Re: [PATCH] Loading windows in macbook

[Yoshinori K. Okuji]

On Tuesday 24 June 2008 22:11:18 Bean wrote:
> This patch fix two problem that can cause problem for grub-pc in macbook.
>
> 1, In grub-setup, we should skip the first 1024 bytes when comparing
> data, as it have previously made change to the buffer with
> install_dos_part and install_bsd_part, cause the comparison to fail.
> This problem is not showed if the loader can be embedded in mbr.
>
> 2. Macbook will halt if we disable a20, so I add a new option
> --keep-a20 to keep the a20 gate open.
>
> With this patch, you can chainload windows with the following command:
>
> set root=(hd0,4)
> chainloader --keep-a20 +1
> boot

Generally speaking, it is a bad idea to make this kind of option, since most 
users don't understand why, and it is a nightmare for distributors to make 
this working correctly (when should it be enabled?).

So please try to find a way to detect the right behavior for given hardware 
automatically rather than asking the user to do so. Usually, there should be 
some data in the BIOS to identify the vendor or something.

Okuji