[Sugar-devel] Getting Sugar to run on certain mac chipsets

[Bobby Powers]

On Thu, Jun 18, 2009 at 10:14 AM, Caryl Bigenho<cbigenho at hotmail.com> wrote:
> Ah Ha!
> You have just opened an interesting can of worms!  When I try to use SoaS
> with boot helper on my MacBook I also get Mac and Windows as my boot
> options. However the Windows image is actually WindowsI since I have it
> installed via Bootcamp.  I need it for some internet sites that don't work
> with Macs (updating my gps and/or initializing an iPod for example) so I
> don't want to take it off.
> So, the question is, will it work with a MacBook that already has a dual
> boot?  I'm sure there is a way to do it in addition to the Virtual Box.
>  Interesting challenge!  Pass it around...go for it!

you should be able to use http://refit.sourceforge.net/ to switch
between multiple installs and boot from various thumb drives/cds and
such.  I had linux, mac and windows at one point on 3 partitions.  I
think I used the mac boot camp assistant to resize the mac partition
in 2, then used gparted to split the windows partition in half
(gparted doesn't like touching mac hfs+ partitions with journaling
enabled, which is the default).  voila, triple booting.

> Caryl
> ________________________________
> Date: Thu, 18 Jun 2009 09:23:38 -0400
> Subject: Getting Sugar to run on certain mac chipsets
> From: caroline at solutiongrove.com
> To: sugar-devel at lists.sugarlabs.org; sdaly.be at gmail.com;
> cbigenho at hotmail.com; pauline at solutiongrove.com; deds at solutiongrove.com
>
> We've been having an issue on some newer macs with the screen going blank.
> Deds and Pauline have been working on the issue and here is what they have
> discovered that works.
>
> Note that this is using standard keyboard and not the apple one.  If using
> apple keyboard you might need to change the keys you press.  The following
> is what I did:
>
> I plugged the latest SoaS (Soas2-200905241902.iso) and boot helper
> (soas-boot-20090615.iso) in the mac mini and then booted up.
> At the sound of the chime, I immediately pressed the ALT key until the boot
> options appear.  (options that appeared on the mac mini are Macintosh HD and
> Windows, with Windows pertaining to the SoaS)
> Select Window.
> As soon as you see the blue screen which says automatically logging in n
> seconds... Press the TAB key.  This should display the boot menu
> At the boot menu press the TAB key to display the kernel boot parameters.
> At the end of the displayed parameters, type "nomodeset" and press ENTER.
> This should start up sugar
>
> So what does nomodeset actually do?
>
> It disables this https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/KernelModesetting
> Introduced in FC10 but has been having problems with some graphic chipsets
> (including Intel GMA 950 which is in the Mac Mini).  AFAICT it can be safely
> disabled with no adverse effects on stability.
>
> Is there a way we can modify SoaS so that mac users don't have to do this
> but it still works for everyone?
>
> --
> Caroline Meeks
> Solution Grove
> Caroline at SolutionGrove.com
>
> 617-500-3488 - Office
> 505-213-3268 - Fax
>
> _______________________________________________
> Sugar-devel mailing list
> Sugar-devel at lists.sugarlabs.org
> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
>
>