Re: Linux loader for the PPC

[Marco Gerards <metgerards@student.han.nl>]

Marco Gerards <metgerards@student.han.nl> writes:

> Here is, as promised, the linux loader for the PPC.  Just like Tomas
> did for the PC, I made the loader accessible from both rescue mode and
> normal mode.  There is just one bug in this code, when a kernel is
> loaded it is not possible to load another kernel (which should replace
> the previous loaded kernel).  I think that problem is caused by a bug
> elsewhere in GRUB 2.  

I just committed this (Better late then never ;)).

I did not commit hfs support yet because I want to finish hfs+ support
first.  Unless someone has a good reason for me to commit it now.
This can take quite a while before I will finish it.

So now GRUB 2 can be used to boot GNU/Linux on the open firmware PPCs.

If I am not mistaken, Maurizio is working on module loaded for this
port (what is the status, btw?).  Hopefully soon I will find the time
to finish the interface so it becomes easy to use GRUB 2.  The last
important missing feature is a loader for macos.  And we will need
multiboot support, of course.

I really hope anyone reading this with a PPC will test this code and
tell me which features are missing.  If there is any mac/ppc specific
feature that is not implemented or mentioned that will most likely
mean it will not be implemented.  So don't be shy and tell me what you
need.

And to make it ready for production usage someday, GRUB 2 on the PPC
needs to be tested.  You can do that by following these steps (a=disk,
b=network):

1) Make a CVS checkout of GRUB 2.

2) ./configure && make

3a) Copy grubof to your HFS[+] boot partition.  This is the same
    partition yaboot uses.

3b) Copy grubof to your tftp directory.  Setup bootp to load this
    kernel.

4a) Boot your mac into the open firmware console and boot the grubof
    ELF.
4b) Boot from network.

5)  GRUB is started.  You can load and boot GNU/Linux using (for example):

linux (hd,10)/vmlinux root=/dev/hda11
boot

6)  Or instead of booting just play a bit.  Try to access files and
    find bugs. :)

Please send me a report if this does or doesn't work for you.  What
went wrong, etc.  It would be useful for me to hear what kind of
machine you were using.

Thanks,
Marco