Re: boot-floppies package
On Sun, Jun 01, 2003 at 11:14:20AM -0400, Haines Brown wrote:
...
> > I seriously doubt this is sane:)
> > According to the grub.info (node: Images):
> >
> > While Stage 2 cannot generally be embedded in a fixed area as the
> > size is so large, Stage 1.5 can be installed into the area right
> > after a MBR, or the boot loader area of a ReiserFS or a FFS.
> >
> > In other words, putting stage2 directly after the bootrecord destroys
> > any filesytem on the disk, better use stage1.5 or do a true install on
> > the floppy as I posted recently or as described in the FAQ (node FAQ).
>
> Ouch! I hope I didn't give bum advice :-(. I understand your point
> about the MBR, but if the grub files (besides the two files above, I
> also copied over the 1_5 fs drivers for about 200 Kb altogether) are
> on diskette, and I don't see how the warning would apply. I've been
> merrily using the floppy to boot both RedHat (ext3) and Debian (ext3
> and reiserfs).
As stated before, there is really limited space on a floppy in between
the MBR and the actual file system. (Oh, and I'm not even sure there
is enough room there on a floppy to stack stage1.5) Depending on the
size of stage2 you're very likely to have overwritten part of the
filesystem. Whether you'll ever notice this depends on your usage,
but to me it seems a disaster waiting to happen. Whether the grub
files are somewhere else on that disk really doesn't matter, you've
ruined the filesystem.
The ruined file system might lead to you overwriting part of stage2
whenever you put something on the floppy, like changing menu.lst,
or putting the other grub files on disk.
Ofcourse if you first put those files on the flop, change menu.lst,
and only then use dd to put stage1 and stage2 in place, you might
be lucky and overwrite only some of those superfluous grub files.
--
groetjes, carel
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