Re: [OpenBIOS] About HFS+ support

[Mark Cave-Ayland]

On 12/10/12 20:59, Programmingkid wrote:

[CC to list]
> > On 12/10/12 18:25, Programmingkid wrote:
> > > I did some research with Apple's Open Firmware implementation and found out something that might make fixing the auto partition selection system work. What Apple's Open Firmware does when a command like "dir hd:," is entered is it selects the partition that has the lowest partition number, and displays its files.
> > >
> > > What I did was partitioned a hard drive into three different partitions, then ran the "dir hd:," command. I have verified that the lowest numbered partition is selected by default. The other two partitions can be selected by doing this "dir hd:10," and "dir hd:11,". Is there any more information that is needed to fix the auto selection system?
> >
> > Do any of them have a system partition on?
>
> If you mean have an operating system on them, all three partitions have Mac OS X installed on them.
> > The reason I ask is that because on some of the debug traces you've sent me, a filesystem has been identified on the Apple_Driver43_CD partition. Therefore there must be some other logic involved with Apple's Open Firmware in order for it to locate the partition containing the installer.
>
> When you say the installer, I am guessing you mean the boot loader.
>
> For CD's, there is usually one partition that has the files on it. I think a simple algorithm for finding the right partition is to select the first partition that is of the type APPLE_HFS or APPLE_HFSX.

Perhaps the algorithm really is that simple? For PearPC I found the 
following which suggests this is exactly what they do:

http://old.nabble.com/Problems-booting-from-Panther-DVD-p104313.html

I'd be interested to hear from people who have OF experience with Macs 
to confirm if this is the case or not. Have you coded up a suitable 
patch in OpenBIOS to test?

ATB,

Mark.

About HFS+ support

[Programmingkid]

On Oct 12, 2012, at 4:26 PM, Mark Cave-Ayland wrote:
> On 12/10/12 20:59, Programmingkid wrote:
>
> [CC to list]
> > > On 12/10/12 18:25, Programmingkid wrote:
> > > > I did some research with Apple's Open Firmware implementation and found out something that might make fixing the auto partition selection system work. What Apple's Open Firmware does when a command like "dir hd:," is entered is it selects the partition that has the lowest partition number, and displays its files.
> > > >
> > > > What I did was partitioned a hard drive into three different partitions, then ran the "dir hd:," command. I have verified that the lowest numbered partition is selected by default. The other two partitions can be selected by doing this "dir hd:10," and "dir hd:11,". Is there any more information that is needed to fix the auto selection system?
> > >
> > > Do any of them have a system partition on?
> >
> > If you mean have an operating system on them, all three partitions have Mac OS X installed on them.
> > > The reason I ask is that because on some of the debug traces you've sent me, a filesystem has been identified on the Apple_Driver43_CD partition. Therefore there must be some other logic involved with Apple's Open Firmware in order for it to locate the partition containing the installer.
> >
> > When you say the installer, I am guessing you mean the boot loader.
> >
> > For CD's, there is usually one partition that has the files on it. I think a simple algorithm for finding the right partition is to select the first partition that is of the type APPLE_HFS or APPLE_HFSX.
>
> Perhaps the algorithm really is that simple? For PearPC I found the following which suggests this is exactly what they do:
>
> http://old.nabble.com/Problems-booting-from-Panther-DVD-p104313.html
>
> I'd be interested to hear from people who have OF experience with Macs to confirm if this is the case or not. Have you coded up a suitable patch in OpenBIOS to test?

I don't quite know enough about file systems yet to make a patch. I will try to make the changes you wanted to my local variable patch.

Maybe someone else out there knows how to fix this problem?