From: Chris Pimlott <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Bug#63727: grub: Doesn't recognize MaxBlast bootable floppy as executable
Date: Mon, 8 May 2000 04:11:08 -0400 (EDT)
> Search me. I have very little knowledge of this type. Just know
> it does, in fact, boot when booting directly from floppy first.
The convention in the PC world specifies that every boot block MUST
have a correct signature (i.e. 0x55aa) in the last two bytes. This is
the only way to detect if the first sector of a drive has a bootable
program. When chain-loading the image of a sector, if the signature is
ignored, that might cause several terrible results (e.g. your floppy
disk drive spins forever, the condensor overheats, it burns, and
finally your house disappears into thin air). So the signature MUST be
checked. If your floppy image doesn't have a correct signature, that
is a bug in it, but not in GRUB. The Right Thing you should do is to
report the bug to the maintainer.
However, GRUB has an option to disable the check, to forcibly load a
sector. If you really want to use the option, run the command
chainloader with "--force". The use is deprecated.
Okuji
