swriteboot vs debian installer wrt Tru64 disklabel

["Toni L. Harbaugh-Blackford [Contr]" <harbaugh@ncifcrf.gov>]

Hi-

I have experimented a bit with the debian installer and also with
swriteboot, and there is something I don't understand.

If I disklabel a disk under Tru64, and then run swriteboot
against the disk under debian, swriteboot preserves Tru64's
ability to read the label.  But the debian installer does not.
Even if I do not provide an aboot partition *and* tell the installer
not to install aboot, the installer 'blows away' the beginning
of the disk, so that Tru64 cannot read the label:

 fchelp{root}# disklabel -r dsk2
 disklabel: read record #0: No such file or directory

Note that fdisk on debian can still see the label, even when
Tru64 cannot.

I am curious: how does the debian installer write aboot to the
disk?  If it uses swriteboot, why does it corrupt the beginning
of the disk when running swriteboot by-hand does not?

Thanks,
Toni

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Toni Harbaugh-Blackford                   harbaugh@abcc.ncifcrf.gov
System Administrator
Advanced Biomedical Computing Center (ABCC)
National Cancer Institute
Contractor - SAIC/Frederick