will freebsd run on apple intel xserve

[Jason Joines]

Gabriel Rossetti wrote:
> George Hartzell wrote:
>> Jason Joines writes:
>>  >      I'm a Linux guy who has inherited some apple xserve boxes. 
>>  > Surprisingly I've discovered that I really hate os x.  For the intel 
>>  > xserve boxes, Linux isn't an option.  The CPUs are amd64 architecture. 
>>   
> AMD64....on an Intel X-Serve box? I think you got it wrong there.......
> Anyways, EFI support for Xeon CPUs should work without a problem, even
> for linux.
> I'm not sure about EFI support, I think it's fine in CURRENT, from what
> I've read on the net.
> 
> Good luck,
> Gabriel
>>  > The EFI capable Linux bootloader, has had beta support for amd64 since 
>>  > July.  However, the Linux kernel just got support to boot via EFI and 
>>  > amd64 in a release candidate patch this month.  It'll probably be quite 
>>  > a while before a distribution has an installer with what I need.
>>  > 
>>  >      At any rate, I've always wanted to try one of the BSDs.  Will 
>>  > FreeBSD install on an apple intel xserve?  If not does anyone know if 
>>  > another BSD or some other open source NIX will work?
>>
>> I can't give you a direct answer, but I was running 6-STABLE on an
>> 8-way mac pro up until a couple of weeks ago (I had to give it back to
>> it's owners and I'm waiting until after the next wwdc to buy my
>> own...).
>>
>> I used bootcamp to partition a spare disk, then just booted from a
>> freebsd cd and installed onto that partition.  I ended up using refit
>> as a boot doohickey (initially from an refit cd, eventually taking a
>> chance on installing it onto the disk itself).
>>
>> There wasn't anything too surprising.
>>
>> g.




     Nope, it is the AMD64 architecture on apple intel xserve.  Intel 
cloned it and called it Intel 64 and EM64T among other names.  More 
vendor neutral names are x86-64 and x64.  At any rate, many Linux 
distributions, and FreeBSD, release a version they call amd64 that runs 
on CPUs with this instruction set regardless of whether AMD or Intel 
created it.
     EFI support may be fine for amd64 xeon's but the elilo boot loader 
wouldn't work with amd64 until the latest beta.  Even though the boot 
loader became capable in that beta, the Linux kernel wouldn't work with 
elilo on amd64 until 2.6.24-rc4.
     It may be fine with x86 xeons and it has always worked with ia64, 
just not amd64.

     I just don't know enough about FreeBSD to know if it or the 
bootloader(s) it uses have any of the same issues Linux does or not. 
Hopefully I'll get to go onsite soon and give it a try.


Jason
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