Grub2 on a Macbook.

Grub2 on a Macbook.

[Eoin Hennessy]

Hello all,

I've been taking a look at grub2 on an EFI Apple Macbook. I've
installed a build from CVS HEAD and I can chainload grub.efi via the
rEFIt loader. When grub loads I'm seeing the 'grub rescue>' command
prompt. As a test, I'd like to chainload OSX's boot.efi using the
'chainloader' command listed at [0] but the command is reported as
'unknown'. I've also tried the instructions at [1] but it allooks like
grub.cfg is being ignored. Perhaps someone could point me in the right
direction.

Thanks,
Eoin

[0] http://grub.enbug.org/CommandList
[1] http://grub.enbug.org/TestingOnEFI

Re: Grub2 on a Macbook.

[Isaac Dupree]

Eoin Hennessy wrote:
> Hello all,
> 
> I've been taking a look at grub2 on an EFI Apple Macbook. I've
> installed a build from CVS HEAD and I can chainload grub.efi via the
> rEFIt loader. When grub loads I'm seeing the 'grub rescue>' command
> prompt. As a test, I'd like to chainload OSX's boot.efi using the
> 'chainloader' command listed at [0] but the command is reported as
> 'unknown'. I've also tried the instructions at [1] but it allooks like
> grub.cfg is being ignored. Perhaps someone could point me in the right
> direction.

In May/June 2007 I failed at using Grub2 cvs - efi on my new MacBook 
too, with the same issue.  But I'm using Grub2 with legacy boot sequence 
to boot... because it understands GPT :)  and that works except the 
keyboard usually doesn't work during boot because of Apple's buggy bios.

I'm not sure if chainloading would work due to grub2 not understanding 
HFS+ ?  I tried putting grub2-efi and a linux kernel image on a 
FAT16/vfat partition.

Anyway I can probably help test anything if needed.

Isaac

Re: Grub2 on a Macbook.

[Marco Gerards]

Isaac Dupree <id@isaac.cedarswampstudios.org> writes:

> Eoin Hennessy wrote:
>> Hello all,
>>
>> I've been taking a look at grub2 on an EFI Apple Macbook. I've
>> installed a build from CVS HEAD and I can chainload grub.efi via the
>> rEFIt loader. When grub loads I'm seeing the 'grub rescue>' command
>> prompt. As a test, I'd like to chainload OSX's boot.efi using the
>> 'chainloader' command listed at [0] but the command is reported as
>> 'unknown'. I've also tried the instructions at [1] but it allooks like
>> grub.cfg is being ignored. Perhaps someone could point me in the right
>> direction.
>
> In May/June 2007 I failed at using Grub2 cvs - efi on my new MacBook
> too, with the same issue.  But I'm using Grub2 with legacy boot
> sequence to boot... because it understands GPT :)  and that works
> except the keyboard usually doesn't work during boot because of
> Apple's buggy bios.

Are you aware of other bootloaders that do *not* have this problem?  I
experienced this with GRUB Legacy.  The workaround was not pretty...

> I'm not sure if chainloading would work due to grub2 not understanding
> HFS+ ?  I tried putting grub2-efi and a linux kernel image on a
> FAT16/vfat partition.

It *does* understand HFS+, if you load the hfsplus.mod module :-)

> Anyway I can probably help test anything if needed.

Can you please send in bug reports whenever something in GRUB 2
doesn't work?  Or better: document it on the wiki so we will not
forget about this :-)

--
Marco

Re: Grub2 on a Macbook.

[Robert Millan]

On Mon, Sep 17, 2007 at 03:23:09PM +0100, Eoin Hennessy wrote:
> Hello all,
> 
> I've been taking a look at grub2 on an EFI Apple Macbook. I've
> installed a build from CVS HEAD and I can chainload grub.efi via the
> rEFIt loader. When grub loads I'm seeing the 'grub rescue>' command
> prompt. As a test, I'd like to chainload OSX's boot.efi using the
> 'chainloader' command listed at [0] but the command is reported as
> 'unknown'. I've also tried the instructions at [1] but it allooks like
> grub.cfg is being ignored. Perhaps someone could point me in the right
> direction.

Booting MacOS is not yet supported AFAIK

-- 
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 /.)