I am just a grub.efi user/tester/enthusiast.
I don't know the Xserve but some previous reports in this list of people getting grub.efi to boot on Xserve, and if so it will boot hd/usb linux on other Apple intel Macs with varying results . There are some grub.efi 64/32 bit test packages on ubuntuforums that you might try (include the patch) . Xserve results would be interesting. grub2 EFI boot loader internal/external booting<http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=995704> On Sat, Feb 21, 2009 at 3:16 AM, Drew Rosen <drew...@mac.com> wrote: > Hi Peter / phcoder / all other grub gurus, > I've joined the grub-devel mail list while attempting to get MacIntel > Xserves to boot linux. I work with a 3d Movie Effects company that has 25 > MacIntel Xserves that are becoming close to as useful as paperweights > because they can't run Maya at 64bit for rendering. (and we can't repurpose > them as linux servers). > > Any chance we can help test this patch in an xserve environment, and/or do > you have any ideas that would help us? > > Here's the most discouraging info I've received in my research to date: > > The Xserve does not have BIOS compatibility, and so you'll need to boot > through EFI. The Apple EFI implementation will not boot directly off ISO9660 > media, so you'll need to find a way to get to the EFI console. You'll need a > kernel configured with EFI support. There's no especially sensible way to > get a working framebuffer on this hardware, so you'll need to work out what > arguments need to be passed to your distribution's installer in order to get > it to run over the serial port. elilo or grub-efi should be able to boot the > kernel and initramfs. > > I've been catologing my research at: > http://drewsta.com/xserve.html > > Thanks! > > Drew > > > > On Feb 20, 2009, at 6:28 AM, Peter Cros wrote: > > Tested the patch applied to rev 1996 for grub.efi 64 bit and 32 bit, on > Imac81 (4GB ram), MacBookPro41 (4GB and 2GB ram) MacBook21 (i386) > with Macosx 10.4 10.5, ubuntu810. > All good. > > 64bit Macs have other ongoing EFI problems with linux kernel initializtion > and keyboard. > > > On Fri, Feb 20, 2009 at 2:12 AM, Bean <bean12...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> Hi, >> >> This patch contains several important update for x86_64 efi: >> >> 1, Support memory larger than 2G. >> 2, Fix a bug in efi_call_6 that could cause chainloadering osx to fail. >> 3, Improve the method to detect frame buffer address and line length >> in linux loader. >> >> 2009-02-19 Bean <bean12...@gmail.com> >> >> * configure.ac: Check for -mcmodel=large in x86_64 target. >> >> * include/grub/efi/api.h (efi_call_10): New macro. >> (efi_wrap_10): New function. >> >> * include/grub/efi/pe32.h (GRUB_PE32_REL_BASE_HIGH): New macro. >> (GRUB_PE32_REL_BASED_HIGH): Likewise. >> (GRUB_PE32_REL_BASED_LOW): Likewise. >> (GRUB_PE32_REL_BASED_HIGHLOW): Likewise. >> (GRUB_PE32_REL_BASED_HIGHADJ): Likewise. >> (GRUB_PE32_REL_BASED_MIPS_JMPADDR): Likewise. >> (GRUB_PE32_REL_BASED_SECTION): Likewise. >> (GRUB_PE32_REL_BASED_REL): Likewise. >> (GRUB_PE32_REL_BASED_IA64_IMM64): Likewise. >> (GRUB_PE32_REL_BASED_DIR64): Likewise. >> (GRUB_PE32_REL_BASED_HIGH3ADJ): Likewise. >> >> * kern/x86_64/dl.c (grub_arch_dl_relocate_symbols): Fixed >> relocation >> issue. >> >> * kern/x86_64/efi/callwrap.S (efi_wrap_6): Bug fix. >> (efi_wrap_10): New function. >> >> * kern/x86_64/efi/startup.S (codestart): Use relative addressing. >> >> * loader/efi/appleloader.c (devpath_5): Add support for late 2008 >> MB/MBP model (NV chipset). >> (devdata_devs): Add devpath_5 to the list. >> >> * load/i386/efi/linux.c (video_base): Remove variable. >> (RGB_MASK): New macro. >> (RGB_MAGIC): Likewise. >> (LINE_MIN): Likewise. >> (LINE_MAX): Likewise. >> (FBTEST_STEP): Likewise. >> (FBTEST_COUNT): Likewise. >> (fb_list): New variable. >> (grub_find_video_card): Remove function. >> (find_framebuf): New function. >> (grub_linux_setup_video): Use find_framebuf to get frame buffer and >> line length. >> >> * util/i386/efi/grub-mkimage.c (grub_reloc_section): Fix relocation >> problem for x86_64. >> >> -- >> Bean >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Grub-devel mailing list >> Grub-devel@gnu.org >> http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/grub-devel >> >> > > > -- > Cros (pxw) > > > _______________________________________________ > Grub-devel mailing list > Grub-devel@gnu.org > http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/grub-devel > > > > _______________________________________________ > Grub-devel mailing list > Grub-devel@gnu.org > http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/grub-devel > > -- Cros (pxw)
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