rEFIt is a loader that replaces the integrated EFI firmware for part of its functionality, bypassing arbitrary limitations or unforseen support cases which Apple is not willing to support, such as Linux or Solaris. Though holding alt and using a Boot Camp partition will work, it'll simply appear as "Windows" with the included compatibility module/loader portion of their EFI implementation. More specifically, parted is necessary to make changes which do not damage the synchronization of EFI and MBR tables when booting BIOS (Legacy) operating systems.
Simply using Boot Camp Assistant, then using parted to make further changes to the partitioning will not make it any easier to install Solaris, even if included with the livecd as there are two bugs, one that so far has not been fixed related to how Solaris fdisk and format handle EFI tables on x86 platforms, hence the necessity to change the EFI system partition (/dev/disk0s1 under Mac OS X) to AF id instead of the normal EE, as Solaris is a legacy system and does not depend on the EFI partition for operation or installation, but as with this case it is a blocker. The other issue unrelated to the two EFI bugs is the way GRUB is installed without asking for user input, which is needed to successfully do it with the presence of an EFI partition, where the MBR is actually located offset and embedded after the normal 512 bytes of the first disk. rEFIt makes GRUB aware of the location of the MBR by feeding it to the underlying operating system as a normal x86 system's BIOS would, but the normal EFI implementation on these platforms has been coded specifically for Windows and doesn't leave room for others. GRUB may install if you are not using rEFIt but the bug where it does not install is not always reproducable. rEFI can only be installed from under Mac OS X because it requires access to the EFI partition as their system understands in order to keep it in sync due to the fact their system is EFI native and must use a GUID partition scheme instead of MBR for installation, and this could be roughly equated to a hybrid layout, which technically for most intensive purposes does not exist outside these systems, and is thus not well supported by standard tools included with the majority of FOSS systems. I'm sure that there's a way to get EFI tables updated, but the components must lie on the HFS+ partition and be activated at every boot to maintain table state, but "legacy" systems are both ignorant and unconcerned with such requirements. In order to have a healthy dual boot system, the existance of parted for further changes to the initially created MS-DOS FAT32 template file system, which is grown over the space shrunk from the hot resize operation with either the assistant or diskutil needs to be included, but is only half of what's necessary, with the other fully dependent on the ability to boot their operating system. The other issue is with the template used with the newly created partition with typical setups, which specifically is that the id is marked as 0C (FAT32) and not 82 (Solaris) and the underlying partition tools called by the installer (CLI or GUI) do not like this. These issues are past and present and not just limited to Indiana, and affect all versions of Solaris that will technically run on these platforms. James On Fri, Oct 10, 2008 at 12:16 AM, Alex Peng <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Recently in different Installfests or Techdays, people showed > interesting in trying install OpenSolaris into their hard disk. (Of > course, they already used "device driver utility" to know if OpenSolaris > is suitable for the hardware) > > BUT the next problem is - they don't have any primary partition left, so > we have to bring something like "rEFIt" or "gparted livecd" or > "partition magic" to do the dirty work. > > Is it possible to include some partition tool into LiveCD? This would be > nice to those dual-boot lovers. > > Thanks, > -Alex > _______________________________________________ > indiana-discuss mailing list > [email protected] > http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/indiana-discuss >
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