grub2 EFI boot loader internal/external booting

[bean123]

Hello bean,

I tried your #944 on my MBP 5,1 and it droped me to the text menu like all the rest.. is this a config problem or am i the first to test this out on the 5,1 MBP ?

Soon as i get this working i will post my steps on the archwiki, and thanks to both you and pxwpxw for all your hard work and help.

To enable graphic menu in grub2, you need to add these lines at the beginning of grub.cfg:

loadfont /unifont.pf2
set gfxmode=0x0
terminal_output.gfxterm
background_image /splash.png

_edit_
Ok, I was able to boot up into my ext4 partition like you said however, now when i go into X, when i switch back to console it just shows a black screen. I used X --configure and then nvidia-xconfig to ge tto X which worked fine its just switching back to the console is the problem. Also I tried switching the gfx card to the 9600 but it didn't want to play? strange considering that is the default when you don't use efi. Also, setting vga=XXX does nothing to the resolution? Other than that things are looking good.

This is a known issue. EFI uses non-zero gart address, but linux assumes it's zero. Normally, linux doesn't touch gart at console mode so this doesn't matter. But in some intel cards, it does set gart in console mode which cause screen distortion, and fixvideo is used to set gart address to 0 in grub so that linux can function properly.

After X starts, the gart address is remapped, so there is no problem, but if you exit from X, the gart needs to restore. But then the problem of mismatched gart address appears again. There is no way to solve it except to write a small problem to set the gart address every time you exit X.

[pxwpxw]

@kdas 20090908
I will look closer at the 'non-bless' grub.efi fat32 option (also for the standard OSX GPT disk partitioning EFI fat32 200MB partiton), if all can be done from linux that is a good option.

Have you checked the MBP5 wiki and other threads re switching gfx cards, which I thought could be done in xorg.conf.

I think bean123 covered all your other points.

I tried the fat32 nobless /efi/boot/bootx64.efi for MBP41
and /efi/boot/bootia32.efi for MB21, both worked.
And it worked for USB stick with GPT or MSDOS partitoning, also from fat32 or hfsplus partition.
On the HD it worked from the standard GPT Apple EFI fat32 sda1 200MB partition, or an hfsplus partition sda3 or a fat32 sda8. Very easy.


http://www.uefi.org/specs/ - EFI System Partition Subdirectory Registry
UEFI Specification Version 2.3
3.4.1.1 Removable Media Boot Behavior - Table 9. UEFI Image Types
http://www.uefi.org/specs/

[gfive]

I am not sure if this is an grub related issue,
But I got Fedora 11 running on my xserve.

pxwpxw nows the history.

one problem: the server load is to high, around 4 at idle processors.
Is there a way to lower this with grub booting?

[pxwpxw]

I am not sure if this is an grub related issue,
But I got Fedora 11 running on my xserve.

pxwpxw nows the history.

one problem: the server load is to high, around 4 at idle processors.
Is there a way to lower this with grub booting?

I will pass on that one.
I don't know of any grub multiprocessor functions.
Sounds like a question for Fedora kernel or server management.

[kdas]

Ok, sorry this took so long but have been dead busy with school. The gfx psudeo menu works not true gfxmenu but hey a lil background pic is better then nothing (unless i am missing that i can use all those complicated grub2 themes?)

bean123,
whne i use fix_video that still doesnt help the fact that when i switch out from X the screen stays black. Any other ideas? Its nice to be able to switch from X to console. Just in case you don't already know... i have a MBP 5,1
thanks,

[bean123]

bean123,
whne i use fix_video that still doesnt help the fact that when i switch out from X the screen stays black. Any other ideas? Its nice to be able to switch from X to console. Just in case you don't already know... i have a MBP 5,1
thanks,

fix_video only solves the screen distortion issue on intel cards, it doesn't fix the back screen problem when exiting X. To fix that, you need to write a small program to set gart address, but the method to do so varies for each graphic card.

[kdas]

fix_video only solves the screen distortion issue on intel cards, it doesn't fix the back screen problem when exiting X. To fix that, you need to write a small program to set gart address, but the method to do so varies for each graphic card.

So, is there a program written for macbookpro 5,1 yet? and will (if written) that program be incorporated into grub2 or is this a MBP only proble/feature? And finally is there any other way to get around that?

@pxwpxw
I looked on the wiki i didn't see anything about being able to change the gfx card via xorg.conf i tried and it fails when i try to switch back to the discrete gfx card.

[bean123]

So, is there a program written for macbookpro 5,1 yet? and will (if written) that program be incorporated into grub2 or is this a MBP only proble/feature? And finally is there any other way to get around that?

It's card specific, basically we need to find out the MMIO address of gart base register and set it to zero. I know the address for intel card, but I think mbp 5,1 have nvidia card ?

[buntuLo]

indeed, the two nvidia cards which alexmurray was playing with some time ago. he got the pci addresses of the cards.
http://algeria.ubuntuforums.org/show....php?t=1076879

@kdas: you're booting up ubuntu-9.04-desktop-amd64.iso, right? could you post your grub.conf entry for MBP51 and grub64.efi (from post #944)? thanks!

[kdas]

It's card specific, basically we need to find out the MMIO address of gart base register and set it to zero. I know the address for intel card, but I think mbp 5,1 have nvidia card ?

Yes your right we have 2 nvidia cards. The 8600 and 8400, if you need me to do any thing i am more then happy to help. I would help with code/documentation more excpet i am swamped with school i am going to have to drop a class and take a W because i am overloaded.

@buntulu
No. I am using Archlinux but we have no pros like bean1234 over there on grub so hence why i am here. The grub64.efi is bean1234's on post #944 which you can goto and my grub.cfg is pretty generic, here is most of it:


loadfont /unifont.pf2
set gfxmode=0x0
terminal_output.gfxterm
background_image /splash.png

menuentry blah{
fakebios

root ...
kernel ... video=efifb
initrd ....
}