Re: extipl, mbr--why? (was: GRUB)
Hi.
In article <[🔎] 87d7vk7c2n.fsf@sheikh.hands.com>
phil@hands.com (Philip Hands) writes:
> Andrew Pimlott <andrew@pimlott.ne.mediaone.net> writes:
(snip)
> > May I ask what the point of these enhanced mbr's is, since all of these
> > features are available from the boot loader (eg LILO)? I've always had my
> > LILO configured to boot from the floppy and alternate partitions, and this
> > would be fairly easy to add to the default lilo.conf for beginners.
Maybe you are so clever that you can easily understand how to fiddle
that lilo.conf, but there are many people who can not find proper settings
of lilo for their needs. (So both of how-to and FAQ about lilo is distributed
additional to the very detailed documents of lilo itself)
And LILO require the files (at least the 2nd loader and map file) on
different place than the MBR (Master Boot Record). you can boot from
alternate partitions by your setup, but if you remove the partition
which includes the required files (2nd loader and kernel map) and
overwrite on them, the rest partition would not work for you.
By putting the current "mbr" or alternate "extipl" on MBR, you can
select partitions by solely using the code in MBR (just 446bytes).
And you can set lilo in each partitions boot sector, this is more
easy configuration than having multiple partition setup in single
lilo.conf for many beginners.
> > No beginner understands what those funny letters that mbr prints mean
> > anyway, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who gets annoyed when they pop up
> > because I'm holding down shift to get the LILO prompt.
Why don't you put "delay=30" or "delay=20" in your lilo.conf ?
It makes more easy to catch the LILO prompt for you.
> > What was the rationale for adding mbr to the default configuration?
> To stop the annoying FAQ:
Yes. Philip knows the begginers. These FAQ is very frequently up
even these days, or much more since more and more people begin to use
Linux and LILO. I think Debian's current configuration to use it's "mbr"
package is reasonable.
(Well, if I don't think so, I would not make the package of extipl :)
just FYI.
--
Taketoshi Sano: <kgh12351@nifty.ne.jp>
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