grub2 EFI boot loader internal/external booting

[pxwpxw]

Well, the fb address turn out to be 0x80060000, that's so difficult to guess,

This one do a little cleanup, it should be ok.

Looks good, just need to check on 4GB, and fix the kernel libata bug and get agp going

[bean123]

After some thought, I think we can use the following heuristic to determine the frame buffer address:

0x40000000, 0x40010000, ... 0x40070000
0x80000000, 0x80010000, ... 0x80070000
0xc0000000, 0xc0010000, ... 0xc0070000

The high number, 4, 8 or c, is perhaps depended on physical memory, 4 for 1g, 8 for 2g, c for 3/4g.

The low number, 0..7, is depended on the video card memory.

This new grub.efi uses this method to scan frame buffer, please test it in various mac model to see how well it works.

[pxwpxw]

After some thought, I think we can use the following heuristic to determine the frame buffer address:

0x40000000, 0x40010000, ... 0x40070000
0x80000000, 0x80010000, ... 0x80070000
0xc0000000, 0xc0010000, ... 0xc0070000

The high number, 4, 8 or c, is perhaps depended on physical memory, 4 for 1g, 8 for 2g, c for 3/4g.

The low number, 0..7, is depended on the video card memory.

This new grub.efi uses this method to scan frame buffer, please test it in various mac model to see how well it works.

I will check for 2GB and 4GB on imac81 and mbp41.

The frame buffer address high number in all cases I have seen, could be inferred from the EFI header or system table address, which is known. The 1GB 2GB and 4GB fitted RAM cases fit that. IDK about 3GB fitted ram or > 4GB available in some later models I think.

I dont know if the video card vendor is relevant as well?

BTW many thanks for all this, it is great to see a dev here helping us out, awesome.

Really need to get linux actually running to encourage people to use grub.efi.

[bean123]

I will check for 2GB and 4GB on imac81 and mbp41.

The frame buffer address high number in all cases I have seen, could be inferred from the EFI header or system table address, which is known. The 1GB 2GB and 4GB fitted RAM cases fit that. IDK about 3GB fitted ram or > 4GB available in some later models I think.

I dont know if the video card vendor is relevant as well?

BTW many thanks for all this, it is great to see a dev here helping us out, awesome.

Really need to get linux actually running to encourage people to use grub.efi.

Oh, thanks for the testing, I couldn't have solved such problem without eager user like you.

The agp and libata problem is more tricky, as it involves the linux kernel. Perhaps I'd check out the kernel source some other time to see what goes wrong.

BTW, with the latest grub.efi, the mysterious random reboot issue seems to go away, can you verify it ?

[pxwpxw]

Oh, thanks for the testing, I couldn't have solved such problem without eager user like you.

The agp and libata problem is more tricky, as it involves the linux kernel. Perhaps I'd check out the kernel source some other time to see what goes wrong.

BTW, with the latest grub.efi, the mysterious random reboot issue seems to go away, can you verify it ?

Will keep at it and report, I find both the imac and the mbp restarts seem a bit buggy, especially after any sort of bootup error. Cure is just to restart again, usually best to use the Option key and Apple boot screen, or shut down restart.

I have not seen the random reboot yet.

Have you got a patch for the latest grub.efi?

I want to look at the kernel startup problem, maybe try kernel config or initramfs changes. Also will recheck with the basic debian install kernel.

All good so far -
(booting macosx, MBR, linux)

MBP41 2GB RAM
IMAC81 4GB RAM

For anyone else wanting to try this grub.efi for 64bit firmware, ubuntu 810 with kernel 2.6.27 boots to startup text, however at present there is a kernel/EFI problem with ata: libata stuck in a timeout loop before it gets to mount the root system, then there is finally a keyboard problem ).

menuentry "OSX" {
search --set /usr/standalone/i386/boot.efi
chainloader /usr/standalone/i386/boot.efi
}

menuentry "MBR" {
appleloader HD
}

menuentry "Linux" {
search --set /vmlinuz
linux /vmlinuz video=efifb root=/dev/sda3
initrd /initrd.img
}

[bean123]

Have you got a patch for the latest grub.efi?

Just send the patch to the grub-devel list.

[pxwpxw]

Just send the patch to the grub-devel list.

Update-

Using svn trunk/grub2 -r 1996.

with patch

http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/gr.../msg00227.html

../configure --with-platfrom=efi --target=x86_64

and also --target=i386 for 32bit MacBook21 version.

Using /efi/grub/grub.efi and modules, with rEFIt.

x86_64 

 Imac81 256M VRAM 
     4GB RAM 
  Video frame buffer at 0xc0010000  Line length 7680
  Video mode 1920x1200 - 32@60

 MBP41 512M VRAM
     2GB RAM  Vfb 0x80060000 Line length 8192
     4GB RAM  Vfb 0xc0060000
  Video mode 1920x1200 - 32@0
-----------------
32bit

 MacBook21 1GB RAM 64M vram shared system ram
 VFB 0x40000000 Line Length 8192
 Viodeo mode 1200x800 - 32@59

64bit Macs have ongoing problems with linux kernel initializtion (pci, libata) and keyboard.

32bit MacBook21 is all good.

grub.efi is now case insensitive so lower case /efi with refit works.
(maybe refit still needs /EFI for external).

[cyberdork33]

Update-

Using svn trunk/grub2 -r 1996.

with patch

http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/gr.../msg00227.html

../configure --with-platfrom=efi --target=x86_64

and also --target=i386 for 32bit MacBook21 version.

Using /efi/grub/grub.efi and modules, with rEFIt.

x86_64 

 Imac81 256M VRAM 
     4GB RAM 
  Video frame buffer at 0xc0010000  Line length 7680
  Video mode 1920x1200 - 32@60

 MBP41 512M VRAM
     2GB RAM  Vfb 0x80060000 Line length 8192
     4GB RAM  Vfb 0xc0060000
  Video mode 1920x1200 - 32@0
-----------------
32bit

 MacBook21 1GB RAM 64M vram shared system ram
 VFB 0x40000000 Line Length 8192
 Viodeo mode 1200x800 - 32@59

64bit Macs have ongoing problems with linux kernel initializtion (pci, libata) and keyboard.

32bit MacBook21 is all good.

grub.efi is now case insensitive so lower case /efi with refit works.
(maybe refit still needs /EFI for external).

Can you post binaries, and I can test them on my hardware as well.

[pxwpxw]

Can you post binaries, and I can test them on my hardware as well.

These are the full < grub.efi + modules> I am using,
can go in /efi with refit or probably need to go in /EFI if on another partition.
Or you can just pull out the grub.efi and should run standalone, it has preloaded modules.

Preloaded 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

[cyberdork33]

These are the full < grub.efi + modules> I am using,
can go in /efi with refit or probably need to go in /EFI if on another partition.
Or you can just pull out the grub.efi and should run standalone, it has preloaded modules.

ok grub64 worked great on my MBP4,1. I will have to wait to test my iMac5,1.