GRUB2 EFI and multiboot.mod for use with Xen

GRUB2 EFI and multiboot.mod for use with Xen

[Søren Grønning Iversen]

  Hi everyone,

Has anybody had any success multibooting a bootia32.efi setup with Xen 
on a Mac Pro / Xserve?

I have a MacPro1,1 (dual processor dual core Xeon 2.0 GHz) booting 
nicely with bootia32.efi, but would really like to be able to experiment 
with having Xen on the same server, since I need to have at least 2-3 
Linux installations running on that particular type of hardware and 
would much prefer using virtualization for this ...

I understand that there has been some issues concerning the multiboot 
module not being built when specifying ./configure --with-platform=efi 
.... -Is this history now?

It seems that Debian includes the multiboot.mod with the 
grub-efi-i386.deb, but exactly what modules does it depend on? -I have 
tried creating a GRUB2 image file with the multiboot.mod module 
included, but it never booted ...

Best regards,

Søren Grønning Iversen

Re: GRUB2 EFI and multiboot.mod for use with Xen

[Lennart Sorensen]

On Tue, Nov 23, 2010 at 04:54:16PM +0100, Søren Grønning Iversen wrote:
>  Hi everyone,
>
> Has anybody had any success multibooting a bootia32.efi setup with Xen  
> on a Mac Pro / Xserve?
>
> I have a MacPro1,1 (dual processor dual core Xeon 2.0 GHz) booting  
> nicely with bootia32.efi, but would really like to be able to experiment  
> with having Xen on the same server, since I need to have at least 2-3  
> Linux installations running on that particular type of hardware and  
> would much prefer using virtualization for this ...
>
> I understand that there has been some issues concerning the multiboot  
> module not being built when specifying ./configure --with-platform=efi  
> .... -Is this history now?
>
> It seems that Debian includes the multiboot.mod with the  
> grub-efi-i386.deb, but exactly what modules does it depend on? -I have  
> tried creating a GRUB2 image file with the multiboot.mod module  
> included, but it never booted ...

Any reason not to use kvm?  Seems much simpler to use than xen and also
seems to be the way most people are going these days.

-- 
Len Sorensen

Re: GRUB2 EFI and multiboot.mod for use with Xen

[Søren Grønning Iversen]

  I have existing well functioning Xen setups that I'd like to transfer 
to this Mac Pro, but the only bit that seems to block this move is the 
capabilities of GRUB2-EFI concerning multiboot functionality.

I'm very pleased with my experiences with Xen until now and I am much 
more at home with Xen at the moment so it never really struck me that I 
might very well look to KVM for this ... One thing that has definately 
caught my attention with KVM is Red Hat's emerging oVirt management 
interface. It seems to be a really slick Ruby on Rails based piece of 
work and I could see that do a lot of good for me in the future, but 
this is altogether a different story from the GRUB2-EFI starting point ;)

-Søren


On 23/11/10 16.57, Lennart Sorensen wrote:
> On Tue, Nov 23, 2010 at 04:54:16PM +0100, Søren Grønning Iversen wrote:
>>   Hi everyone,
>>
>> Has anybody had any success multibooting a bootia32.efi setup with Xen
>> on a Mac Pro / Xserve?
>>
>> I have a MacPro1,1 (dual processor dual core Xeon 2.0 GHz) booting
>> nicely with bootia32.efi, but would really like to be able to experiment
>> with having Xen on the same server, since I need to have at least 2-3
>> Linux installations running on that particular type of hardware and
>> would much prefer using virtualization for this ...
>>
>> I understand that there has been some issues concerning the multiboot
>> module not being built when specifying ./configure --with-platform=efi
>> .... -Is this history now?
>>
>> It seems that Debian includes the multiboot.mod with the
>> grub-efi-i386.deb, but exactly what modules does it depend on? -I have
>> tried creating a GRUB2 image file with the multiboot.mod module
>> included, but it never booted ...
> Any reason not to use kvm?  Seems much simpler to use than xen and also
> seems to be the way most people are going these days.
>

Re: GRUB2 EFI and multiboot.mod for use with Xen

[Lennart Sorensen]

On Tue, Nov 23, 2010 at 06:55:15PM +0100, Søren Grønning Iversen wrote:
>  I have existing well functioning Xen setups that I'd like to transfer  
> to this Mac Pro, but the only bit that seems to block this move is the  
> capabilities of GRUB2-EFI concerning multiboot functionality.

Oh, are you trying to dual boot the Mac between Linux (to run xen stuff)
and Mac OS?

> I'm very pleased with my experiences with Xen until now and I am much  
> more at home with Xen at the moment so it never really struck me that I  
> might very well look to KVM for this ... One thing that has definately  
> caught my attention with KVM is Red Hat's emerging oVirt management  
> interface. It seems to be a really slick Ruby on Rails based piece of  
> work and I could see that do a lot of good for me in the future, but  
> this is altogether a different story from the GRUB2-EFI starting point ;)

I have used grub2 on standard BIOS based PCs, and on openfirmware.
I haven't tried EFI myself, so no idea what kind of bugs to expect
with that.

-- 
Len Sorensen

Re: GRUB2 EFI and multiboot.mod for use with Xen

[Søren Grønning Iversen]

On 23/11/10 19.17, Lennart Sorensen wrote:
> On Tue, Nov 23, 2010 at 06:55:15PM +0100, Søren Grønning Iversen wrote:
>>   I have existing well functioning Xen setups that I'd like to transfer
>> to this Mac Pro, but the only bit that seems to block this move is the
>> capabilities of GRUB2-EFI concerning multiboot functionality.
> Oh, are you trying to dual boot the Mac between Linux (to run xen stuff)
> and Mac OS?
>
Yes I would like for that to be possible.
>> I'm very pleased with my experiences with Xen until now and I am much
>> more at home with Xen at the moment so it never really struck me that I
>> might very well look to KVM for this ... One thing that has definately
>> caught my attention with KVM is Red Hat's emerging oVirt management
>> interface. It seems to be a really slick Ruby on Rails based piece of
>> work and I could see that do a lot of good for me in the future, but
>> this is altogether a different story from the GRUB2-EFI starting point ;)
> I have used grub2 on standard BIOS based PCs, and on openfirmware.
> I haven't tried EFI myself, so no idea what kind of bugs to expect
> with that.
>
I have had no issues at all with grub2 on bios based PCs (only a small 
issue with the Xen pv-ops dom0 kernel needing a kernel mode line to boot 
correctly, but I always custom compile these kernels anyhow, so that was 
of very minor importance ...

But I'll give grub-efi-i386 an extra shot!

Re: GRUB2 EFI and multiboot.mod for use with Xen

[Lennart Sorensen]

On Tue, Nov 23, 2010 at 07:25:06PM +0100, Søren Grønning Iversen wrote:
> I have had no issues at all with grub2 on bios based PCs (only a small  
> issue with the Xen pv-ops dom0 kernel needing a kernel mode line to boot  
> correctly, but I always custom compile these kernels anyhow, so that was  
> of very minor importance ...
>
> But I'll give grub-efi-i386 an extra shot!

Is EFI on your machine 32 or 64bit?

http://grub.enbug.org/TestingOnMacbook seems to say that it matters on
the Mac.

-- 
Len Sorensen

Re: GRUB2 EFI and multiboot.mod for use with Xen

[Søren Grønning Iversen]

  It's the 32-bit version of the first generation Mac Pro and it's 
actualy already booting properly - but last time I checked, the multboot 
feature didn't work ...

Regular boot via EFI works like a charm!

On 23/11/10 20.23, Lennart Sorensen wrote:
> On Tue, Nov 23, 2010 at 07:25:06PM +0100, Søren Grønning Iversen wrote:
>> I have had no issues at all with grub2 on bios based PCs (only a small
>> issue with the Xen pv-ops dom0 kernel needing a kernel mode line to boot
>> correctly, but I always custom compile these kernels anyhow, so that was
>> of very minor importance ...
>>
>> But I'll give grub-efi-i386 an extra shot!
> Is EFI on your machine 32 or 64bit?
>
> http://grub.enbug.org/TestingOnMacbook seems to say that it matters on
> the Mac.
>

Re: GRUB2 EFI and multiboot.mod for use with Xen

[Lennart Sorensen]

On Tue, Nov 23, 2010 at 09:08:04PM +0100, Søren Grønning Iversen wrote:
>  It's the 32-bit version of the first generation Mac Pro and it's  
> actualy already booting properly - but last time I checked, the multboot  
> feature didn't work ...
>
> Regular boot via EFI works like a charm!

Well that's always a good thing.

I unfortunately know nothing about multiboot (OK, nothing _useful_),
so I don't think I can help there.

An error message or something might help out though.

-- 
Len Sorensen

Re: GRUB2 EFI and multiboot.mod for use with Xen

[Søren Grønning Iversen]

  Yes, I'll try to reproduce it ... I'll make a new bootia32.efi image 
as well and see if I'll be able to make it work ;)

Thanks though!

On 23/11/10 22.00, Lennart Sorensen wrote:
> On Tue, Nov 23, 2010 at 09:08:04PM +0100, Søren Grønning Iversen wrote:
>>   It's the 32-bit version of the first generation Mac Pro and it's
>> actualy already booting properly - but last time I checked, the multboot
>> feature didn't work ...
>>
>> Regular boot via EFI works like a charm!
> Well that's always a good thing.
>
> I unfortunately know nothing about multiboot (OK, nothing _useful_),
> so I don't think I can help there.
>
> An error message or something might help out though.
>

Re: GRUB2 EFI and multiboot.mod for use with Xen

[Vladimir 'φ-coder/phcoder' Serbinenko]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 1735 bytes --]

On 11/23/2010 04:54 PM, Søren Grønning Iversen wrote:
>  Hi everyone,
>
> Has anybody had any success multibooting a bootia32.efi setup with Xen
> on a Mac Pro / Xserve?
>
> I have a MacPro1,1 (dual processor dual core Xeon 2.0 GHz) booting
> nicely with bootia32.efi, but would really like to be able to
> experiment with having Xen on the same server, since I need to have at
> least 2-3 Linux installations running on that particular type of
> hardware and would much prefer using virtualization for this ...
>
> I understand that there has been some issues concerning the multiboot
> module not being built when specifying ./configure --with-platform=efi
> .... -Is this history now?
>
> It seems that Debian includes the multiboot.mod with the
> grub-efi-i386.deb, but exactly what modules does it depend on? -I have
> tried creating a GRUB2 image file with the multiboot.mod module
> included, but it never booted ...
>
Dependencies are tracked automatically. I recommend using grub-install
now rather than following obsolete manual instructions
Also EFI doesn't have an easily accessible VGA text, which is used by
default by xen. So you need to use serial console or boot blindly. You
may want to contact Xen about using graphical console. Also if xen makes
any BIOS calls it will crash. If xen uses ACPI or DMI you need to issue
"fakebios" command as workaround and contact XEN about using ACPI and
SMBIOS pointers from MBI.

> Best regards,
>
> Søren Grønning Iversen
>
> _______________________________________________
> Grub-devel mailing list
> Grub-devel@gnu.org
> http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/grub-devel
>


-- 
Regards
Vladimir 'φ-coder/phcoder' Serbinenko



[-- Attachment #2: OpenPGP digital signature --]
[-- Type: application/pgp-signature, Size: 294 bytes --]