Re: Newworld OF boot

Re: Newworld OF boot

[Troy Benjegerdes]

>         I have not heard of a FreeBSD PowerPC port, but NetBSD does have a
> Mac PowerPC port.  NetBSD seems to create an OF note section.

I have booted NetBSD using standard bootp and tftp, along with holding
down the 'N' key on a blue & white G3. I've also gotten a CHRP linux
kernel image to load and start unzipping the kernel. However, I haven't
had the time in the last couple of months to actually work out all the
details with where the kernel loads and setting the processor memory
management in a state where the linux boot code can handle it.

-- 
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| Troy Benjegerdes    |  troy@blacklablinux.com    |    hozer@drgw.net  
|
|    Unix is user friendly... You just have to be friendly to it first. 
|
| This message composed with 100% free software.    http://www.gnu.org  
|
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Newworld OF boot

[Florent]

Has anyone succeeded in booting newworld macintoshes (ie the iMac or the B&W
G3) using OF ?
I've looked at the mailing list archive and this topic has already been
discuted here, but as far as I read, there was no solution found.
Because I can't believe Apple has crippled OF for non-MacOS booting, I'm
sure there is a way to turn around.

Here is what I know and what I've tried :

- Quik doesn't works on newworld, but it is not the only way to boot under
OF.

- OF can load files from HFS, HFS+, iso9660, FAT... filesystems (included in
/packages)

- OF can execute at least ELF and XCOFF binaries.

- the root of a MacOS disk I can see under OF is the System folder. (I can
see that with "dir hd:,5\\", where 5 is the number of my MacOS partition)

- I can boot MacOS by typing "boot hd:,5\\Mac%20OS%20ROM".

- When I try "boot hd:,5\\vmlinux" (there is a linux kernel in my system
folder), the kernel is recognised as an elf binary, OF writes some
informations about it, but it fails and replies : CLAIM failed.

- I can sucessfuly load smaller ELF binaries without CLAIM errors.

Next, I've examined the MacOS ROM file (there is something about it at
http://developer.apple.com/technotes/tn/tn1167.html)
Just open it with a disk track editor or a text editor :

This file contains the following :

- An header with some informations and a forth boot script

- an ELF bootstraff code

- a MacOS ROM image.

The script seems to create and/or modify /rom/macos and
/rom/AAPL,toolbox-image,lzss. Then it loads the ELF code.
According to Apple, the ELF code (called Trampoline code) is specific to OF
and does the transition between OF and the ROM image.

I can successfuly run any Forth script loaded from the hard disk. This would
be a way to make a nice dual-boot menu.

In the past (before BootX), I used to boot LinuxPPC on a floppy where there
was an XCoff kernel (boot fd:\\vmlinux.coff). How can I compile an XCoff
kernel to try it ?

I've heard that FreeBSD is bootable under newworld's OF. Is the kernel an
ELF file, too ? Or is it like MacOS Rom file ?


--
Il est maintenant temps de clore votre connection et de reprendre une vie
normale.
Mon e-mail : FloBo@iName.com (Florent Boudet)
Mon e-mail secondaire : FloBo@Rocketmail.com (je ne le regarde jamais)
Mon QG : http://www.multimania.com/flobo/

** Sent via the linuxppc-dev mail list. See http://lists.linuxppc.org/

Newworld OF boot

[Florent]

Has anyone succeeded in booting newworld macintoshes (ie the iMac or the B&W
G3) using OF ?
I've looked at the mailing list archive and this topic has already been
discuted here, but as far as I read, there was no solution found.
Because I can't believe Apple has crippled OF for non-MacOS booting, I'm
sure there is a way to turn around.

Here is what I know and what I've tried :

- Quik doesn't works on newworld, but it is not the only way to boot under
OF.

- OF can load files from HFS, HFS+, iso9660, FAT... filesystems (included in
/packages)

- OF can execute at least ELF and XCOFF binaries.

- the root of a MacOS disk I can see under OF is the System folder. (I can
see that with "dir hd:,5\\", where 5 is the number of my MacOS partition)

- I can boot MacOS by typing "boot hd:,5\\Mac%20OS%20ROM".

- When I try "boot hd:,5\\vmlinux" (there is a linux kernel in my system
folder), the kernel is recognised as an elf binary, OF writes some
informations about it, but it fails and replies : CLAIM failed.

- I can sucessfuly load smaller ELF binaries without CLAIM errors.

Next, I've examined the MacOS ROM file (there is something about it at
http://developer.apple.com/technotes/tn/tn1167.html)
Just open it with a disk track editor or a text editor :

This file contains the following :

- An header with some informations and a forth boot script

- an ELF bootstraff code

- a MacOS ROM image.

The script seems to create and/or modify /rom/macos and
/rom/AAPL,toolbox-image,lzss. Then it loads the ELF code.
According to Apple, the ELF code (called Trampoline code) is specific to OF
and does the transition between OF and the ROM image.

I can successfuly run any Forth script loaded from the hard disk. This would
be a way to make a nice dual-boot menu.

In the past (before BootX), I used to boot LinuxPPC on a floppy where there
was an XCoff kernel (boot fd:\\vmlinux.coff). How can I compile an XCoff
kernel to try it ?

I've heard that FreeBSD is bootable under newworld's OF. Is the kernel an
ELF file, too ? Or is it like MacOS Rom file ?


--
Il est maintenant temps de clore votre connection et de reprendre une vie
normale.
Mon e-mail : FloBo@iName.com (Florent Boudet)
Mon e-mail secondaire : FloBo@Rocketmail.com (je ne le regarde jamais)
Mon QG : http://www.multimania.com/flobo/

** Sent via the linuxppc-dev mail list. See http://lists.linuxppc.org/

Re: Newworld OF boot

[Takashi Oe]

On Tue, 2 Nov 1999, Florent wrote:

[...]
> In the past (before BootX), I used to boot LinuxPPC on a floppy where there
> was an XCoff kernel (boot fd:\\vmlinux.coff). How can I compile an XCoff
> kernel to try it ?

"make vmlinux.coff" used to produce XCoff binary.  It looks like
"make zImage" should produce XCoff image according to
arch/ppc/coffboot/Makefile.


Good luck!

Takashi Oe


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Re: Newworld OF boot

[David Edelsohn]

	I have seen documentation about OF accepting XCOFF, but I am not
sure exactly how it is suppose to work.  I assume that the XCOFF image
needs something equivalent to the ELF OF note section to specify loading
parameters. 

	I have not heard of a FreeBSD PowerPC port, but NetBSD does have a
Mac PowerPC port.  NetBSD seems to create an OF note section. 

	The last I checked, Linux/PPC creates an ELF kernel which it then
prepends an XCOFF header for PreP booting, and then there seemed to be
some work to package the XCOFF image within an ELF header again.  If
someone added a correct OF note section to the first ELF executable, Mac
OF should be happy.  The necessary pieces have been described numerous
times in this mailinglist, but everyone seems to be infatuated with Rube
Goldberg solutions.

David

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Re : Newworld OF boot

[Florent]

>>Has anyone succeeded in booting newworld macintoshes (ie the iMac or the B&W
>>G3) using OF ?
>
> no
>
>>I'm
>>sure there is a way to turn around.
>
> yup, we need a elf version of quik that works, then we can stick that
> on a tiny partition and not have to use msdosfs or hfs for the root
> filesystem
[...]
> let me know if you find out anything else, I want to fix this issue
> but it seems that everyone else just want to use bootx for eternity.
> it would be nice if you could find a way to make OF load a bootblock
> as that would be cleaner then a partition, if you can write code then
> perhaps fix the quik second stage loader (elf version) to work
> properly (it loads now but just says an error because it does not
> expect to be loaded like that)

I'm currently working on the second stage loader (version 2.0.0a). When it
is launched from OF, it detects the machine as a CHRP and fixes the root
partition as the second one (this part of the code seems to be a quick add).

Things I've changed :
-in main.c line 353: replaced fip->conf_part = 2; with my root partition
number.
-in disk.c line 59 : sprintf(bootdevice, "disk:0"); replaced disk:0 with hd
(or ultra0) to match the blueg3 firmware's aliases names.

Now it works better, but it fails when it tries to open /etc/quik.conf (call
to ext2fs_open() in file.c) : I get a Default Catch error and OF breaks.

Since the second stage loader relies on OF for raw disk access, and that
doesn't seems to work with newworld's OF, i think it will never boot this
way.
I think that there is no way else than make an OF-readable partition
containing the kernel and an elf program to load it...

I must boot MacOS to boot Linux, then I modify and compile quik, then I
reboot my computer to test it with OF, then it crashes, then I reboot under
MacOS, then Linux... I'm fed up with rebooting.


--
Il est maintenant temps de clore votre connection et de reprendre une vie
normale.
Mon e-mail : FloBo@iName.com (Florent Boudet)
Mon e-mail secondaire : FloBo@Rocketmail.com (je ne le regarde jamais)
Mon QG : http://www.multimania.com/flobo/

** Sent via the linuxppc-dev mail list. See http://lists.linuxppc.org/

Re: Newworld OF boot

[Benjamin Herrenschmidt]

On Fri, Nov 5, 1999, Florent <flobo@iname.com> wrote:

>I'm currently working on the second stage loader (version 2.0.0a). When it
>is launched from OF, it detects the machine as a CHRP and fixes the root
>partition as the second one (this part of the code seems to be a quick add).
>

Marius Vollmer recently released "poof", an OF bootloader for NewWorld
that apparently can read the kernel from ext2. I didn't test it nor I
remember the URL, but a search on the linuxppc-usr mailing list archive
should work.


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