Bug#417279: etch installation report
* Frans Pop [2007-04-09 21:14:48 +0200]:
> On Monday 09 April 2007 20:54, Sergio Gelato wrote:
> > Installing GRUB into the MBR in those conditions disables the BIOS'
> > "boot to utility partition" functionality. It's not a major loss
> > (one can boot from the Dell diagnostics CD instead), just slightly
> > inelegant. Don't worry too much about it.
>
> Can you provide us with any information on how such a partition could be
> reliably detected?
It's a FAT partition with ID 0xDE, usually (always?) found at the
beginning of the disk. Size varies; on the machine this installation
report is about it's on the order of 100 MB. Some file names in it are:
autoexec.bat
command.com
dellbio.bin
Dellboot.exe
delldiag.com
delldiag.exe
DellDiag.INI
According to
http://www.novell.com/documentation/zlm72/lm7admin/data/b3r865p.html
some of the "boot to utility partition" functionality relies on special
features of Dell's MBR; however, the partition can also be booted from
GRUB just like any other DOS partition.
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