David Wright composed on 2021-06-29 11:16 (UTC-0500):
> On Thu 24 Jun 2021 at 00:07:56 (-0400), Felix Miata wrote:
>> David Wright composed on 2021-06-22 10:50 (UTC-0500):
>> I'm not sure there is "a" definition. One could be any code that a Windows
>> installation would not replace. Another could be based on what it does:
>> 1-locate a legal boot flag
>> 2-load an appropriate sector pointed to by a legal flag
>> 3-announce error if the above conditions are not met
>> A legal flag is any flag on a primary partition on a disk on which no other
>> boot
>> flags are present in the MBR table.
> I don't understand the attraction of messing about with boot flags
> in order to choose which primary partition to boot from. It seems
> inelegant to write to the drive just for that.
1-It's Windows compatible. With it, Windows 7/10 won't refuse to complete
updates
when it doesn't find something it expects in the partition table. "Refuse" in
this
case means install a big heap of updates, then decide it can't finish, and
wastes
more time uninstalling those it just installed, followed by announcing there
are a
heap of updates to install, repeat ad nauseum.
2-The system was invented over 4 decades ago, before the PC compatible HD
partitioning system was upgraded to allow for more than 4 partitions per HD.
3-I have yet to intentionally install Grub2 on an MBR system. I use mostly
openSUSE's Grub Legacy, which supports ext4 (as long as 64bit is not enabled),
on
all MBR systems, and Grub2-efi on UEFI systems, including Intel Mac.
>> > Are there OSes that would install it themselves to a new blank disk?
>> One version would be code a Windows installation would put there.
>> Another would be the result of FDISK /MBR from a MS or PC DOS boot, or FDISK
>> /NEWMBR or LVM /NEWMBR from an OS/2, eCS or ArcaOS boot.
>> I would expect the FreeDOS version of FDISK or its installer to do the same.
>> I normally use code derived from OS/2, installed by DFSee when I first
>> partition a
>> disk.
> Obtaining DFSee might be alright for someone invested in MBR booting,
> but for most people, MBR is obsolescent. Putting Grub on the MBR can
> give a user interface more similar to current machines that use Grub
> on UEFI, which seems an advantage.
UEFI is an incontrovertible improvement over MBR, but MBR will be around quite a
while yet for machines that don't include UEFI.
DFSee isn't a mere partitioner, and is not for MBR systems only. Among other
features, it's also a copier/cloner, a binary editor of files and raw sectors,
can
be scripted, and it logs in plain text. Its logs are an indispensable part of my
environment, facilitating inventorying several hundred partitions and operating
systems spread across tens of uniquely partitioned and OS-equipped multiboot
machines. It includes free personal support from its author, as well as a
helpful
support mailing list. It's interface is identical whether run from DOS, Linux,
Mac, OS/2 or Windows.
--
Evolution as taught in public schools is, like religion,
based on faith, not based on science.
Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 ** a11y rocks!
Felix Miata
