From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 MIME-Version: 1.0 In-Reply-To: <1246299105.77647.256.camel@legolas.orthanc.ca> References: <9ab217670906290920hfa68ae6xd3735ae0db5ddec7@mail.gmail.com> <3e1162e60906291028w9c999a1rb85cfe8c68ade2fe@mail.gmail.com> <1246299105.77647.256.camel@legolas.orthanc.ca> Date: Mon, 29 Jun 2009 18:20:30 -0400 Message-ID: <3aaafc130906291520l12ee11ecu708141c928c01d53@mail.gmail.com> From: "J.R. Mauro" To: Fans of the OS Plan 9 from Bell Labs <9fans@9fans.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Subject: Re: [9fans] Booting plan9 on intel macs Topicbox-Message-UUID: 115d2b06-ead5-11e9-9d60-3106f5b1d025 On Mon, Jun 29, 2009 at 2:11 PM, Lyndon Nerenberg wrote: > I accidentally installed a FreeBSD drive in my MacBook. To my surprise, > it just worked. If you install a boot drive with the "usual" PC disk > partitioning the Macs will boot in what seems to be a fairly complete > BIOS emulation. > > How far Plan9 gets is another story, but my guess is that even if it > sees the disk controllers properly, it's not going to like the NIC(s). > > Don't even try to install it on a Mac. Instead, pull the drive and do > the install on a normal PC, then stick the drive back into the Mac. This > might give you a fighting chance, but it's inevitable you'll be doing > driver work before long. > > Just installing rEFIt will be much easier than any of that, assuming plan 9 can handle the hardware. But the intel macs use Broadcom NICs and a weird platform chip for the ambient light sensors and accelerometers, which you'd have to write a driver for. Looking for 'applesmc' would give some examples. I can't think of other weird hardware they might use... aside from discrete video cards, they're mostly intel hardware.