Hello everyone,
I have an RS/6000 7025-F50. It is a CHRP machine from late �98 and it has an awesome open firmware implementation. It even has a great GUI for the usual system configuration. The only thing it seems to be missing is an xcoff-loader package. Thus I am unable to load Apple�s Mac OS X bootloader, BootX. I researched for a time the possibility of an elf version of BootX, but it was beyond me and I could not find anyone interested in helping me. There is not much PowerPC development over at Open Darwin since most people already using PowerPC machines are using Macs, and Apple has already taken care of everything for them.
Well I have been following the work with PearPC to bring it OpenBios support, and I got to thinking would it be possible to load OpenBios from my open firmware, which then could load BootX? Something like Open firmware --> OpenBios --> BootX. Plus, my Open firmware has limited Mac-Parts and Mac-Files packages similar to Old World Macs, so it can�t browse HFS+ partitions, which is necessary to locate BootX. OpenBios could kill 2 birds with one stone; locate the bootloader and load it.
Without kernel extensions for my hardware, I am not sure how far along it would get. With RTAS maybe it could boot in some sort of �safe mode� with minimal support? Well, even if it kernel panics I would still consider it a victory to see the grey Apple as BootX loads.
You can find some information on the F50 at a little site I made about it. http://www.geocities.com/hokutogreatbear/index.htm
Hopefully this makes sense to someone!
Thanks, Hanns
__________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Make Yahoo! your home page http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs