From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with archive (Exim 4.43) id 1NWbzn-00060D-4p for mharc-grub-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 17 Jan 2010 15:45:15 -0500 Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1NWbzl-000608-MX for grub-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 17 Jan 2010 15:45:13 -0500 Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1NWbzh-0005zk-2x for grub-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 17 Jan 2010 15:45:13 -0500 Received: from [199.232.76.173] (port=36145 helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1NWbzg-0005zh-Vf for grub-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 17 Jan 2010 15:45:09 -0500 Received: from mercav16.na.sas.com ([149.173.6.153]:51367) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS-1.0:DHE_RSA_AES_256_CBC_SHA1:32) (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1NWbzg-0005XB-LO for grub-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 17 Jan 2010 15:45:08 -0500 X-TM-IMSS-Message-ID: <4059a3b600104e73@mercav16.na.sas.com> Received: from tempo.in.teragram.com ([172.25.89.16]) by mercav16.na.sas.com ([10.19.9.246]) with ESMTP (TREND IMSS SMTP Service 7.0; TLS: TLSv1/SSLv3,256bits,AES256-SHA) id 4059a3b600104e73 ; Sun, 17 Jan 2010 15:45:06 -0500 Received: from vmw0314.na.sas.com ([10.32.13.105] helo=vmw0314 ident=dgomez) by tempo with esmtp (Exim 4.63) (envelope-from ) id 1NWbzd-00064h-R8 for grub-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 17 Jan 2010 15:45:05 -0500 From: "Daniel Richard G." To: "'The development of GNU GRUB'" References: <000001ca9756$fae87380$f0b95a80$@com> <4B532073.2000706@isaac.cedarswampstudios.org> In-Reply-To: <4B532073.2000706@isaac.cedarswampstudios.org> Date: Sun, 17 Jan 2010 15:45:06 -0500 Organization: Teragram Linguistic Technologies (a division of SAS) Message-ID: <000701ca97b5$f39bcff0$dad36fd0$@com> X-Mailer: Microsoft Office Outlook 12.0 Thread-Index: AcqXgqhhL6fqSZK6SliMDmJkrRHyZQAMT/lA Content-Language: en-us X-detected-operating-system: by monty-python.gnu.org: Windows 2000 SP4, XP SP1+ Subject: RE: Trouble booting from a large USB hard drive X-BeenThere: grub-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list Reply-To: The development of GNU GRUB List-Id: The development of GNU GRUB List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 17 Jan 2010 20:45:14 -0000 [Replying with Outlook, please forgive the atrocious formatting] Isaac Dupree wrote: > > I accidentally have an out-of-order partition table > and I was surprised > that such a thing is possible (vs. that everything > gets automatically > numbered in order). Nevertheless, it is a useful > feature, though not > obvious how to control with 'gparted' and the like. > "extended > partitions" probably add a bit of complication too. Yes, I used fdisk(8) to get the effect, but with most "user-friendly" partitioning tools I'd have been SOL. I'm thinking about the implications for something like the Ubuntu installer/partitioner, which has to be dead simple for the user, and yet producing an out-of-order table would be a helpful measure of interoperability with Windows systems. > if grub-install, which doesn't have code space > limitations, could > possibly check for it, it would be a great help. But > is it possible for > a running system to check the BIOS like that? (or > possible for grub to > check somehow on a non-running system in a safe > testing sort of manner?) Consider, too, that GRUB may be installed on a system where the BIOS is good, and then booted on a system where it borks. USB drives have a natural mobility to them, of course, and even IDE/SATA drives may be transplanted from one computer to another. --Daniel