Hi!
10-Сен-2004 20:05 [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Luchezar Georgiev) wrote to
[EMAIL PROTECTED]:
LG> "brain-dead" BIOSes if the boot drive is A: (but not if it's C:), the FF
LG> value written to by SYS causes a compatibility problem. What happens if
LG> someone decides to overwrite our boot sector later with a boot sector from
LG> another DOS? The FF will remain there (I checked that with PC-DOS) and the
LG> new boot sector will try to boot off drive FF, which will fail. Being too
LG> smart sometimes hurts (if everyone else is dumb ;-)
I don't understand this. SYS writes 0/FF only into its own images,
builtin into SYS executables. And, if _after_ SYS someone will change boot
loader, then 0/FF value also will be replaced. Where is trouble?
Or, do you mean, that someone will _add_ own boot sector _into SYS_?
But added boot sectors should follow some rules, including "boot drive
field" (which, of course, internally may be ignored).
LG> So, I propose that SYS stores 0 if the drive is A: or B:, 80 if the drive
LG> is C: or D:,
"D:"==second disk? Second disk is a 81h value.
LG> and FF in all other cases, and that we add a special boot
LG> drive option that can be used by advanced users to store whatever value
LG> they like. We could also just leave that value unchanged from the old boot
LG> sector as most other SYSes doo,
For this, SYS should verify, that it knows old boot record andr that
mask is placed at expected position. Too fuzzy and ambuguous.
LG> thus placing the responcibility on FORMAT
LG> ;-) Please express your opinions on this issue. Changing the SYS behaviour
LG> is easy, but taking the right decision isn't.
I think, current behavior (use fixed drive# in case of A:/C: and BIOS
value in other cases, including HDs), is good and flexible way.
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