grub2 EFI boot loader internal/external booting

[cyberdork33]

We could swap macbooks, I have an 8gb stick booting intrepid on the MacBook2,1.

[shadowdude1794]

Oh how I envy you... Is there a beta/alpha/pre-alpha release of grub2 that I might be able to acquire? Is there a website that is devoted to it's development that I skipped over?

[pxwpxw]

Oh how I envy you... Is there a beta/alpha/pre-alpha release of grub2 that I might be able to acquire? Is there a website that is devoted to it's development that I skipped over?

That was the beta version, from about 4 weeks back (v 1913)
There are many links in the grub wiki - to development mailing lists, SVN trunk source code develoment is very active, you can see the patches going on.

Savannah CVS Surfing - project grub - Index of /trunk
http://svn.savannah.gnu.org/viewvc/trunk/?root=grub

GNU GRUB Wiki
http://grub.enbug.org/

Mailing lists for development and bugs. You can maybe put in a plea for intel mac support for current efi firmware.

grub-devel Archives (right up to date).
http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/grub-devel/

Some grub2 bug reports and wishlists-

savannah grub2 bugs
https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?group=grub

Debian grub2 bugs
http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgre...repeatmerged=0

[shadowdude1794]

I'm not very experienced with this, so I have no clue what to do with the SVN link you supplied (thanks anyways). Is there any other alternative? I'm dying to use Ubuntu on my MacBook, but I really don't want to modify anything =/ . I'll take a look at the other links, and submit a woeful plea to the developers.

[pxwpxw]

I'm not very experienced with this, so I have no clue what to do with the SVN link you supplied (thanks anyways). Is there any other alternative? I'm dying to use Ubuntu on my MacBook, but I really don't want to modify anything =/ . I'll take a look at the other links, and submit a woeful plea to the developers.

I just check the SVN version number occasionally, to see what it is up to, and maybe look at the change notes for any advances especially for for efi Macs.

[shadowdude1794]

How do I build grub.efi from the lastest uploads on the SVN?

[pxwpxw]

How do I build grub.efi from the lastest uploads on the SVN?

In the grubefi package you have a grub/doc folder with a log of the source build, but here it is again.

Someone managed to do this using a desktop live cd, it may also be possible in Macosx/darwin with the developer tools but this log refers to Ubuntu/debian and uses Ubuntu packages and libraries.

Using ubuntu 810 intrepid i386. MacBook2,1

grubefi was built from source under home diretory, not installed under /usr  -

(other configuration options for grub2-pc pcbios and grub2-ieee1275 openfirmwre)


log -
 
pxw@wdc:~$ sudo apt-get install build-essential bison subversion
pxw@wdc:~$ mkdir src
pxw@wdc:~$ cd src
Note - leave off the -r 1913 if you want the latest.
pxw@wdc:~/src$ svn co svn://svn.sv.gnu.org/grub/trunk/grub2 -r 1913

pxw@wdc:~/src$ pxw@wdc:~/src$ cd grub2/
pxw@wdc:~/src/grub2$ mkdir build && cd build
pxw@wdc:~/src/grub2/build$ ../configure --with-platform=efi
pxw@wdc:~/src/grub2/build$ make
pxw@wdc:~/src/grub2/build$ ls grub-*
grub-editenv  grub-mkconfig      grub-mkdevicemap  grub-mkimage
grub-install  grub-mkconfig_lib  grub-mkelfimage   grub-probe

pxw@wdc:~/src/grub2/build$ ./grub-mkimage -h
Usage: grub-mkimage -o FILE [OPTION]... [MODULES]

Make a bootable image of GRUB.

-d, --directory=DIR     use images and modules under DIR [default=/usr/local/lib/grub/i386-efi]
-p, --prefix=DIR        set grub_prefix directory [default=/boot/grub]
-o, --output=FILE       output a generated image to FILE
-h, --help              display this message and exit
-V, --version           print version information and exit
-v, --verbose           print verbose messages


pxw@wdc:~/src/grub2/build$ MODULES="apple appleldr boot cat chain configfile cpio date ext2 echo fat gpt help hexdump hfs hfsplus iso9660 linux ls normal pc reboot reiserfs scsi search sleep xfs"

pxw@wdc:~/src/grub2/build$ ./grub-mkimage -d . -o grub.efi $MODULES

pxw@wdc:~/src/grub2/build$ ls -l grub.efi
-rw-r--r-- 1 pxw pxw 235008 2008-11-19 21:36 grub.efi
pxw@wdc:~/src/grub2/build$ nano grub.cfg
Note - create your own grub.cfg
pxw@wdc:~/src/grub2/build$ mkdir grubefi
pxw@wdc:~/src/grub2/build$ cp grub.efi grub.cfg *.mod grubefi/

(Also added grubefi/doc/*for these notes and labels grub*.bmp)

pxw@wdc:~/src/grub2/build$ tar -czvf grubefi.tar.gz grubefi/

========================

[jlmcp]

Thanks for posting this information. I have been trying to boot a thumbdrive on my MacBookPro2,2 for quite some time now.

But, part of the directions are still unclear to me. When you talk about extracting the grub-efi tarball and moving the contents to the appropriate locations, I am confused on where exactly they should go.

I have rEFIt 0.12 installed. I also have a thumbdrive formatted with the following:

Partition 1 - HFS+ - 2 MB
Partition 2 - FAT32 - 1.98 GB

Your directions seem to indicate that I should place the /grub directory onto my interal HDD /efi folder and rename for /EFI. Is that correct? Do I need to put any files on the thumbdrive itself?

Sorry, little confused here. Maybe someone can clarify.

[pxwpxw]

Thanks for posting this information. I have been trying to boot a thumbdrive on my MacBookPro2,2 for quite some time now.

But, part of the directions are still unclear to me. When you talk about extracting the grub-efi tarball and moving the contents to the appropriate locations, I am confused on where exactly they should go.

I have rEFIt 0.12 installed. I also have a thumbdrive formatted with the following:

Partition 1 - HFS+ - 2 MB
Partition 2 - FAT32 - 1.98 GB

Your directions seem to indicate that I should place the /grub directory onto my interal HDD /efi folder and rename for /EFI. Is that correct? Do I need to put any files on the thumbdrive itself?

Sorry, little confused here. Maybe someone can clarify.

When you unpack the grub-efi tarball, it creates an EFI folder holding all the grub efi files.
You can simply copy that grub EFI folder to your HFS+ 2 MB partition on the thumdrive, and your existing refit on the internal drive should detect it (show the grubefi icon) and try to boot it. Important that refit will only detect grub there if it is in upper case EFI folder. No need to touch your internal /efi refit folder yet.

That is the easiest way to show whether it is going to work for your MacBookPro2,2 and boot external.
If it gets a grub> command line or the grub-efi text menu, you have a winner.
I can help you with the altenative configuration on the internal drive, but you have it correct.
If it is going to work on you Mac, the thumb drive should do it unless there is some problem with its partitioning.

I will be very interested to hear how you go.

[jlmcp]

Works like a charm! I get the GRUB menu choice in rEFIt, and upon selection it goes to the standard looking GRUB menu traditionally seen when booting Linux.

Now, the trick comes.

I need to correctly configure a boot command to address the Linux OS on the second, FAT32 partition. Specifically, I am trying to boot Slax 6.0.9 (http://www.slax.org) which I believe has a new enough kernel etc.

I can use the GRUB menu option to locate partitions, but not sure exactly which is my Linux OS. E.g. (hd0,1) or (hd1,1), etc.

If I can just get a little more help here, I think we have something!