Dual boot Mac Mini...force boot menu?

[Fingers]

Hi all,

I've been running MorphOS & OS X side-by-side on my G4 Mini for some time.

It's set to boot into MorphOS by default, but I also use OS X quite often.

Now having purchased a wireless keyboard, it's tricky to force the boot menu with Option key...you need to time the keystroke just right, not just hold Option...& it's a pain in the a**!

Is there any way I can set the firmware to make the boot menu appear without a shortcut key? As in, just make it appear by defult every time the machine is powered on?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated

PZ.

[pampers]

Hi all,

I've been running MorphOS & OS X side-by-side on my G4 Mini for some time.

It's set to boot into MorphOS by default, but I also use OS X quite often.

Now having purchased a wireless keyboard, it's tricky to force the boot menu with Option key...you need to time the keystroke just right, not just hold Option...& it's a pain in the a**!

Is there any way I can set the firmware to make the boot menu appear without a shortcut key? As in, just make it appear by defult every time the machine is booted?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated

PZ.

AFAIK there is no way to force Mac to show boot menu first. Blame your wireless keyboard, I cannot get to OF with mine as well.

[_ThEcRoW]

Have you upgraded your keyboard within osx?. I recall an upgrade long time ago, and i can access of or the boot menu pressing option on my wireless keyboard. Mine is the version without numeric part. The sad part is that i can't use it under mos, neither my mighty mouse, and there are people who has it running.

[Fingers]

Thanks for the replies folks

By "upgrade", do you mean connecting (the receiver in this case) & doing the keyboard identification process?

If so, then yes I have. However, it isn't an Apple keyboard, it's a Logitech one (if that counts for anything...which I guess it certainly might).

PZ.

[Iggy]

It probably more of a pain in the ass then its worth, but have you considered adding Linux to the mix?
With a triple boot system, Linux should add a boot menu.

[pampers]

Thanks for the replies folks

By "upgrade", do you mean connecting (the receiver in this case) & doing the keyboard identification process?

If so, then yes I have. However, it isn't an Apple keyboard, it's a Logitech one (if that counts for anything...which I guess it certainly might).

PZ.

I think Thecrow mixed wireless keyboards with bluetooth one, which works fine under MorphOS but they have to be identified under osx first.

[_ThEcRoW]

No, when i said upgrade, it was a firmware upgrade of the keyboard under mac os x. The update was done via bluetooth, in order to add some features and removing some problems.
After that upgrade, i was able to boot into open firmware on my mac mini with the wireless keyboard. Later, when i installed mos, it can be accessed the boot menu pressing alt on the wireless keyboard, but once mos booted, the kwyboard dont work there, so i have to rely on a usb keyboard since then.

[Fingers]

Spewing!

At least I can use this keyboard with both OSs, just have the boot menu problem, your problem is considerably worse!

PZ.

[Piru]

Personally I've solved this by installing linux.

Linux uses yaboot to provide a boot menu, which I then manually edited to included an entry for MorphOS.

Word of warning though, the bootmenu is a forth script and messing it up will lead to a situation where you need to manually give the boot command from the OF command prompt before you get the chance to try fix it. So this clearly is only an option for the expert users who know their way around OF prompt, linux and modifying existing forth scripts.

[jj]

There is a brilliant guide I followed for setting up double and tripple boot systems.   Where did i get if from ?

[Fingers]

Thanks guys, but installing a third OS that I'd never use just for a boot menu is a bit of an extreme measure for me.

All your comments are appreciated though

PZ.

[Iggy]

Thanks guys, but installing a third OS that I'd never use just for a boot menu is a bit of an extreme measure for me.

All your comments are appreciated though

PZ.

Personally, I use Ubuntu more then OSX. So the option made sense to me.
And I think Piru is exaggerating the difficulty (but not the potential hazards).
I did it and I'm no expert.

[takemehomegrandma]

There is a brilliant guide I followed for setting up double and tripple boot systems.   Where did i get if from ?

I never bothered with boot menus, not on the Pegasos, not on the Mini. But I knew there was some effort(s) done on this on the Peg, and a quick google pointed to this one:
http://aminet.net/package/util/boot/bootmenu

Have no idea of what use it could be though...

EDIT: I'm *not* an expert on these matters (which probably shows), but we who used Pegasos (at least in the early days) had to use OF/SF a bit, and here is something in the line of what I would do if I were you: Here is some info on how OF finds Apple's boot image (read under "default boot device" (BTW, notice that "HD" is an alias (like Amiga's "assign") and not the actual path, read more about actual path on "Open Firmware Capabilities")). I guess this one should be useful for one of the entries in the boot menu, yes? Now find out the MorphOS one. If the concept of OF device-trees, paths, partitions etc is confusing, maybe this (chapters 4, 5) will be of help? I would try to cd and ls my way all the way to the boot image (why not write down the path on some paper as well?). Then, when you have found the exact path through the device-tree to the boot image, and can make a single ls *from the root* to list the place, then you should have what you need for the MorphOS entry in the boot menu. I'd be very careful not to do any "setenv" commands (in step 5 of the boot menu instructions) before actually making sure that *all* your settings/paths in the forth script works as they should (step 4).

Again, haven't actually looked at the script. But if it isn't working, it should be possible to modify...?

Please report back!

[Fingers]

I'm a bit lost about whats been said above.

It is already set to boot into MorphOS by default, I was hope to force the boot menu.

Anyway, I've figured out exactly when to hit the alt key.

There seems to be a boot menu program that works once installed on the OS X end, but only available for Intel Macs...hmm.....

PZ.

[jj]

Just press and hold alt key as soon as you hear the chime