Hi, I'm working on a tool for testing the Debian CDs for the Google Summer of Code (http://pancutan.alioth.debian.org/), this tool will run all sort of tests over the iso files, and I'm fairly lost about the different booting methods in powerpc (which I will inspect to be sure that the cd is bootable in all arches). So as people that know the architecture, maybe you can give me some pointers, sorry if this is offtopic here.
So far, I've found that: - the CDs are build as hybrid ISO9660+hfs, with an APM partition. But the partition lists a boot area of size 0. What's that partition for? - the image also has an MBR partition with invalid physical addresses and I couldn't figure what's for, - the /install folder is -hfs-blessed, but don't know what that means, - there is prep boot support, but I don't know the format of the boot file, nor I could find any information on how this works, - there is a bootfile.txt file for chrp booting, but don't know if that is triggered by something else or the OF loads it automatically, - there is another chrp descriptor called ofboot.b, but I don't know what it is, - there is a forth script for pegasos, but I don't know how's that loaded, - the yaboot boot loader is present, but I couldn't find what enables it, - there is a ElTorito boot descriptor, with invalid checksum, and finally, - I don't know how these parts relate to each other for each subarch :) Thanks in advance for anything that you could help me with. PS: please CC me, I'm not subscribed. -- Martín Ferrari
