On Mon, Jun 3, 2024, 6:26 PM Eric Auer via Freedos-devel <
freedos-devel@lists.sourceforge.net> wrote:

>
> Hi Jim,
>
> from an engineering point of view, I would say LBA avoids
> problems related to mismatching CHS geometries on different
> computers, so I still prefer the MANUAL method where users
> have to run SYS C: /FORCE:CHS before transplanting a disk
> from a computer with LBA support to one without LBA. I would
> recommend to avoid CHS on all computers which support LBA.
>
> 1.

...

>
> 3. Or we could give SYS support for multi-sector FAT32 boot
> sectors, which would be necessary for automatic switching
> on FAT32. Only FAT16 is simple enough to handle both cases
> within a single sector.
>
> While FAT32 does support multi-sector boot sectors, I would
> think that those get more easily damaged than single sectors?
>
> Regards, Eric
>
>
>
> > So that says that QEMU supports LBA but the BIOS on the Pocket386 does
> > not. And ...
>


I'm thinking of adding a multi-sector boot code for fat32 to support both
LBA and CHS, but possibly keeping the single sector boot code support as
well.   It would be a build option along with other advanced features so as
to not bloat basic sys included with kernel archive.  I'd like to see if I
can still keep lba logic in 1st sector so if 2nd sector corrupted could
still boot in happy path (lba no errors).  A 3rd sector would not be used
hopefully.   I will see about working on this, but not until next week.

I don't think anything needs to be done with installer.  But we can
document potential issues and fixes when moving drives from one computer to
another, ie boot sector may need updating and there may be other issues if
chs used and different geometry expected.

Jeremy

>
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