On Sat, Sep 6, 2008 at 1:17 PM, Moinak Ghosh <moinakg at belenix.org> wrote: > > It is OpenSolaris kernel that does not yet recognize extended > partitions, more specifically the cmlb driver does not scan extended > partitions and build device nodes for them. In addition by implication > OpenSolaris fdisk, format and Caiman installer do not handle those. >
Thanks, Moinak, for explaining the real issue. The nett-nett is that OpenSolaris does not handle extended partitions. > > Anyway as a result Linux should be installed after OpenSolaris so > the OpenSolaris GRUB is in MBR an is used as the main bootloader. > If you do it the other way and for any reason have to re-install > OpenSolaris afterwards you will lose Linux GRUB from MBR. Replacing a Linux GRUB is much easier than replacing any other MBR (barring good old DOS remember "SYS C:" after booting from a floppy ?) If you keep a copy of the MBR as file on any medium (pen/ floppy/ CD) depending upon your h/w, all it needs is a boot to root prompt (from any rescue CD/ floppy/ pen) and do a "dd" to mbr with: # dd if=/path/to/saved.mbr of=/dev/sda bs=512 count=1 Viola, its over ! Only that the device should be correct. I have put sda, but it may be an hda for some other ide disk. The problems do not come with *nix systems. Invariably max number of re-installs are for Windows ! And this will always over-write the MBR. Doing a dd is the easiest way out, and it always works. You don't need a full grubinstall. Bish
