Re: [gentoo-user] Re: EFI-based bootloader for BIOS-based computers (?)

[Poison BL.]

On Sat, Feb 22, 2014 at 8:00 AM, Mick <michaelkintzios@×××××.com> wrote:

> On Thursday 20 Feb 2014 01:22:24 eroen wrote:
> > On Wed, 19 Feb 2014 15:39:51 -0800, walt <w41ter@×××××.com> wrote:
> > > I just spotted that phrase in the sourceforge newsletter:
> > >
> > > http://sourceforge.net/projects/cloverefiboot/
> > >
> > > and it seems to me like an oxymoron.  If that phrase makes
> > > logical sense then my definitions of 'BIOS' and 'EFI' need
> > > the latest updates :)
> > >
> > > Until now I thought that EFI is a recent replacement for
> > > "BIOS" based machines.
> > >
> > > Can anyone clarify the linguistics involved here?
> >
> > The scope of UEFI is somewhat greater than that of traditional BIOSes.
> > Both do various hardware initialization and such, but UEFIs (can) have
> > a number of additional features, including more flexibility in what it
> > can launch from where (eg. network booting without iPXE) and even an
> > interactive shell. See [1] for a less organized list of features.
> >
> > I'm unfamiliar with this project in specific, but I'm going by the line
> >
> >     This is EFI-based bootloader for BIOS-based computers created as a
> >     replacement to EDK2/Duet bootloader http://www.tianocore.org.
> >
> > I have a box running Duet, which is an UEFI implementation that can be
> > launched by (eg.) the extlinux boot loader on a legacy BIOS system.
> > Once Duet is launched, the system is mostly indistinguishable from a
> > native UEFI system that has booted into it's UEFI firmware.
> >
> > From here, Duet can let the user go through menus to select an EFI
> > executable to launch (a EFI-stub enabled kernel or some sort of boot
> > loader), or it can automatically launch something based on existing
> > configuration.
> >
> > 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFI#Features
>
> I guess this can be seen as a BIOS chainloaded UEFI?
>
> BTW, has anyone tried hackintosh in a VM?  I am thinking of using
> AppleMac's
> Mail program, when I can no longer run the legacy kmail application.  A bit
> drastic to have to load a whole VM just for mail, but I can't find another
> client that suits.
>
> --
> Regards,
> Mick
>

Last I did much research on it, the only semi-working implementation of OSX
in a VM required VMware Workstation as the host, involved booting a hacked
together boot cd image, and crashed and burned hard on updates. It was
interesting, but not very viable for anything that's of any measurable
importance at all. I tested it out for a couple days to compile a little
pice of code a mac user friend wanted to play with... it was dog slow on my
system otherwise (but that was likely my system's fault, old E8400 @4GB ram
at the time + Win7)

-- 
Poison [BLX]
Joshua M. Murphy