Subject: Re: grub and amd64.. issues?
To: Garrett D'Amore <Garrett.Damore@sun.com>
From: Brandon Lee <brandon@xcodes.net>
List: port-amd64
Date: 07/02/2007 15:39:41
On 7/2/07, Garrett D'Amore <Garrett.Damore@sun.com> wrote:
> In short: is it possible to get grub to directly boot an amd64 kernel
> without going through the chainloader?
>
>
>
> Here's why I need to do that.
>
> I'm trying to test a kernel to which I've added LSI SAS support to the
> mpt driver.  This is on hardware to which I have remote console and
> power, but no direct access.  The hardware has 8GB RAM, and therefore
> cannot boot an i386 kernel.  It already has the grub that comes with
> Solaris installed.  (Its a Sun x4200.)
>
> I don't have access to the DHCP server, nor to the server where the grub
> menu.lst file is loaded.  I do however have root access to other
> machines on the same subnet, so I can set up an alternate TFTP or NFS
> server (not DHCP!)
>
> As far as I know, there are no physical removable storage, and in fact
> the only mass storage on the system is the mpt-connected SAS drives
> (which I need my newly modified driver to access!)
>
> I do have access to the local ufs filesystem, which has Solaris
> installed on it.
>
> What I'd love to be able to do is something like:
>
> grub> root (hd0,0,a)
> grub> kernel /netbsd
> (or kernel --type=netbsd /netbsd)
>
> grub> boot
>
> The problem is that the kernel command doesn't seem to like amd64 files.
>
> Is there something I can do to work around this, without having to ask
> someone to change hardware around for me?
>
> Thanks!
>
>     -- Garrett
>
> PS: Yes, if it works, I'll contribute the mpt patches for these SAS
> controllers... and I'm also going to backport to 3.0 and 3.1.
>
>

Hi Garrett,

From what i know and tested on i386 arch is that i need to have
"MULTIBOOT" enabled in kernel and compiled and install grub (post
installation) via pkgsrc.

Hope that helps u. :)

-- 
./Brandon