How can we make F17 be able to boot on Macs (with or without reFit)

[Chris Murphy]

First post. I stumbled across this subject while performing an unrelated search.

I have found EFI booting Apple hardware is problematic on the two models I've tested. I think these are kernel related problems that would need to be sorted out to get a full boot and startup to a GUI login. CSM-BIOS boot works OK on these models.

Apple hardware tested: 
mbp41 = MacBookPro 4,1 (2008), Nvidia Geforce8600M GT.
mbp82 = MacBookPro 8,2 (2011), Intel HD Graphics 3000 and AMD Radeon HD 6750M.

1. mbp41 booting is inconsistent. Without additional kernel parameters I generally end up with one of three results: successful boot to GUI login window; hang at nouveau (dmesg points to VBIOS corruption having occurred very early during boot); hang when unpacking initramfs (possibly the same intermittent corruption of VBIOS, causes corruption when unpacking initramfs).

With 'nomodeset' I usually am able to boot and complete startup except for x. So it's a text only situation. But all other function appears reliable.

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=751147

2. mbp82 booting of kernel and initramfs appears to work 100% of the time. However immediately after a GRUB menu item is chosen, GRUB-EFI vanishes and is replaced with garbage on the screen. I speculate that in this boot mode, both video adapters are active at the same time and are conflicting maybe? In any event, I can't see anything. But it is possible to ssh into the computer or blindly type commands and they all appear to work.

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=765954

Also, all EFI testing I've done is without rEFIt as I feel it adds another layer of unknowns to the process.


Chris Murphy