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Booting Solaris from LinuxBIOS

Booting Solaris on LinuxBIOS

The general approach is to modify the FILO loader to support multiboot kernel. I took filo-0.4.2 and added support for Solaris VTOC, ufs, and multiboot. The source patch is listed below. Minor changes to Solaris is needed, they will be available in OpenSolaris build 51.

To setup Solaris with LinuxBIOS, first install Solaris using commercial BIOS. Build LinuxBIOS ROM following instructions that comes with LinuxBIOS, using filo-0.4.2 plus the Solaris patch. Flash the BIOS ROM, which is always a dangerous step. When you get the boot prompt, type in the following: now boot the

   boot: hdc1,a:/platform/i86pc/multiboot -L -B module=/platform/i86pc/boot_archive

where "hdc1,a" refers to the partition Solaris is installed on. The actual string depends on where Solaris root filesys is.

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The patched filo source is filo-patched.tgz.
The filo source patch is filo-0.4.2.patch.
The compiled filo binary is filo.elf.

( Oct 06 2006, 11:44:00 AM PDT ) Permalink