kernel loading text messages over the grey Apple logo screen

[takwing]

Dear VB team,

In order to get a more seamless boot up process of my MacOS X guest, I would like to see the grey screen with the Apple logo there in the boot up process.

To get the gret screen with Apple logo, I have added

<ExtraDataItem name="VBoxInternal2/EfiBootArgs" value=" "/>

to the machine's XML file (FYI, I am using VB's EFI option).

However, though I can see the desired screen, there are still some text messages displayed. Is there a way to have this resolved?

[LeXa2]

As I had already posted on the Insanely Mac forums, I suspect this to be the VirtualBOX EFI implementation issue: while original Apple Mac EFI refuses to display the text messages when the system had been switched to the graphical mode using GOP, VirtualBOX EFI acts just like the EGA/VGA videobios in old-good times still printing text messages no matter is the current video mode text or graphical.

Devs, any comments on this?

[stefan.becker]

MacOS is only allowed on MacOS. So you cannot get support here.

[Sasquatch]

The Guest OS boots, right? Then what's the big fuss? It's a VM, you can expect it to change differently than a native system. It's quite possible that the EFI on a Mac is under license and only a few parts are available under the Open Source license, just enough to get it to boot.

[LeXa2]

It's quite possible that the EFI on a Mac is under license and only a few parts are available under the Open Source license, just enough to get it to boot.

It is certainly under license as the U(EFI) specification itself is. And even more - Apple's implementation of the EFI most probably is closed-source and unavailable to anyone outside the Apple Inc. Another thing to note is that the original Apple firmwares do not follow the U(EFI) implementation closely: prior to the EFI boot manager startup Apple's firmwares launch specialized Apple's bootloader capable of detecting HFS+ volumes available to the system and starting up boot sequence from the 'blessed' one volume.

The fuzz in this topic is just a feature-request (IMO very minor one): it is always good to make the things look good. For example would it be cool if the VBOX would boot up WinXP normally but only support 640x480 resolution? Just the same here: if there would be a possibility to achieve cool-looking bootup picture just like it looks like on the original hardware. Nothing more.

In any case my preference would be Mac OS X guest additions at the first place, as they are more important from the point of the general system usage.