Re: multi-architecture powerpc CD?

[Michael Lorenz <macallan%netbsd.org@localhost>]

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Hello,

On May 1, 2008, at 02:03, Tim Rightnour wrote:
> On 01-May-2008 Michael Lorenz wrote:
> > > 2) What is the method of making the cd bootable on macppc?  For
> > > prep we write a
> > > fdisk partition to the head of the iso image.  Is that incompatible
> > > with macppc?
> >
> > Don't think so - IIRC all Apple OF versions can read ofwboot.xcf from
> > an ISO 9660 filesystem.
> > I wouldn't be surprised if at least old world OF also understands
> > prep bootable CDs ( or whatever /packages/aix-boot is for )
>
> Well, ofppc uses a /bootinfo.txt file, which contains pointers to  
> the ofwboot
> file.  Here is a quick ls -lR:
>
> ./:
> drwxr-xr-x  2 root  wheel      512 Apr 30 22:53 nbsd
> -rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel  3349845 Apr 30 22:53 netbsd
> drwxr-xr-x  4 root  wheel      512 Apr 30 18:38 ofppc
> -r-xr-xr-x  1 root  wheel    55604 Apr 30 18:25 ofwboot.ofppc
> drwxr-xr-x  2 root  wheel      512 Apr 30 22:53 ppc
>
> ./nbsd:
> -r-xr-xr-x  1 root  wheel  55604 Apr 30 18:25 ofwboot
>
> ./ppc:
> -rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel  12777 Apr 30 22:53 bootinfo.txt
>
> Prep has an el-torrito image, and a fdisk/mbr on the head of the  
> ISO that
> points to it.

Apple OF definitely understands MBR labels, all versions do as far as  
I know. OF3 might understand bootinfo.txt too.

> The only problem that leaves, potentially, is that your ofwboot.xcf  
> will also
> look for /netbsd, and try to boot ofppc's kernel.  Perhaps modify  
> ofwboot on
> macppc to look for netbsd.mac and netbsd.macppc first?

I think it does look for netbsd.macppc first - after all we have  
multi-arch boot CDs that work on sparc, sparc64 and macppc. No idea  
where and how they're created though.

> (Mine looks for netbsd.ofppc, but that proved problematic, as the  
> IBM firmware
> can only deal with 8.3 filenames in the CD)

Hmm, Apple OF 1.0.5 might have similar issues. I'm pretty sure newer  
versions support at least the ISO9660 31-character-per-filename scheme.

> I suspect newer versions of mac firmware can also deal with  
> bootinfo.txt.  If
> so, that would be an added bonus, as we could add an entry for the  
> macppc
> loader in there.

Yeah, OF3 is far closer to 'normal' OpenFirmware ( and Sun's OpenBoot  
3 ) and should be more or less CHRP.

have fun
Michael

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