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instead of higher version numbers, is there any other change? :gathering:

 

nothing that i can tell atleast with my hardware, but this is good because it means that 10.4.4 is binary and kernel compatible with 10.4.3 so we will able to boot 10.4.4 with 10.4.3 kernel bypassing the efi stuff until a better solution is found. i can't wait for the dmg to be leaked

Darwin 8.4 Source Code Posted

The sources for Darwin 8.4, which correspond to Mac OS X 10.4.4 (for PowerPC), are available for download. [Jan 10 2006]

 

http://developer.apple.com/darwin/

 

Ok, but where is latest x86 Darwin for EFI? The point of this is that Darwin provided an important platform to work on OSx86 analysis last summer when this whole game got started. Apple certainly updated x86 Darwin for the new Macs, so where is it?

 

Once an EFI x86 Darwin is installed, OS X pieces can then be added to it to understand how they work. Moreover, x86 Darwin might actually require the same (or similiar) EFI firmware code that Apple is using in the new Core Duo Macs, which might been released as without it such an EFI x86 Darwin might be useless.

 

Is there a standard EFI that is availible from Intel (or somebody) that can be installed on it's EFI-capable motherboards?

Edited by bofors

Intel does provide a sample EFI implementation on their website, complete with source code. OS X almost certainly requires more than what this implementation provides (the sample was created in 2003 and probably lacks key functionalities), but it should be a good starting point to get a feel for how an EFI system is partitioned (assuming 10.4.4 uses GPT partitoning) and how it boots.

 

"Also included are IA-32 images that allow standard PC systems to boot to EFI for educational and testing purposes."

http://developer.intel.com/technology/efi/main_sample.htm

 

I created the BIOS32 disk and booted my PC into the EFI shell, but haven't really done more than that. Maybe someone with more time can try booting elilo or even Vista with this thing? Also on the website are an application toolkit and disk utilities, should be plenty to experiment with.

Hey guys look at intel's website I've found Intel Integrator Tool Kit that acording to intel it lets you customize your bios so maybe with this tool kit we can enable EFI on D945 motherboards.

 

 

http://www.intel.com/design/motherbd/itk.htm

Hey guys look at intel's website I've found Intel Integrator Tool Kit that acording to intel it lets you customize your bios so maybe with this tool kit we can enable EFI on D945 motherboards.

http://www.intel.com/design/motherbd/itk.htm

 

according to this document, we cannot edit settings related to EFI.

ftp://download.intel.com/design/motherbd/...tk_brochure.pdf

Edited by forcer
I figured out a way to get in to the EFI menu on the new Intel iMac. I was attempting to install Vista, which did not work. As I discovered from poking around in the EFI there is no support for UDF or El Torito volumes. It seems only GPT and APM is supported. Writing a driver for EFI to support UDF should be easy enough for someone who knows how, one might even exist already. I'm going to give step-by-step instructions for getting in to the EFI so that some enterprising people will get to work on installing Windows. First, here are two photos:

 

reezle10000153076400ow.jpg

 

reezle10000153066405kt.jpg

 

First a word of caution. You can leave your system in a state where Mac OS X won't start up again. You can fix it by booting with the install CD (hold down C as you turn on your computer) then using the Start-up Disk utility).

 

Now, on to the instructions.

 

1. Download the EFI Sample Implementation from Intel.

 

2. Unzip the file to /efi (or anywhere else, but /efi is what I'll be using)

 

3. In terminal do 'sudo bless --folder /efi --file /efi/Binary/BIOS32/Bin/GraphicsConsole.efi --setBoot'

 

4. Reboot your computer.

 

5. You'll get the familiar chime and gray screen, wait about 10 seconds then hit the spacebar.

 

6. You're now in EFI!

 

Let's head over to the shell...

 

1. Select Boot Maintenance Manager

 

2. Select Boot From File

 

3. Select the option that begins with "NO FILE SYSTEM INFO", this is your start-up volume

 

4. Navigate your way to /efi/Binary/BIOS32/SHELLBios32/Shell.efi

 

To get your machine booting Mac OS X again, you have a few options. Probably the easiest is to put the restore CD in the drive, and reboot while holding down C. Once in Installer, go to Utlities, Start-up Disk and select the System folder on your hard drive. Another way to boot back in to OS X from the EFI menu is to follow the same steps as for launching the shell, except navigate to /usr/standalone/i386/boot.efi. Once back in OS X, change your start-up disk back to the system folder on your hard drive using system preferences.

 

http://nak.journalspace.com/?cmd=dis...07&entryid=407

Edited by bofors

Ok,

 

now before we are getting on, we should

 

- first discuss the principe of how EFI works in short because then we

- can find a way, to optimize it for the X86 platform :)

 

Maybe we re lucky and not all drivers ar loaded with EFI. Actually, in one

of the kexts I even found an EfI Plugin. Now, if we want to optimize EFI,

to work with our system, we should have a picture about the structure,

meaning: what loads when into what.

 

That way, we could possibly find a shortcut in the process, to make

things even easier for EFI and for US :)

 

Next thing is that we would have to see, what is required for EFI if we do

not end too successfully with the previous option. For example, EFI

needs a new partition-table to load, and also not every piece of hardware

is supported, especially when we are talking about the graphics devices.

 

It would be VERY interesting to hear maxxuss point of view, for example.

Just to have a littl peek in what is possible here.

 

The last option would be, to take the non EFI parts from the 10.4.4 to the

current release. The frameworks for example would be very interesting.

 

That ar just a few thoughts about how to get things started, and some of

them may even not be correct, but i don't care as long as we end up

with a good solutions for all of us.

 

Or like jobs would say: the rest of us :D

If it doesn't loads because there's not EFI that's a protection it it weren't a protection it continued to load as it does when you add a kext that is invalid

 

duh

Wow. Dude, I really am at loss for words. All I can think is "What a stupid comment." Past that, I'm sorry to feed the trolls, but I just had to say something.

now before we are getting on, we should

- first discuss the principe of how EFI works in short because then we

Before getting into to some of the more technical documents, I would like to suggest that we consider this excellent overview of EFI by Amit Singh:

 

http://www.kernelthread.com/publications/firmware/

 

 

Maybe we re lucky and not all drivers ar loaded with EFI. Actually, in one

of the kexts I even found an EfI Plugin. Now, if we want to optimize EFI,

to work with our system, we should have a picture about the structure,

meaning: what loads when into what.

 

I also propose that we start Wiki lists of 10.4.4 elements (kext's) which are either known to be or not to be compatible with 10.4.3.

 

Otherwise, I think we need to go over the various methods which could be used to extract the EFI boot rom and flash on to EFI boards. This seems to imply booting DOS, but I have yet to see if Linux has the right BIOS copying tools.

 

I would also like to know precisely what the hardware differences are between generic BIOS boards and those which also support EFI.

 

Everything else sounds good to me, let's plan the attack.

 

;)

Edited by bofors

Unless someone objects, I am going to use this thread to collect some "random" notes on EFI related issues that I am running across.

 

Two follow:

 

This hasn't been explicitly documented by Apple anywhere I can find, but it looks like it won't be possible to create a disk that is bootable on an Intel Mac and a PowerPC Mac, even if that disk has an Intel installation of Mac OS X on one partition and a PPC Mac OS X on another partition.

 

Here are the rules as I can determine so far.

 

Intel Macs use Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) instead of Open Firmware. EFI Macs can only boot from GUID Partition Table (GPT) partitioned disks, but can mount (the soon to deprecated) Apple Partition Map (APM) partitioned drives.

 

Open Firmware Macs cannot boot from GPT partitioned drives. They will be able to mount them if they are running 10.4.x or higher. Perhaps Apple could come out with an Open Firmware update that would allow OF Macs to boot from GPT disks, but I wouldn't count on it.

 

You can create your own GPT partitioned disks using diskutil on your PPC Mac to test this if you are running 10.4.3 or higher.

 

Use the argument 'GPTFormat' :

 

diskutil partitionDisk <device> GPTFormat <partition format> <partition name> <partition size>

 

 

The man page for gpt has some amusing disclaimers in it.

http://episteme.arstechnica.com/groupee/fo.../m/843000827731

 

The following is information on the new Intel-based iMacs.

 

Command Dumps

dmesg output: http://absent.org/~jgw/imacx86/dmesg.txt

sysctl output: http://absent.org/~jgw/imacx86/sysctl.txt

uname output: http://absent.org/~jgw/imacx86/uname.txt

kextstat output: http://absent.org/~jgw/imacx86/kextstat.txt

 

https://absent.org/%7Ejgw/wiki/ImacIntel

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