installboot problems

Hi,

It is just now occuring to me that our documentation with
regards to 
installboot sucks. Well, macppc documentation on a whole is
a bit of a 
mess, what with everything inlined and no common examples.

So I'd like to ask if some people can clarify this for me,
as it's been 
a while since I've had to deal with it.

I'm clear about the elf versus xcf stuff where it concerns
OF 3 and 
higher, but with < 3, there are no examples of a usable
installboot 
anywhere. People reading the installboot man page might look
at some of 
the other examples and try to run installboot on /dev/sd0c
instead of 
sd0a, for instance, and end up with problems.

What's also not clear from the man page is that the second
stage 
bootloader needs to be placed in the filesystem manually,
and that the 
path for theat file is relative to the filesystem. I'll
iron that out a 
little bit.

Now for the next question - does the first stage bootloader
(bootxx) from 
NetBSD 4 work on OF 1 and 2? Has anyone had any success with
it?

Thanks,
John Klos
-- 
Today is the day that my destiny calls me!
   Meowth

Followup:

The first stage (bootxx) bootloader from NetBSD 4 works with
OF 1 & 2. The 
second stage doesn't, nor do any that I could find from
NetBSD 3. Does 
anyone know the last version of ofwboot.xcf which works with
OF 1 & 2?

Thanks,
John Klos

johnziaspace.com wrote:

> People reading the installboot man page might look at
some of 
> the other examples and try to run installboot on
/dev/sd0c instead of 
> sd0a, for instance, and end up with problems.

That is a hack. Writing raw data into a mounted filesystem
is not
allowed in many case, so using sd0c to write sd0a (which may
have
the same offset with sd0c) does a trick. If the target
filesystem
is not mounted (like during installation), sd0a should work.

> What's also not clear from the man page is that the
second stage 
> bootloader needs to be placed in the filesystem
manually, and that the 
> path for theat file is relative to the filesystem.
I'll iron that out a 
> little bit.

installboot(8) looks okay for me:

>>     Perform the following steps to make a file
system bootable:
>>
>>     1.   Copy the secondary bootstrap (usually
/usr/mdec/boot.MACHINE or
>>          /usr/mdec/boot) to the root directory of
the target file system.
>>     2.   Use installboot to install the primary
bootstrap program
 :

But you could fix it anyway...

> Now for the next question - does the first stage
bootloader (bootxx) from 
> NetBSD 4 work on OF 1 and 2? Has anyone had any success
with it?

Both bootxx and ofwboot from 4.99.1 work on my Apus.
---
Izumi Tsutsui

johnziaspace.com wrote:

> The first stage (bootxx) bootloader from NetBSD 4 works
with OF 1 & 2. The 
> second stage doesn't, nor do any that I could find
from NetBSD 3. Does 
> anyone know the last version of ofwboot.xcf which works
with OF 1 & 2?

The latest bootxx and ofwboot work on my Apus.
Note you have to use raw ofwboot (not ofwboot.xcf) for
installboot,
and versions of bootxx and ofwboot have to be synced
otherwise
bootxx fails to jump to the entry point after ofwboot is
loaded.
---
Izumi Tsutsui

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Hello,

On Sep 7, 2006, at 16:04, John Klos wrote:

> I'm clear about the elf versus xcf stuff where it
concerns OF 3 and 
> higher, but with < 3, there are no examples of a
usable installboot 
> anywhere.

ofwboot.elf should just go away - use ofwboot.xcf
everywhere.

>  People reading the installboot man page might look at
some of the 
> other examples and try to run installboot on /dev/sd0c
instead of 
> sd0a, for instance, and end up with problems.

It should complain about no 2nd stage bootloader.

> What's also not clear from the man page is that the
second stage 
> bootloader needs to be placed in the filesystem
manually, and that the 
> path for theat file is relative to the filesystem.
I'll iron that out 
> a little bit.

Please do!

> Now for the next question - does the first stage
bootloader (bootxx) 
> from NetBSD 4 work on OF 1 and 2? Has anyone had any
success with it?

Works fine on OF 2.0f and a 3.99.20-ish one worked fine on
1.0.5

have fun
Michael
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Hello,

On Sep 7, 2006, at 17:04, John Klos wrote:

> Followup:
>
> The first stage (bootxx) bootloader from NetBSD 4 works
with OF 1 & 2. 
> The second stage doesn't, nor do any that I could find
from NetBSD 3. 
> Does anyone know the last version of ofwboot.xcf which
works with OF 1 
> & 2?

Oh, so it's not me trying to use something compiled with
-mcpu=7450 on 
a G3.
The ofwboot.xcf I use on the iBook is from November 2004,
the one I use 
to boot from harddisk ( using partition 0 ) on the G3 is
from the 
august 22nd autobuild.

have fun
Michael
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> The latest bootxx and ofwboot work on my Apus.
> Note you have to use raw ofwboot (not ofwboot.xcf) for
installboot,
> and versions of bootxx and ofwboot have to be synced
otherwise
> bootxx fails to jump to the entry point after ofwboot
is loaded.

I see... now THAT'S a fact that should be documented...

Thanks,
John
-- 
Today is the day that my destiny calls me!
   Meowth