Re: Testing on PowerMac G4

[Robert Millan <rmh@aybabtu.com>]

On Wed, Jan 02, 2008 at 01:46:04AM -0500, Pavel Roskin wrote:
> Quoting Robert Millan <rmh@aybabtu.com>:
> 
> >>My guess is kernel.elf doesn't include the necessary code.  It's about
> >>60k long.
> 
> Now I'm sure about that.  Unfortunately, grub-mkimage produces images  
> that the OpenFirmware fails to load with "CLAIM failed" (even with  
> just one short module).  Indeed, bad things started with the first  
> commit on 2007-02-21.  I'm afraid I won't be able to figure it out  
> without Hollis.

It can mostly be solved by analizing/testing the regression diff.

In August I sent an updated version that might be helpful:

  http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/grub-devel/2007-08/msg00031.html

just take the grub-mkimage.c part of it and try to revert it on CVS HEAD,
that would confirm it's a grub-mkimage problem.  Then apply the hunks
selectively untill you find the exact change that broke it.  And finally
it's just a matter of "looking hard" at that hunk untill it's coerced to
reveal the problem :-)

This seems to affect many powermac users.  I'd have gone through the bug
myself, but I don't have access to the hardware.

> (Not to put any pressure of anyone, but GNU ChangeLog shows its age  
> here - the detailed changes are described, but the motivation behind  
> the whole patch is not, yet the details can be recovered with the  
> version control, whereas the motivation has to be guessed)

Full ack.  But, you didn't mention any alternative.

> Both ide0/disk and cd refer to the CD-ROM.  The messages are not shown  
> if there is a CD in the drive.
> 
> >What happens if you set debug=disk ?
> 
> Typing from another monitor, sorry for possible typos.
> 
> disk/ieee1275/ofdisk.c:65: Opening `ide1/disk:0'.
> disk/ieee1275/ofdisk.c:74: Opened `ide1/disk:0' as handle 0xff9d1c00.
> kern/disk.c:299: Opening `ide1/disk' failed.
> kern/disk.c:312: Closing `ide1/disk'.

This seems to be contradictory.  If OF returned a handle, why does the
open fail ?  Looks like GRUB doesn't like something but isn't telling you
what.  I'd investigate that part;  at the least it can mean our error
handling isn't good enough.

-- 
Robert Millan

<GPLv2> I know my rights; I want my phone call!
<DRM> What use is a phone call, if you are unable to speak?
(as seen on /.)