will freebsd run on apple intel xserve
George Hartzell
hartzell at alerce.com
Fri Dec 14 06:27:23 PST 2007
Jason Joines writes:
> 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.
> > > 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.
> >
>
>
>
> I didn't even know there was such a thing as an 8-way mac pro.
> Unfortunately that probably doesn't mean much as far as the xserve boxes
> go, at least not the intel xserve boxes. I'm running Linux on an intel
> imac and an intel powerbook pro, and others are on the intel powerbook
> and it runs on all the PowerPC stuff. However, all the intel boxes just
> mentioned have BIOS emulation. The intel xserve boxes do not, boot camp
> won't run on them and isn't supported on them.
Well, I'm pretty fuzzy about what's hidden inside the various intel
macs, but if will let you partition a disk from an os x install cd,
will boot a freebsd boot disk from the cd (so you can do the install),
and will boot from an refit cd (or via refit installed into the efi
[sic?] boot area) then it'll go. FreeBSD doesn't need much from the
bios, does it?
If you send me an intel xserve, I'll take a shot at it.... :)
g.
More information about the freebsd-questions
mailing list