reinstalling os x within mol

[Samuel Rydh]

On Wed, Mar 24, 2004 at 07:37:47AM -0500, Derrik Pates wrote:
> >However, when I tried to install OS X at section where the volume is
> >selected.  I got a message like:
> >"OS X cannot be installed on that volume.  OS X cannot boot from that
> >volume because it does not have a valid openfirmware path."
> >
> You need to make the partition you want to install to using fdisk. OS X 
> won't be able to partition the disk on its own (least, definitely not 
> without adding the '-whole' switch (and I'd be concerned about OS X 
> eating my partitions, really). It's not hard to make the partition - 
> just use the 'C' command in fdisk, and make the filesystem type 
> 'Apple_HFS'. Then specify that partition in your molrc.osx on a blkdev: 
> line, with the -force option, so that MOL won't discard it (since it 
> probably won't show up as a valid HFS/HFS+ filesystem). Then you'll be 
> able to install OS X in the partition. (I've done this before, so it 
> does work.)

Well, the situation is as follows:

- Mac OS X refuses to install OSX to a disk which only contains
a filesystem without a partition table (OSX doesn't think it
is possible to boot from such a device).

- MOL normally exports only the HFS filesystem itself, e.g. /dev/hda9. 
I.e. no partition table is included and the OSX installer
will refuse to install to it.

- It is possible to reinitialize an individual partition
(e.g. /dev/hda9) from the OSX installer. One can either blank the
filesystem or create a partitioned disk. In the later case,
a partition table will be installed and OSX will be able to
perform the installation. The drawback is that /dev/hda9
will contain an *extra* partition table. This is not
a problem for MOL but native OSX won't be able to mount
this disk easily (OSX can't handle hierarchical partition
tables).

- It is possible to use the -whole flag to export an entire
disk (e.g. /dev/hdb) including the real partition table and
any ext2 disks. One has to be careful though. I _think_
MOL will complain if a HFS partition is simultaneously
mounted under linux, but I'm not 100% certain. Also, it
ould happen that OSX changes the partition numbering
during the installation which might break the yaboot
configuration (the OSX installer typically wants to install
a driver or bootstrap partition).

By looking at the mol log one can easily see if a an exported
device contains a partition table.

No partition table:

	HFS+ /dev/hda9 VolumeName

Partition table:

	Disk /dev/hda9 

/Samuel