On Mar 26, 2004, at 3:25 PM, Kevin wrote:
> On Thu, 2004-03-25 at 12:27, Chris Gehlker wrote:
>>> Anyway, can you clarify? <dumb question> Is it possible to install
>>> Linux and OSX into separate partitions on a PowerBook and dual boot
>>> between them with Grub or something similar? I am assuming it's
>>> possible. </dumb question>
>>
>> The easiest way is to use Open Firmware. Just hold down one of the
>> alt/option keys at boot and you will see icons for Linux and OS X.
>> Click on the penguin. (I'm not kidding).
> ---------
> Sounds too good to be true. ;~) How does that work? Does
> OpenFirmware
> automatically recognize the operating systems installed in the
> different
> partitions and offer the choice? Is there some configuration of
> OpenFirmware that must take place so it knows what to offer? Keep in
> mind I am coming from LILO/GRUB experience. Sounds like a whole
> different approach.
If you want the long answer, you can find it
here<
http://www.kernelthread.com/mac/osx/arch_boot.html>. The short
answer is that Open Firmware recognizes partitions with tbxi files. The
only such file on most macs is /System/Library/CoreServices/BootX. Some
Macs also support the old OS 9 Rom image (tbxi stands for toolbox
image).
/System/Library/CoreServices/BootX does, in fact, understand HFS+,
HFS, UFS, ext2 and TFT file systems as well as how to load Mach-O and
ELF kernels.
So the simple answer is that it works because Apple is very happy for
you to run Linux as long as you do it on their hardware.
> So, when I bring home a G4 Powerbook from the Apple store, how do I
> re-size the partitions to make room for Gentoo? Does OSX have a
> utility
> for that? Or, do I need to boot a Gentoo LiveCD and use mac-fdisk to
> delete and re-create partitions (in which case I'll be installing OSX
> and Gentoo).
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