Bootmenu on PowerMac G5/OpenFirmware
  • Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    Cego
    Posts: 733 from 2006/5/28
    From: Germany
    Hi there!

    Is it possible to install a bootmenu to the G5, where i can choose from a list, which OS to boot? I find the standard boot menu from the powermac very slow and time consuming. I remember the bootmenu from the Peg2. Is something like that possible on the Powermac too? Maybe with grub or with an script in OF?

    thanks!
    Pegasos II G4 @1.0GHz, 1GB DDR Ram, Radeon 9200Pro, 240GB SSD+160GB HD, MorphOS 3.18, AmigaOS4.1 FE, Debian 8
  • »02.04.14 - 22:10
    Profile
  • MorphOS Developer
    jacadcaps
    Posts: 3108 from 2003/3/5
    From: Canada
    Quote:

    Cego wrote:



    Are you sure you set the OF vars to speed the builtin menu up?
  • »03.04.14 - 07:56
    Profile Visit Website
  • jPV
  • Yokemate of Keyboards
    Yokemate of Keyboards
    jPV
    Posts: 2096 from 2003/2/24
    From: po-RNO
    Yeah, skipping net-boot speeds up the menu, if you have ethernet cable connected to machine...

    And remember that you can hit the arrow key and enter before you can move the mouse on that menu. It then boots whenever it's ready and you don't have to be waiting yourself that much.

    [ Edited by jPV 03.04.2014 - 13:39 ]
  • »03.04.14 - 09:16
    Profile Visit Website
  • Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    Cego
    Posts: 733 from 2006/5/28
    From: Germany
    Quote:

    jacadcaps wrote:
    Quote:

    Cego wrote:



    Are you sure you set the OF vars to speed the builtin menu up?


    how can i do that?
    Pegasos II G4 @1.0GHz, 1GB DDR Ram, Radeon 9200Pro, 240GB SSD+160GB HD, MorphOS 3.18, AmigaOS4.1 FE, Debian 8
  • »03.04.14 - 13:33
    Profile
  • Order of the Butterfly
    Order of the Butterfly
    Brumiga
    Posts: 248 from 2004/4/3
    From: France
    @Cego,

    I can give you a modified version of BootMenu, made with BootCreator, for macs powerpc. I received it from a friend but I do not know how he got it. Here is it.

    Code:

    FORTH - Script generated by BootCreator 1.2 (25.01.2007) by Marcin Kurek (Morgoth/D-CAPS)
    Mac mini adaptation - Marek 'March' Szyprowski

    terminal control stuff

    : .printf fb8-write drop ;
    : .crlf " "(0d 0a)" .printf ;
    : .clear " "(0C)" .printf ;
    : .cr " "(0d)" .printf ;

    boot menu stuff

    : my-max-boot-num 5 ;
    : my-boot-default 1 ;
    : my-boot-delay d# 100 ; unit = 100 ms
    : my-print-menu ( -- )
    .clear
    .crlf
    " Startup menu" .printf .crlf
    " " .printf .crlf
    " 1: MorphOS 3.5" .printf .crlf
    " 2: MorphOS 3.5 avec BootMenu" .printf .crlf
    " 3: MorphOS 3.5 depuis image ISO" .printf .crlf
    " 4: CDRom" .printf .crlf
    " 5: OpenFirmware" .printf .crlf
    .crlf
    " Press 1-5 or wait for automatic startup" .printf .crlf
    ;
    : my-boot-case ( num -- )
    .crlf
    case
    1 of " boot hd:,\boot.img rd bd=idh0" eval endof
    2 of " boot hd:,\boot.img rd bm bd=idh0" eval endof
    3 of " boot hd:,\boot.img rd bi=idh1:Archives/MorphOS/ISO/MorphOS-3.5.1.iso" eval endof
    4 of " boot cd:,\:tbxi " eval endof
    5 of abort endof

    endcase
    ;
    : my-input-num ( wait-period max-boot-num default-num -- boot-num )
    1 loop-inc = 1
    3 pick 0 do
    " ." .printf
    0d emit
    ." press 1-"
    ( wait-period max-boot-num default-num loop-inc )
    2 pick ascii 0 + emit
    dup 1 = if
    ." within "
    3 pick i - d# 10 / .d
    ." seconds"
    then
    ." (default: "
    over ascii 0 + emit
    ." ) :
    d# 100 ms
    key? if
    key
    ( wait-period max-boot-num default-num loop-inc key )
    dup 0d = if return pressed
    drop leave
    then
    ascii 0 -
    ( wait-period max-boot-num default-num loop-inc num )
    dup 1 5 pick
    ( wait-period max-boot-num default-num loop-inc num num 1 max-boot-num )
    between if
    rot drop swap leave
    then
    ( wait-period max-boot-num default-num loop-inc num )
    2drop 0 loop-inc = 0
    then
    dup +loop
    drop
    ( wait-period max-boot-num boot-num )
    nip nip
    ;
    " screen" output
    dev screen
    " "(0000000000aa00aa0000aaaaaa0000aa00aaaa5500aaaaaa)" drop 0 7 set-colors
    " "(5555555555ff55ff5555ffffff5555ff55ffffff55ffffff)" drop 8 15 set-colors
    erase-screen
    device-end
    f to foreground-color
    0 to background-color
    my-print-menu
    my-boot-delay my-max-boot-num my-boot-default my-input-num
    my-boot-case


    The option '4' works if the eject cd key is pressed first and a cd or dvd inserted into the drive.

    There was an option to boot on an external firewire device. I do not own any thing of that kind so I remove the lines refering to this option.

    The option '5' does not behave as on pegasos 2. If I press it once the mac reboots and if back at the same point I press it again the macs stops. There are no countdown or openfirmware prompt, and I cannot do anything except power off.

    I hope that may help you...

    Brumiga
  • »03.04.14 - 13:44
    Profile
  • Yokemate of Keyboards
    Yokemate of Keyboards
    Andreas_Wolf
    Posts: 12157 from 2003/5/22
    From: Germany
    > I can give you a modified version of BootMenu, made with BootCreator, for macs powerpc.
    > I received it from a friend but I do not know how he got it. [...] There was an option to boot
    > on an external firewire device. I do not own any thing of that kind so I remove the lines
    > refering to this option.

    I think I found that version with the FireWire option:

    http://helenvivet.free.fr/samolita/menu2b
  • »03.04.14 - 16:21
    Profile
  • Paladin of the Pegasos
    Paladin of the Pegasos
    Amigaharry2
    Posts: 1280 from 2010/1/6
    From: EU-Austria (Wien)
    Basically this script is the same as for the PEG. Only the "Terminal-Stuff" (clear screen, set colors, etc.) is different to Pegasos OF....... You may also use origninal bootmenue-script of PEG, but only if MAC has booted into OF before....otherwise bootmenue is running in background without any screen output.....(but it accepts keyboard-input).

    btw. If you want boot from a USB-device you may use following command-sequence: boot ud:,\\:tbxi
    Peg2, 3xPowerMac G5, 2xPowerbookG4, 2x MacMiniG4, Efika (again), A3000T and life is never boring.....
  • »03.04.14 - 19:03
    Profile
  • Paladin of the Pegasos
    Paladin of the Pegasos
    Acill
    Posts: 1926 from 2003/10/19
    From: Port Hueneme, Ca.
    If your not sure what your doing with these OF scripts I would not mess with it as well. You can make you machine near useless if you mess it up.

    Just a caution is all....
    Powermac Dual 2.0 GHZ G5 PCI-X (Registration #1894)
    Powerbook 1.67GHZ
    Powermac Dual 2.0 GHZ G5 PCIE (Registration #6130)
    A4000T CSPPC, Mediator
    Need Repairs, upgrades or a recap in the USA? Visit my website at http://www.acill.com
  • »09.04.14 - 03:25
    Profile Visit Website
  • Paladin of the Pegasos
    Paladin of the Pegasos
    Amigaharry2
    Posts: 1280 from 2010/1/6
    From: EU-Austria (Wien)
    This script above does only initializing the OF-screen with background an foreground color and sets some private commands to erase screen, carrage return, and so on....(terminal stuff)
    The rest is similar to Pegasos-script: Showing menue and let you choice.......

    It is not possible to make your machine completely useless with such a script! I use it on my PB and Mini!
    In every case you are able to get into OF and to boot with "mac-boot" command to MOS.....

    But if you change env-variables without any knowing, you may really shoot-up your PB.. ....but env-variables can only be set directly by user (normaly) and not by such a script.....
    Peg2, 3xPowerMac G5, 2xPowerbookG4, 2x MacMiniG4, Efika (again), A3000T and life is never boring.....
  • »09.04.14 - 11:42
    Profile
  • jPV
  • Yokemate of Keyboards
    Yokemate of Keyboards
    jPV
    Posts: 2096 from 2003/2/24
    From: po-RNO
    That first big quote is missing backslashes.. and that second link has some weird device names, but I combined both now and got a working bootmenu setup for my Mac mini (1.5GHz). Haven't tested Firewire or CD boot options yet though.

    I've had two boot partitions to dualboot between MorphOS 2 and 3 from the alt-key menu like this:
    altmenu.jpg

    I now modified the other partition to boot into bootmenu instead of MorphOS 2. MorphOS 3 still boots by default, but I get into the bootmenu from the mac's alt-menu.

    Bootmenu options look like this now:
    bootmenu.jpg

    If I use Abort option, it goes back to the graphical alt-menu.

    I modified the original bootinfo.txt to this (remember to bless it with HFSSetMacBoot command always when you have edited it).

    And the actual bootmenu script is here (.txt extension added to be better shown in web).
  • »03.03.15 - 14:49
    Profile Visit Website
  • Yokemate of Keyboards
    Yokemate of Keyboards
    Andreas_Wolf
    Posts: 12157 from 2003/5/22
    From: Germany
    > That first big quote is missing backslashes

    They are there which can be seen when quoting for reply. The forum software filters them out for viewing.
  • »03.03.15 - 16:07
    Profile
  • Paladin of the Pegasos
    Paladin of the Pegasos
    ThePlayer
    Posts: 1069 from 2003/3/24
    From: Hamburg/Germany
    Where do i have to put that bootscript?
    I have a PB with OSX and MOS installed. The PB boots OSX first. And i would like to set it the other way, boot MOS first and have a Bootmenu. So where do i have to put that script and what do i have to type into OF?
    PowerMac G5 Quad 2.5 running UWQHD Resolution
  • »10.03.15 - 19:55
    Profile
  • jPV
  • Yokemate of Keyboards
    Yokemate of Keyboards
    jPV
    Posts: 2096 from 2003/2/24
    From: po-RNO
    Quote:

    ThePlayer wrote:
    Where do i have to put that bootscript?
    I have a PB with OSX and MOS installed. The PB boots OSX first. And i would like to set it the other way, boot MOS first and have a Bootmenu. So where do i have to put that script and what do i have to type into OF?


    To change the boot order:
    http://library.morph.zone/Dual-boot_MorphOS_and_MacOS_X_on_a_Mac_Mini_G4#Trying_it_out.2C_changing_the_default_system

    I put the bootmenu script to the Boot partition (DH0: usually) where you have boot.img and bootinfo.txt files among the few other files. You may need to mount it first if it's not automounted on your system (Start Tools/Mounter, look for a small Mac HFS partition, select it and click Mount).

    You probably could use some OF option to boot into that script directly, but I wanted to make as small changes as possible, so I modified the bootinfo.txt file to boot the bootmenu script, as said on earlier post.

    To do that, make a backup copy of the original bootinfo.txt, then edit the boot-script line in the bootinfo.txt file in same way as in my example. Then run "HFSSetMacBoot Boot:bootinfo.txt" in the shell, this is important or the system won't boot anymore!

    Have a MorphOS boot CD ready if something goes wrong and the system won't boot anymore. There's always a risk if you aren't sure what you are doing. That way you can boot into it and fix the problem.


    [ Edited by jPV 11.03.2015 - 17:09 ]
  • »11.03.15 - 05:19
    Profile Visit Website
  • Paladin of the Pegasos
    Paladin of the Pegasos
    ThePlayer
    Posts: 1069 from 2003/3/24
    From: Hamburg/Germany
    Thanks jPV now MOS boots by default! :)
    PowerMac G5 Quad 2.5 running UWQHD Resolution
  • »11.03.15 - 19:17
    Profile
  • Butterfly
    Butterfly
    Norbi
    Posts: 99 from 2004/6/19
    I have 3 systems on the disk. 2 OSX and Morphos. I do not use HFS. Boot.img on OSX partition. (hfs +)
    After reset automatically starts MOS, and when I want to use OSX push ALT
    My OF looks like this:
    boot-device hd:\boot.img

    [ Edited by Norbi 15.03.2015 - 02:04 ]
  • »15.03.15 - 00:01
    Profile
  • jPV
  • Yokemate of Keyboards
    Yokemate of Keyboards
    jPV
    Posts: 2096 from 2003/2/24
    From: po-RNO
    Quote:

    Norbi wrote:
    I have 3 systems on the disk. 2 OSX and Morphos. I do not use HFS. Boot.img on OSX partition. (hfs +)
    After reset automatically starts MOS, and when I want to use OSX push ALT
    My OF looks like this:
    boot-device hd:\boot.img


    Hmm.. you probably don't see MorphOS as an option in the ALT menu then? Just OSXs there?
  • »15.03.15 - 06:50
    Profile Visit Website
  • Butterfly
    Butterfly
    Norbi
    Posts: 99 from 2004/6/19
    Quote:


    Hmm.. you probably don't see MorphOS as an option in the ALT menu then? Just OSXs there?


    of course.
    Morphos is the default system
  • »15.03.15 - 16:19
    Profile
  • Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    boot_wb
    Posts: 874 from 2007/4/9
    From: Kingston upon ...
    Quote:

    Cego wrote:
    Hi there!

    Is it possible to install a bootmenu to the G5, where i can choose from a list, which OS to boot? I find the standard boot menu from the powermac very slow and time consuming. I remember the bootmenu from the Peg2. Is something like that possible on the Powermac too? Maybe with grub or with an script in OF?

    thanks!


    Not tested on G5, but it should work: Bootmonster

    (Mirrored here, as 2shared's server is down atm).


    Summary:

    This boot script is suitable for Apple hardware only. Tested on Powermac MDD and Powerbook 5,6 and 5,8.
    It shoud work on all Apple hardware, but might require adjustment (untested).

    MorphOS and Linux currently require seperate bootloader partitions, which can make disk layouts messy.
    This combined script removes the need for that, enabling all OSes, and multiple version thereof, to be booted from a single bootloader partition.
    In addition it ropes several other tricks (USB booting, MorphOS update-from-ISO method) into one easily maintained (and fail-safe) script.

    - Includes simple & safe updating of MorphOS from ISO on HDD!!1
    - Supports booting from USB
    - Supports booting from optical drive
    - User interaction with boot partition NOT required for ordinary users (except during initial setup.. even that can be skipped by using the default script method of booting, and when using update method).
    (User interaction with boot partition IS required if using a non-standard partition layout or using multiple OSes/MorphOS versions, and when updating MorphOS from ISO)
    - No need to mess with bootinfo.txt (MorphOS default script).
    - No need to run hfssetmacboot (to bless files from the cli).
    - Bootmonster menu now survives updating MorphOS.
    - DOES NOT BREAK MORPHOS STANDARD BOOT METHOD (at worst: bootmonster bypasses it :P )
    - Until step 6 (ie after testing) No changes are made to booting using the default MorphOS boot method.
    - After installation:
    - Bootmonster: Maintains default MorphOS boot method as an available option at all times.
    - Hardware: 'ALT' (Built-in graphical) boot menu still uses MorphOS standard boot method.
    - Hardware: Returns to default MorphOS boot method if NVRam boot-device variable is set to default.


    Bad points:
    - Hardware: 'ALT' graphical boot menu won't detect linux, or multiple morphos versions.
    - Adds a few seconds to the boot time.

    [ Edited by boot_wb 11.01.2017 - 18:57 ]
    www.hullchimneyservices.co.uk

    UI: Powerbook 5,6 (1.67GHz, 128MB VRam): OS3.1, OSX 10.5.8
    HTPC: Mac Mini G4 (1,5GHz, 64MB VRam): OS3.1 (ZVNC)
    Audiophile: Efika 5200b (SB Audigy): OS3.1 (VNC + Virtual Monitor)

    Windows free since 2011!
  • »16.05.15 - 12:51
    Profile Visit Website