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bug#25602: [parted] Problem with msdos mbr creation
From: |
Brian C. Lane |
Subject: |
bug#25602: [parted] Problem with msdos mbr creation |
Date: |
Tue, 18 Apr 2017 10:54:00 -0700 |
User-agent: |
Mutt/1.8.0 (2017-02-23) |
On Tue, Apr 18, 2017 at 11:50:27AM -0400, Phil Susi wrote:
> On 2/1/2017 6:33 PM, Brian C. Lane wrote:
> > That's the MBR boot code normally used to boot a BIOS system. If it
> > causes problems on a non-x86 system you should zero it out (or write the
> > system bootloader after partitioning).
>
> Brian, do you know why parted adds the boot code but fdisk does not?
> Maybe we should consider removing it? It's only use is to chain load
> the "active partition" boot loader. I can only think of three times
> this is going to be used:
>
> 1) Booting DOS/Windows: they have commands to add the boot code after
> the fact, and normally they would partition the disk first.
>
> 2) Booting with LILO installed to a partition: LILO had a switch to
> write the MBR boot code if you ever wanted to do this and anyone still
> uses LILO.
>
> 3) Booting with GRUB installed to a partition: GRUB strongly recommends
> installing to the MBR instead, and if you really must put it in a
> partition, and don't already have MBR boot code, you can use LILO to add it.
>
Yeah, I can't think of any good reason to keep it. We should probably
just zero it out to prevent old code from causing problems.
--
Brian C. Lane (PST8PDT)