Re: [Cooker] DANGER: WinME update may trash all non-Windows partitions
Do you have both WinME and Linux on the same (first) disk? I have Windows on the first, Linux on the second and never had any problem - I've reinstalled Windows umpteens of time and used WindowsUpdate and nothing evil ever happened. But the second disk has only extended partition and Windows fdisk freezes at start :-) On 9 May 2001, Gary Lawrence Murphy wrote: Whew -- That's two reassuring votes that maybe it is something about my machine and not endemic to Windows Update. The other variables are that I run a Dell, which has a custom feature where it snapshots the Registry (and maybe more); it also has a suspend mode switch in the shutdown menu (why, I don't know) ^^ ^ Are you kidding? -andrej
Re: [Cooker] DANGER: WinME update may trash all non-Windows partitions
So sprach S B am Wed, May 09, 2001 at 11:24:56PM -: Sorry? Alexander Skwar -- How to quote: http://learn.to/quote (german) http://quote.6x.to (english) Homepage: http://www.digitalprojects.com | http://www.iso-top.de iso-top.de - Die günstige Art an Linux Distributionen zu kommen Uptime: 13 hours 46 minutes
Re: [Cooker] DANGER: WinME update may trash all non-Windows partitions
I am running WinME and Linux on the same disk in a Dell L700CX; Windows is /dev/hda1, swap is /dev/hda2 and linux is the third partition. I still wonder if there is any way to declare the disk partition table as read-only (password protected?) -- Gary Lawrence Murphy [EMAIL PROTECTED]: office voice/fax: 01 519 4222723 T(C)Inc Business Innovations through Open Source http://www.teledyn.com KernelWiki Community Linux Docs: http://kernelbook.sourceforge.net/wiki
Re: [Cooker] DANGER: WinME update may trash all non-Windows partitions
I have seen similar comments on the kernel list. For that reason and others (the heavy handed copy protection, for one), I will not install Me on any system I own. When I install Windows it is on a seperate removable disk drive. On 9 May 2001, Gary Lawrence Murphy wrote: This is anecdotal because it only happened once and I really don't want to repeat the experiment (esp since it was the wife's machine ;) Here's what we did: 1) Booted to the WinME partition and selected the inviting WindowsUpdate link on the Start menu. 2) This launched explorer to a friendly Microsoft page listing the updates we needed; chose the one highly recommended and no other optional packs. This offered certificates, sent software and ran through the updates, never explaining what was changed or why beyond that first executive summary. 3) This required a reboot of Windows, so we did. 4) Noticed, long after explorer was shut down, frequent packets going out to a microsoft page at akadns.net, so we shut down Windows to reboot Mandrake 8.0 5) Mandrake boots to LILO screen, but selecting Linux halts on a cannot read HD error 6) Booted the rescue image from the CD -- sure enough, the partition table had been trashed; the swap partition was now Extended and the Linux partition unknown, and the sizes may have been changed. Fdisk reported extra content at the end of /dev/hda5. 7) Tried using fdisk to put the partition types back to the right types (although I can't be certain the sized hadn't changed because I didn't record them from before) but this does not fix the problem; e2fsck says one partition is 0-length and the other has bad superblocks. Is there _anything_ we can do to protect against this sort of malicious anti-competition attack? Can we write-protect the partition table or back it up or otherwise prevent some other OS from undermining our installation? It's pretty bad news for Linux if we must tell dual-boot users that by running Linux, they can never update their Windows partition. -- Gary Lawrence Murphy [EMAIL PROTECTED] TeleDynamics Communications Inc Business Innovations Through Open Source Systems: http://www.teledyn.com Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.(Pablo Picasso) [EMAIL PROTECTED] | Note to AOL users: for a quick shortcut to reply Alan Olsen| to my mail, just hit the ctrl, alt and del keys. In the future, everything will have its 15 minutes of blame.
Re: [Cooker] DANGER: WinME update may trash all non-Windows partitions
Same here, I've had Mandrake on my other partition (ext2) since win95---winME, and have used windows update with no problems, we, no problems with the ext2 partition, or Lilo.. Cheers, JJ S B wrote: I have been running WinME, 2K with many update successfully, without it affecting my other partition. Have you been able to repro this at all? Maybe someone can chime in and let me know if I am just lucky. From: Gary Lawrence Murphy Reply-To: Gary Lawrence Murphy To: Mandrake Cooker Subject: [Cooker] DANGER: WinME update may trash all non-Windows partitions Date: 09 May 2001 16:19:46 -0400 This is anecdotal because it only happened once and I really don't want to repeat the experiment (esp since it was the wife's machine ;) Here's what we did: 1) Booted to the WinME partition and selected the inviting WindowsUpdate link on the Start menu. 2) This launched explorer to a friendly Microsoft page listing the updates we needed; chose the one highly recommended and no other optional packs. This offered certificates, sent software and ran through the updates, never explaining what was changed or why beyond that first executive summary. 3) This required a reboot of Windows, so we did. 4) Noticed, long after explorer was shut down, frequent packets going out to a microsoft page at akadns.net, so we shut down Windows to reboot Mandrake 8.0 5) Mandrake boots to LILO screen, but selecting Linux halts on a cannot read HD error 6) Booted the rescue image from the CD -- sure enough, the partition table had been trashed; the swap partition was now Extended and the Linux partition unknown, and the sizes may have been changed. Fdisk reported extra content at the end of /dev/hda5. 7) Tried using fdisk to put the partition types back to the right types (although I can't be certain the sized hadn't changed because I didn't record them from before) but this does not fix the problem; e2fsck says one partition is 0-length and the other has bad superblocks. Is there _anything_ we can do to protect against this sort of malicious anti-competition attack? Can we write-protect the partition table or back it up or otherwise prevent some other OS from undermining our installation? It's pretty bad news for Linux if we must tell dual-boot users that by running Linux, they can never update their Windows partition. -- Gary Lawrence Murphy TeleDynamics Communications Inc Business Innovations Through Open Source Systems: http://www.teledyn.com Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.(Pablo Picasso) --- Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com
Re: [Cooker] DANGER: WinME update may trash all non-Windows partitions
I've had exactly the same corruption we're talking about on two of my machines, but they were both running win98 second edition plus updates. No amount of fiddling would fix the partitions. At the time I had my suspicions it was scandisk doing the dirty deed. Now I keep windows trussed up in a little virtual machine file - only need it for Dreamweaver ultradev now. I tried to find a utility to lock the partition table when running under windows but failed - anyone know anything? Cheers, Si. JJ wrote: Same here, I've had Mandrake on my other partition (ext2) since win95---winME, and have used windows update with no problems, we, no problems with the ext2 partition, or Lilo.. Cheers, JJ
Re: Re: [Cooker] DANGER: WinME update may trash all non-Windows partitions
Again, there are no Windows update service packs, or other Windowsupdate critical updates that modify a volumes MBR. To do so might interfere with the existing Windows boot (or alternative method used to boot windows) and create a totaly unbootable system. If you can recall the instance where the MBR was corrupted or damaged, or more spificaly, WHICH crticial update you installed created the problem, reporting it as a bug to Microsoft would be a prudent step. To report a critical update bug, use the Windows report tool in the System Information application (Programs/Accessories/System Tools/System Information). On Thu, 10 May 2001, Simon Peter Nicholls ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote: I've had exactly the same corruption we're talking about on two of my machines, but they were both running win98 second edition plus updates. No amount of fiddling would fix the partitions. At the time I had my suspicions it was scandisk doing the dirty deed. Now I keep windows trussed up in a little virtual machine file - only need it for Dreamweaver ultradev now. I tried to find a utility to lock the partition table when running under windows but failed - anyone know anything? Cheers, Si. JJ wrote: Same here, I've had Mandrake on my other partition (ext2) since win95---winME, and have used windows update with no problems, we, no problems with the ext2 partition, or Lilo.. Cheers, JJ
Re: [Cooker] DANGER: WinME update may trash all non-Windows partitions
Gary, Windows has a long history of taking over a machine during installs and such. Seems like, back in the days of OS/2, it would say something like I notice you have another operating system on your computer. Should I remove it? Of course the proper answer was Yes because who, in their right mind, would want to run something else. David David Relson Osage Software Systems, Inc. [EMAIL PROTECTED] Ann Arbor, MI 48103 www.osagesoftware.com tel: 734.821.8800
Re: [Cooker] DANGER: WinME update may trash all non-Windows partitions
I have been running WinME, 2K with many update successfully, without it affecting my other partition. Have you been able to repro this at all? Maybe someone can chime in and let me know if I am just lucky. From: Gary Lawrence Murphy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: Gary Lawrence Murphy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Mandrake Cooker <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [Cooker] DANGER: WinME update may trash all non-Windows partitions Date: 09 May 2001 16:19:46 -0400 This is anecdotal because it only happened once and I really don't want to repeat the experiment (esp since it was the wife's machine ;) Here's what we did: 1) Booted to the WinME partition and selected the inviting WindowsUpdate link on the Start menu. 2) This launched explorer to a friendly Microsoft page listing the updates we needed; chose the one highly recommended and no other optional packs. This offered certificates, sent software and ran through the updates, never explaining what was changed or why beyond that first executive summary. 3) This required a reboot of Windows, so we did. 4) Noticed, long after explorer was shut down, frequent packets going out to a microsoft page at akadns.net, so we shut down Windows to reboot Mandrake 8.0 5) Mandrake boots to LILO screen, but selecting Linux halts on a "cannot read HD error" 6) Booted the rescue image from the CD -- sure enough, the partition table had been trashed; the swap partition was now "Extended" and the Linux partition "unknown", and the sizes may have been changed. Fdisk reported "extra content" at the end of /dev/hda5. 7) Tried using fdisk to put the partition types back to the right types (although I can't be certain the sized hadn't changed because I didn't record them from before) but this does not fix the problem; e2fsck says one partition is 0-length and the other has bad superblocks. Is there _anything_ we can do to protect against this sort of malicious anti-competition attack? Can we write-protect the partition table or back it up or otherwise prevent some "other" OS from undermining our installation? It's pretty bad news for Linux if we must tell dual-boot users that by running Linux, they can never update their Windows partition. -- Gary Lawrence Murphy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>TeleDynamics Communications Inc Business Innovations Through Open Source Systems: http://www.teledyn.com "Computers are useless. They can only give you answers."(Pablo Picasso) Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com
Re: [Cooker] DANGER: WinME update may trash all non-Windows partitions
Whew -- That's two reassuring votes that maybe it is something about my machine and not endemic to Windows Update. The other variables are that I run a Dell, which has a custom feature where it snapshots the Registry (and maybe more); it also has a suspend mode switch in the shutdown menu (why, I don't know) which we've never used, but that doesn't mean it didn't try to update it. -- Gary Lawrence Murphy [EMAIL PROTECTED]: office voice/fax: 01 519 4222723 T(C)Inc Business Innovations through Open Source http://www.teledyn.com KernelWiki Community Linux Docs: http://kernelbook.sourceforge.net/wiki
Re: [Cooker] DANGER: WinME update may trash all non-Windows partitions
D == David Relson [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: D Gary, Windows has a long history of taking over a machine D during installs and such. That much I'd known: Win95's install, unlike all other MsDOS software, took the first _partition_ (rather than the first _dos_ partition) to be drive C. That got me this time is that it was a stupid _update_ that had no business messing with the partitions. When we first booted the Mandrake 8.0b install and found the question Windows partition detected. Remove it? as the first option, both my brother and I cheered ;) -- Gary Lawrence Murphy [EMAIL PROTECTED]: office voice/fax: 01 519 4222723 T(C)Inc Business Innovations through Open Source http://www.teledyn.com KernelWiki Community Linux Docs: http://kernelbook.sourceforge.net/wiki
Re: [Cooker] DANGER: WinME update may trash all non-Windows partitions
On Wed, 9 May 2001, S B wrote: I have been running WinME, 2K with many update successfully, without it affecting my other partition. Have you been able to repro this at all? Maybe someone can chime in and let me know if I am just lucky. Did you have an extended partition with multiple partition types? That seems to be a leading place where the problem has been observed. From: Gary Lawrence Murphy Reply-To: Gary Lawrence Murphy To: Mandrake Cooker Subject: [Cooker] DANGER: WinME update may trash all non-Windows partitions Date: 09 May 2001 16:19:46 -0400 This is anecdotal because it only happened once and I really don't want to repeat the experiment (esp since it was the wife's machine ;) Here's what we did: 1) Booted to the WinME partition and selected the inviting WindowsUpdate link on the Start menu. 2) This launched explorer to a friendly Microsoft page listing the updates we needed; chose the one highly recommended and no other optional packs. This offered certificates, sent software and ran through the updates, never explaining what was changed or why beyond that first executive summary. 3) This required a reboot of Windows, so we did. 4) Noticed, long after explorer was shut down, frequent packets going out to a microsoft page at akadns.net, so we shut down Windows to reboot Mandrake 8.0 5) Mandrake boots to LILO screen, but selecting Linux halts on a cannot read HD error 6) Booted the rescue image from the CD -- sure enough, the partition table had been trashed; the swap partition was now Extended and the Linux partition unknown, and the sizes may have been changed. Fdisk reported extra content at the end of /dev/hda5. 7) Tried using fdisk to put the partition types back to the right types (although I can't be certain the sized hadn't changed because I didn't record them from before) but this does not fix the problem; e2fsck says one partition is 0-length and the other has bad superblocks. Is there _anything_ we can do to protect against this sort of malicious anti-competition attack? Can we write-protect the partition table or back it up or otherwise prevent some other OS from undermining our installation? It's pretty bad news for Linux if we must tell dual-boot users that by running Linux, they can never update their Windows partition. -- Gary Lawrence Murphy TeleDynamics Communications Inc Business Innovations Through Open Source Systems: http://www.teledyn.com Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.(Pablo Picasso) Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com [EMAIL PROTECTED] | Note to AOL users: for a quick shortcut to reply Alan Olsen| to my mail, just hit the ctrl, alt and del keys. In the future, everything will have its 15 minutes of blame.
