Mac mini and FreeBSD - some initial details

[Peter Grehan]

Hi Garance,

  Oops, meant to respond to this:

>>  I haven't mucked around too much with this, but I suspect you need
>> a Forth script similar to src/release/powerpc/boot.tbxi which would
>> live on the default boot partition. Then, you could setenv the
>> 'boot-command' variable in OpenFirmware to boot with this file.
> 
> Hmm.  Is there somewhere which would document what openfirmware
> commands I might have to play with?

  No real documentation, but you can modify the CD boot script
without much trouble.

e.g. Copy /boot/boot.tbxi to the OSX root dir, and change the lines from:

<BOOT-SCRIPT>
" screen" output
boot cd:,\boot\loader cd:0
</BOOT-SCRIPT>

to

<BOOT-SCRIPT>
" screen" output
boot hd:9,\loader hd:5
</BOOT-SCRIPT>

  ... assuming that OSX is on partition 9 and FreeBSD is on 5.
At this point, you can boot from the OpenFirmware prompt
with

0 > boot hd:9,\boot.tbxi

and, you can set up an automatic boot with

0 > setenv boot-device hd:9,\boot.tbxi

0 > reset-all

  ... which will then reboot.

  This doesn't work on my eMac, but then, CD auto-boot doesn't either.
But, since it worked OK on the mini I'm confident the above will also
work there.

later,

Peter.