Description
IBM PowerPC products do not have a BIOS as typical intel-based architectures do. Instead, they offer Open Firmware. Open Firmware provides an interactive shell where you can configure the boot process.
From wikipedia:OpenFirmware ..
Open Firmware (also, 'OpenBoot') is a hardware-independent firmware (computer software which loads the operating system), developed by Sun Microsystems, and used in post-NuBus PowerPC-based Apple Macintosh computers, Sun Microsystems SPARC based workstations and servers, IBM POWER systems, and PegasosPPC systems, among others. On those computers, Open Firmware fulfills the same tasks as BIOS does on PC computers. It is accessed by a user by a Forth-based shell interface. Forth is a powerful high level language. For example, it is possible to program Open Firmware to solve the Tower of Hanoi problem.[1] It was going to be described by IEEE standard IEEE-1275, which was not reaffirmed by the OFWG and has been officially withdrawn by IEEE. Unfortunately, this means it is unavailable from the IEEE.
{{admon/tip|tftp required|This test will require access to a tftp server on the same network as the system under test.}}
How to test
- Boot the system under test into Open Firmare. A key sequence may be required to direct the system to boot Open Firmware.
- Locate the file
images/netboot/ppc64.img
from the installation source. Copy this file into a directory accessible by your tftpserver. For example,cp images/netboot/ppc64.img /var/lib/tftpboot/</reP>
# Direct the system under test to boot this file. For example, from Open Firmware you may issue a command similar to <pre>boot network:,\ppc64.img
- Proceed through installation as desired
Expected Results
- System should boot and start anaconda loader without error
- System can transition to stage#2 anaconda