On Sunday, 9 December 2001 at 12:15:19 -0800, Mike Smith wrote: >> As Peter Wemm wrote: >> >>> There shouldn't *be* bootblocks on non-boot disks. >>> >>> dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/da$n count=1 >>> >>> Dont use "disklabel -B -rw da$n auto". Use "disklabel -rw da$n auto". >> >> All my disks have bootblocks and (spare) boot partitions. All the >> bootblocks are DD mode. I don't see any point in using obsolete fdisk >> tables. (There's IMHO only one purpose obsolete fdisk tables are good >> for, co-operation with other operating systems in the same machine. >> None of my machines uses anything else than FreeBSD.) > > Since I tire of seeing people hit this ignorant opinion in the list > archives, I'll just offer the rational counterpoints. > > - The MBR partition table is not "obsolete", it's a part of the PC > architecture specification.
And if it's part of the PC architecture specification, it can't be obsolete? I dont see any contradiction here. > - You omit the fact that many peripheral device vendors' BIOS code looks > for the MBR partition table, and will fail if it's not present or > incorrect. What do you mean by "peripheral device"? I've never heard of disk drives having a BIOS. If you're talking about host adaptors, it's you who omit what Jörg says about it: No, on the contrary, he went into some detail on this point: On Sunday, 9 December 2001 at 19:46:06 +0100, Joerg Wunsch wrote: > > <personal opinion> > Still, it's my opinion that these BIOSes are simply broken: > interpretation of the fdisk table has always been in the realm of the > boot block itself. The BIOS should decide whether a disk is bootable > or not by looking at the 0x55aa signature at the end, nothing else. > Think of the old OnTrack Disk Manager that extended the fdisk table to > 16 slots -- nothing the BIOS could ever even handle. It was in the > realm of the boot block to interpret it. > </personal opinion> I agree with Jörg on this. > I'd love to never hear those invalid, unuseful, misleading opinions > from you again. I'd love to never have to see this level of invective poured onto what was previously a calm discussion. Greg -- See complete headers for address and phone numbers To Unsubscribe: send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message
