Bug#509799: Patch

[Frans Pop <elendil@planet.nl>]

On Thursday 26 November 2009, Gaudenz Steinlin wrote:
> > _Description: Go back to the menu and correct this problem?
> >  Your boot partition has not been marked as a bootable partition, even
> >  though this is required by your machine in order to boot. Please go
> >  back and set the bootable flag for your boot partition.
> >  .
> >  If you do not go back to the partitioning menu and correct this
> > error, the partition will be used as is.  This means that you may not
> > be able to boot from your hard disk.
>
> Why not just ask the user if d-i should mark the partition as bootable?
> I'm not sure if this is easily implementable, but if it is, I think this
> would be user friendlier than the proposed solution.
>
> E.g something along the lines of: Your boot partition is not marked as
> bootable. Should it be marked as bootable?

I'm not sure which platform this is about exactly, but the rule "the /boot 
partition must be marked bootable" is not correct for all cases.

In general (at least on x86) the rule is "the partition *on which the 
bootloader is installed* should be marked bootable (and in the case the 
bootloader is installed in the MBR, that's the first partition).

There is nothing that guarantees the bootloader is installed in the /boot 
partition, or that the /boot partition is the first partition on the disk.

Cheers,
FJP