How do I dual boot OpenBSD and OS X?

[pipetogrep]

Hi all,

I’m starting in an OpenBSD and OS X dual boot setup. I have a pretty good ideas about how it needs to be done but am having difficulty finding clear documentation on how to partition the free space for OpenBSD and how to handle the boot loader.

Has anyone here done this? If so, could you please point me to the documentation you followed or provide tips?

Thanks!

 

[pipetogrep]

I got it working. It is on an iBook G4 btw.

Use disk utility on the OS X installer to make 3 parititions. One for the boot loader (HFS), one for OpenBSD (UFS), and one for OS X (HFS+).

Then install OS X.

Then install OpenBSD with the HFS disk option. Afterwards, log back into OS X to copy the boot init from the OpenBSD CD onto the first boot partition.

After that, go into the open firmware prompt and run

setenv boot-device hd:,ofwboot /bsd

 

[alex_free]

I got it working. It is on an iBook G4 btw.

Use disk utility on the OS X installer to make 3 parititions. On for the boot loader (HFS), one for OpenBSD (UFS), and one for OS X (HFS+).

Then install OS X.

Then install OpenBSD with the HFS disk option. Afterwards; log back into OS X to copy the boot innate from the OpenBSD CD onto the first boot partition.

After that, go into the open firmware prompt and run

setenv boot-device hd:,ofwboot /bsd

You can also dual boot Mac OS 9, here’s what I did. IMO there has never been a more dual boot friendly OS for our PowerPC Macs.

 

[pipetogrep]

You can also dual boot Mac OS 9, here’s what I did. IMO there has never been a more dual boot friendly OS for our PowerPC Macs.

Hey thanks! Years later from you writing this, I got and iMac G3 and just followed your guide. Thanks again!

 

[AphoticD]

A little trick I use with my multi-boot PowerPCs is to set nvram from within the host OS.

For example, on a Leopard partition, I would have some aliases added to `~/.profile`, `~/.bashrc`, `~/.zshrc`, etc

alias rebootlinux='nvram boot-device="first-boot/@0:5,\\\\yaboot" && reboot'
alias reboottiger='nvram boot-device="first-boot/@0:4,\\\\:tbxi" && reboot'

(Where my PowerPC Linux bootloader is at partition 5, Tiger install at partition 4, and Leopard at partition 3)

Then from the command line, it's a simple `sudo rebootlinux`, `sudo reboottiger`, etc and over on one of those partitions I would map out the corresponding `rebootleopard`, `reboottiger`, etc aliases.

On Ubuntu MATE, or Debian, you would install `powerpc-ibm-utils` to gain the `/usr/sbin/nvram` tool (which uses a slightly different syntax with `--set-config boot-device=X`). I'm not sure if this works the same on OpenBSD.

This concept can be adapted to suit any partition setup / PowerPC bootloader, including Mac OS 9 and MorphOS. To get back to OS X from an OS which doesn't allow userspace access to NVRAM, the best option would be to manually use the corresponding Startup Disk control panel or zap the PRAM to fall back on the first boot partition.

The beauty of this method (over holding keys to drop into Open Firmware) is I can command this remotely over SSH to reboot my desktop G4/G5s into an alternative OS without having to leave the couch.

 

[barracuda156]

I got it working. It is on an iBook G4 btw.

Use disk utility on the OS X installer to make 3 parititions. One for the boot loader (HFS), one for OpenBSD (UFS), and one for OS X (HFS+).

Then install OS X.

Then install OpenBSD with the HFS disk option. Afterwards, log back into OS X to copy the boot init from the OpenBSD CD onto the first boot partition.

After that, go into the open firmware prompt and run

setenv boot-device hd:,ofwboot /bsd

This will work with two different hard drives, right? I have a fast SSD, which is not supported by OF to boot from, though it can be used as a data drive. I was thinking to install FreeBSD on it.

 

[pipetogrep]

This will work with two different hard drives, right? I have a fast SSD, which is not supported by OF to boot from, though it can be used as a data drive. I was thinking to install FreeBSD on it.

I would assume so. I've only tried it on a single hard drive.