i386 EFI booting status/roadmap?

[Wilhelm B. Kloke]

Andrew Moran <amoran at forsythia.net> schrieb:
>
> I'm considering using one of the new intel Xserve macs for a  
> replacement server.   I was googling for support for booting FreeBSD  
> off of EFI and only found posts saying it couldn't be done, but all  
> of those were over 7 months old.
>
> 1)  Is it still the case that one cannot boot i386 FreeBSD on EFI (w/ 
> o bootcamp)?
> 2)  Is this currently being worked on, and if so, is there a known  
> timeline?

As I want to see this happen, too, here are my experiences with this
(on MacMini early 2000):

I installed rEFIt 0.8 on the system.

Linux (Ubuntu Edgy) boots fine, and works.
FreeBSD 6.2 boots into the system installer.
AFAIK, the Yukon II Ethernet is supported only on 7.0.
DragonflyBSD (1.8?) hangs.
NetBSD (?) hangs, too.

Apple's netboot process is not standard DHCP, so there is extra
work necessary to use this. If and when I can use my MacMini via Netboot,
I am going to be a happy user of this.
-- 
Dipl.-Math. Wilhelm Bernhard Kloke
Institut fuer Arbeitsphysiologie an der Universitaet Dortmund
Ardeystrasse 67, D-44139 Dortmund, Tel. 0231-1084-257

PGP: http://vestein.arb-phys.uni-dortmund.de/~wb/mypublic.key