In article <00030418341400.01785@Vagabond>,
Adrian <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
[snip]
> OK, I have a theory and a solution that bypasses the floppy boot.
Let's hear! :-)
> Here's the theory: YOUR BIOS IS #&#!@?13 %$!*@ BECAUSE SOME STUPID
> @!&%$?! PROGRAMER DOESN'T HAVE THE INTELLEGENCE TO REALIZE THERE IS
> MORE THAN 1 OPERATING SYSTEM IN THE WORLD (OK, the BIOS part was
> obvious).
Yes, exactly my opinion as well.
BTW: I know more about Linux in general than I know about x86 hardware.
Is it possible to flash another BIOS into my flash BIOS? Or does just
the one supplied work?
> For some reason, the BIOS checks the checksum of the MBR before
> loading it, since all Macro$ systems (including NT) use a DOS MBR,
> the system works with Macro$. Since LILO is definately not a DOS MBR,
> it won't recognize it as valid. The programer had enough sense to
> realize that boot disks (like network card configuration utilities)
> don't always have a DOS MBR so the BIOS doesn't check the MBR of
> floppies.
Yes, my thoughts as well.
> Here's the "Will show that damn BIOS who's boss" part. Since a DOS
> MBR just boots the first partion marked bootable we'll do a run
> around. Here's the steps:
> 1) Save that LILO floppy that works.
> 2) Boot into Windows and give it a "fdisk /mbr" from a DOS box. This
> will over-write LILO on hda with a DOS MBR.
> 3) Reboot with the LILO floppy. Give a command "dd if=/dev/fd0
> of=/dev/hda1 bs=512 count=1" to copy LILO to the boot sector of
> the Linux partition (thats hda1 right?).
> 4) Use fdisk under Linux to turn off the bootable flag on the Windows
> partition and turn on the flag on hda1.
> 5) Reboot and remove the floppy and LILO will hopefully appear.
Well, in fact I did a similar thing immediately after I've recognised
that LILO in MBR doesn't work, i.e. even before my first posting:
1) run Linux, run LILO in /dev/hda
2) dd if=/dev/hda of=/dev/hda1 bs=512 count=1
3) marked /dev/hda1 bootable with cfdisk
4) rebooted with Win98 startup disk, then "fdisk /mbr"
5) rebooted: "Please insert boot-disk and press any key"
:-(
> I just tried this on my old Packard Bell 486/66 w/4MB (hey, shut-up,
> I was young, ignorant, and didn't know anything hardware or quality
> manufacturers) and it worked like a charm. Once it is up and running
> make sure you change the /etc/lilo.conf file so the line "boot="
> reads "boot=/dev/hda1" so any new LILOs youmake will go into the
> Linux partition boot sector and not the MBR.
Well, I assume your notebook boots even from the MBR without problems.
I think that the BIOS not only checks the checksum of the MBR, but also
from the following boot sectors in the active boot partitions. :-/
But nice idea anyway.
Greetings,
Stefan.
--
Stefan Bellon * <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> * <http://www.sbellon.de/>
All humans are created equal, all computers are not - Acorn Risc PC.
