedding the default module path now. > We need a better script that would not put all modules on the short HFS > boot partition. Considering that the SPARC port is defunct, I would > just rewrite util/ieee1275/grub-install.in. The "boot partition" is an unnecessary hack instituted by a particularly opinionated ybin developer, and a great inconvenience. It's ridiculous to have scripts to copy and convert yaboot.conf files into a "secret" partition, especially since the bootloader is perfectly capable of discovering files at run time (unlike lilo, where the ybin model came from). Also, have you looked at those scripts? On IBM POWER servers, there is no HFS partition at all. Instead, there is a "raw" partition onto which you dd an ELF file. Firmware loads the whole thing into memory and jumps at offset 0. Traditionally, yaboot is installed there, and when it runs it does a shoddy job of trying to walk the (DOS) partition table, searching for /etc/yaboot.conf. Once GRUB replaces yaboot/ybin we can happily wave both of these anachronisms goodbye. Firmware on both systems is fully capable of loading ELF files from a filesystem, and since it's on a filesystem there is no need to embed anything or search anywhere: all files (grub.cfg and the modules) should be placed adjacent to the executable. As for embedding the path in the executable itself, that's a nice idea until you copy the executable to another system or move your hard disk to another system where devices have different Open Firmware paths and aliases. Another big pain point is building bootable CDs, since these also unfortunately cannot make assumptions about the Open Firmware devices available. Just put all the files in the same directory on a real filesystem and be happy. I know I am. :) -- Hollis Blanchard IBM Linux Technology Center