On Tue, Jan 29, 2019 at 12:07:38AM -0800, Rick Thomas wrote: > > > > On Jan 29, 2019, at 12:00 AM, Michael Cree <mc...@orcon.net.nz> wrote: > > > > On Mon, Jan 28, 2019 at 12:45:10PM +0100, John Paul Adrian Glaubitz wrote: > >> On 1/28/19 12:34 PM, Rick Thomas wrote: > >>> I realize that this may require some programming, but would it be possible > >>> to have it ask a question early on (maybe at or before the beginning of > >>> partitioning) requesting the user to choose between yaboot and grub? Then > >>> the partitioner would automatically create the necessary partition(s) and > >>> “install boot loader” would automatically install the chosen boot loader > >>> conditioned on the answer to the question… > >> > >> Yaboot is unmaintained upstream and does not support modern ext4 features. > >> In > >> order for Yaboot to work properly, you have to turn certain features in > >> ext4 > >> off, otherwise it won't work and the boot fails. > > > > Can you not have an ext3 boot partition and the rest of the OS on > > an ext4 partition? > > I don’t know if it works with ext3, but I can personally vouch for it > with ext2.
That's basically what I mean; make a boot partition with whatever the bootloader is capable of reading. That's what we do on Alpha where a similar problem exists; however the Alpha boot loader (aboot), though possibly simpler than yaboot is far superior in its user interface, and because its source package produces a binary package usable on all architectures it remains in the official Debian archive. As much as a loathe grub (and I do; I far prefer the simplicity of the Alpha aboot) I agree with Adrian that if grub can be made to work on all PowerPC/PPC64 supported computers, then yaboot should be removed from the distribution. Cheers, Michael.
