Re: [DOCUMENT] Re: Intel Macs that boot FreeBSD?

From: Bruce M Simpson <bms_at_spc.org>
Date: Sat, 8 Apr 2006 11:50:14 +0100
On Sat, Apr 08, 2006 at 03:43:58AM -0700, Luigi Rizzo wrote:
> Ii wonder if we can do more progress if we use
> a picobsd-like approach namely bypass btx and load the kernel
> directly. Reading your list we may well get stuck at the pci
> probe, but at least we should see the initial kernel messages.

I would suggest that anyone who wants to get FreeBSD booting on the
mini-mac purchases a port 0x80 POST diag card (<$10 on eBay), and
instruments the early boot paths to output to such a device.

If hacking kernel code then probably quicker to just use NFS and
PXE for starter bootstrap :-)

Of course those of us who are lucky enough to have a PCI logic analyzer
(not me, though I bought an FPGA card explicitly for this purpose,
ENOTIME to learn hardware design language) will be able to do this
right away.

It shouldn't be too difficult to implement PCI Configuration Register
Type 1 support.  Ideally of course we'd support EFI natively w/o the shim.

Regards,
BMS
Received on Sat Apr 08 2006 - 08:50:17 UTC

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