[ part 1 | part 2 ]

It is a good idea to verify that the MOL engine works correctly, before actually trying to boot MacOS. As root, give the command

bash$ startmol --loadonly

If things work properly, the kernel modules "mol" and possibly "molsymglue" should have been loaded (you can verify this by giving the /sbin/lsmod command). There are several reasons why the kernel modules might NOT load:

(i) The installed mol kernel modules do not exactly match the version of the running kernel. Usually a small version difference causes no prolems. However, if it does, a kernel panic might probably occur (mol keeps a list about known incompatibilites, so it should be a rare condition). In any case, mol will not try to load a kernel module with mismatched version unless the '-a' switch is used (e.g. startmol -a --loadonly).

If the kernel lack AltiVec support (it doesn't matter whether the CPU supports AltiVec or not), the modules in the mol-kmods package will not work. Use the mol-kmods-noav package instead (if available, or recompile the kernel module).

The same is true for SMP-prepared kernels. The precompiled mol-kmods modules will not run on these kernels. You really should avoid running SMP kernels on non-SMP systems since there is a noticable performance loss (and at the moment, mol will not run reliable on true SMP systems).

(ii) If a complaint about "missing symbols" seems to be the culprit, you might need to recompile the kernel module using the correct kernel headers (this should only occur if you used the '-a' switch above).

(iii) Depending on the kernel version, mol might need access to the "System.map" file corresponding to your kernel. It is usually located in /boot/ or /usr/src/linux/, but it is commonly missing (or describes a different kernel than the one in use). If mol really needs this file (and it can't be found automatically), it should be passed as an argument to startmol, e.g:

bash$ startmol /tmp/System.map --loadonly

Alternatively, it is possible to specify the image of the kernel you are running instead:

bash$ startmol /boot/vmlinux --loadonly

If you choose the last method, make sure you have the binutils package installed.

(iv) MOL might panic. If this happens, recompile the kernel module.

(v) Any other error - examine the output carefully. If you still don't understand what is wrong, the answer might be in the FAQ. A search of the list archive might also be a good idea.

Testing MOL, part 2