Mac OS X entries don't work (fail or crash), part 1

[Chris Murphy]

Fedora 18, grub2-efi-2.00-13.fc18

When I choose any Mac OS X entry I get:

error: can't find command 'xnu_uuid' 
error: can't find command 'xnu_kernel64' 
error: can't find command 'xnu_kextdir'

Press any key to continue…

I already know how I can fix this, I'm inquiring on what exactly is wrong and 
how it needs to get fixed in Fedora so it works.

1. The Fedora installed grubx64.efi doesn't have the necessary xnu modules 
baked into it. Should it? Or is it better for it to depend on finding the 
modules and loading them on demand?

2. The grubx64.efi prefix is looking on the ESP in /EFI/fedora/x86_64-efi for 
the modules. Is this the correct location for modules on (U)EFI systems?

3. The Fedora grub2-efi package doesn't install any modules to either location 
(not to the ESP, not to /boot/grub2). Should it?

4. The Fedora installer, doesn't call grub2-install, to cause the modules to be 
installed anywhere. Should it?

Clearly either the grubx64.efi needs the xnu mod files baked in, OR the modules 
need to be installed by the grub2 package in a location where grubx64.efi can 
find them; OR the installer needs to call grub2-install to get them installed 
to a location where grubx64.efi can find them. I'm just not clear where they 
are supposed to go on a (U)EFI system.

The grub2-install help description for --boot-directory= says they should go in 
/boot/grub2, apparently even on (U)EFI systems, not on the ESP. If I use this 
to direct it to /boot/efi, they still end up in the wrong place because a grub2 
folder is created.

When I run grub2-install by itself, the modules are installed to 
/boot/grub2/x86_64-efi, but I also get a message:

/boot/efi doesn't look like an EFI partition.

So grub2-install presumably wanted to do something on the ESP? What? I see 
nothing written.  Is the failure because Fedora is using an HFS+ volume as the 
EFI System partition, grub2-install then falls back to installing modules into 
/boot/grub2?

Results from grub2-install --debug:


address@hidden ~]# grub2-install --debug
+ setup_verbose=--verbose
+ efi_quiet=-q
+ '[' -z '' ']'
+ bootdir=/boot
+ '[' -n '' ']'
++ echo /boot/grub2
++ sed 's,//*,/,g'
+ grubdir=/boot/grub2
+ device_map=/boot/grub2/device.map
+ '[' x86_64-efi = i386-pc ']'
+ '[' x86_64-efi = sparc64-ieee1275 ']'
+ set /usr/bin/grub2-mkimage dummy
+ test -f /usr/bin/grub2-mkimage
+ :
+ '[' xefi = xefi ']'
+ test -n ''
+ test -d /boot/efi
++ /usr/sbin/grub2-probe --target=device --device-map= /boot/efi
+ install_device=/dev/sda4
++ /usr/sbin/grub2-probe --target=device --device-map= /boot
+ test x/dev/sda4 '!=' x/dev/sda6
+ efidir=/boot/efi
+ test -n /boot/efi
++ /usr/sbin/grub2-probe --target=fs --device-map=/boot/grub2/device.map 
/boot/efi
+ efi_fs=hfsplus
+ test xhfsplus = xfat
+ gettext_printf '%s doesn'\''t look like an EFI partition.\n' /boot/efi
+ gettext_printf_format='%s doesn'\''t look like an EFI partition.\n'
+ shift
++ gettext '%s doesn'\''t look like an EFI partition.\n'
+ printf '%s doesn'\''t look like an EFI partition.\n' /boot/efi
/boot/efi doesn't look like an EFI partition.
+ efidir=
+ test -n ''
+ efidir=/boot/grub2
+ efi_distributor=
+ efi_file=grub.efi
+ mkdir -p /boot/grub2
+ mkdir -p /boot/grub2/x86_64-efi
+ test no = yes
+ test -f /boot/grub2/device.map
+ device_map=

I have previously fixed the missing modules part of this, but then get a kernel 
panic when choosing the OS X options. I'll discuss that part after I resolve 
where everything is supposed to go so I can file an appropriate Fedora bug, and 
the work around for where things should go in the future.


Chris Murphy