From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with archive (Exim 4.43) id 1PrYsh-0001pQ-Hi for mharc-grub-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 21 Feb 2011 11:45:03 -0500 Received: from [140.186.70.92] (port=50367 helo=eggs.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1PrYse-0001ls-50 for grub-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 21 Feb 2011 11:45:01 -0500 Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1PrYsW-0006dB-BE for grub-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 21 Feb 2011 11:44:53 -0500 Received: from smarthost03.mail.zen.net.uk ([212.23.3.142]:60969) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1PrYsW-0006cr-6k for grub-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 21 Feb 2011 11:44:52 -0500 Received: from [82.69.40.219] (helo=riva.pelham.vpn.ucam.org) by smarthost03.mail.zen.net.uk with esmtps (TLS-1.0:RSA_AES_256_CBC_SHA1:32) (Exim 4.63) (envelope-from ) id 1PrYsT-0001Mg-Qh for grub-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 21 Feb 2011 16:44:50 +0000 Received: from cjwatson by riva.pelham.vpn.ucam.org with local (Exim 4.72) (envelope-from ) id 1PrYsS-0007KV-Gl for grub-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 21 Feb 2011 16:44:48 +0000 Date: Mon, 21 Feb 2011 16:44:48 +0000 From: Colin Watson To: The development of GNU GRUB Message-ID: <20110221164448.GQ29629@riva.ucam.org> References: <4D62927F.3020709@cfl.rr.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <4D62927F.3020709@cfl.rr.com> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.20 (2009-06-14) X-Originating-Smarthost03-IP: [82.69.40.219] X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.6 (newer, 3) X-Received-From: 212.23.3.142 Subject: Re: boot.S vs diskboot.S 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: Mon, 21 Feb 2011 16:45:01 -0000 On Mon, Feb 21, 2011 at 11:27:43AM -0500, Phillip Susi wrote: > What is the difference between these two files? It looks like boot.S > contains a BPB and is meant to be used when installing grub to the > partition boot sector of a FAT or NTFS partition, and diskboot.S does > not, and is meant to be used as the MBR. It looks like boot.S is used > in the MBR anyway though. boot.S is the thing you put in your boot sector, whether that's the master boot sector or a partition boot sector. diskboot.S is prepended to core.img when it's being booted from a hard disk, so when GRUB is installed to the MBR it would reside in the second sector. boot.S jumps to diskboot.S which in turn jumps to the GRUB kernel proper. Whether FAT or NTFS is in use is not relevant here. -- Colin Watson [cjwatson@ubuntu.com]