Linux-2.6.8 Hates DOS partitions

Linux-2.6.8 Hates DOS partitions

[Richard B. Johnson]

Hello DOS haters!

I used to boot my system as:

aic7xxx	[SCSI 0]
 	/dev/sda  LILO boot record
 	/dev/sda1 DOS drive C:
 	/dev/sda5 DOS drive D:
         [SCSI 1]
 	/dev/sdb1 ext2 root "/"
 	/dev/sdb2 swap-file
 	[SCSI 2]
 	/dev/sdc1 ext3 fs
 	/dev/sdc2 swap-file
 	/dev/sdc3 ext3 fs


/dev/sdb1			/		ext2	rw,noatime  0   1
/dev/sdc1			/alt		ext2	rw,noatime  0   2
/dev/sdb2			none		swap	defaults    0	2
/dev/sdc2			none		swap	defaults    0	2
/dev/sdc3			/home/users	ext2	rw,noatime  0	2 
none				/proc		proc	defaults  0	2
/dev/sda1			/dos/drive_C	msdos	defaults  0     2
/dev/sda5			/dos/drive_D	msdos	defaults  0     2


Then I added a completely different hard-disk to
boot the following:

LABEL=/ (/dev/hda2)     /                       ext3    defaults        1 1
none                    /dev/pts                devpts  gid=5,mode=666  0 0
none                    /dev/shm                tmpfs   defaults        0 0
none                    /proc                   proc    defaults        0 0
none                    /sys                    sysfs   defaults        0 0
/dev/sdb1		/home/project		ext2	defaults	0 0
/dev/sda1		/dos/drive_C		msdos	defaults	0 0
/dev/sda5		/dos/drive_D		msdos	defaults	0 0
/dev/hda3               swap                    swap    defaults        0 0
/dev/sdb2               swap                    swap    defaults        0 0
/dev/sdc2               swap                    swap    defaults        0 0

Only the DOS partitions and the swap are used in this new configuration.
This is a new "Fedora Linux 2" installation on a completely
different IDE hard disk, in which I have to enable boot disks in
the BIOS to boot the new system.

Immediately after installing the new system I reverted (in the BIOS)
to the original to make sure that I was still able to boot the old
system and the DOS partition. Everything was fine.

Then I installed linux-2.6.8 after building a new kernel with
the old ".config" file used as `make oldconfig`. Everything was
fine after that, also.

I have now run for about a week and I can't boot the DOS partition
anymore! I can boot from a DOS diskette and DOS sees 'C:', but
not 'D:'. DOS 'thinks' that C: is bootable but I get "Missing 
operating system" when it attempts to boot. I have executed
`fdisk /mbr`, and `sys C:`, as well as Norton's `ndd`. Everything
seems to 'think' that the system should boot. However, it
doesn't.

I can boot Linux from an emergency floppy and re-run LILO to
make my first SCSI bootable. It will boot Linux, but not
DOS. I can also boot DOS from a floppy and access the
"C:" partition, but not the "D:" one.

It looks like the new operating system, linux-2.6.8, has
done something bad when it used my SCSI disks for swap.

I can copy everything  from C: and D: from within Linux
and then re-do the DOS partitions, BUT.... bad stuff
will happen again unless the cause is found. I never
had any such problem with linux-2.4.26 and below. I
could even execute dosemu and run DOS compilers, editors,
and assemblers. Not anymore. DOSEMU-1.3.1 won't even
compile with the new 'C' compiler, but that's another
problem.


Cheers,
Dick Johnson
Penguin : Linux version 2.6.8 on an i686 machine (5537.79 BogoMips).
             Note 96.31% of all statistics are fiction.

Re: Linux-2.6.8 Hates DOS partitions

[Norbert van Nobelen]

msdos==vfat?
lilo installed in MBR (Unsafe in some situations!!)?
toggle bootability flag with fdisk (under linux ofcourse)?



On Wednesday 13 October 2004 19:31, Richard B. Johnson wrote:
> Hello DOS haters!
>
> I used to boot my system as:
>
> aic7xxx	[SCSI 0]
>  	/dev/sda  LILO boot record
>  	/dev/sda1 DOS drive C:
>  	/dev/sda5 DOS drive D:
>          [SCSI 1]
>  	/dev/sdb1 ext2 root "/"
>  	/dev/sdb2 swap-file
>  	[SCSI 2]
>  	/dev/sdc1 ext3 fs
>  	/dev/sdc2 swap-file
>  	/dev/sdc3 ext3 fs
>
>
> /dev/sdb1			/		ext2	rw,noatime  0   1
> /dev/sdc1			/alt		ext2	rw,noatime  0   2
> /dev/sdb2			none		swap	defaults    0	2
> /dev/sdc2			none		swap	defaults    0	2
> /dev/sdc3			/home/users	ext2	rw,noatime  0	2
> none				/proc		proc	defaults  0	2
> /dev/sda1			/dos/drive_C	msdos	defaults  0     2
> /dev/sda5			/dos/drive_D	msdos	defaults  0     2
>
>
> Then I added a completely different hard-disk to
> boot the following:
>
> LABEL=/ (/dev/hda2)     /                       ext3    defaults        1 1
> none                    /dev/pts                devpts  gid=5,mode=666  0 0
> none                    /dev/shm                tmpfs   defaults        0 0
> none                    /proc                   proc    defaults        0 0
> none                    /sys                    sysfs   defaults        0 0
> /dev/sdb1		/home/project		ext2	defaults	0 0
> /dev/sda1		/dos/drive_C		msdos	defaults	0 0
> /dev/sda5		/dos/drive_D		msdos	defaults	0 0
> /dev/hda3               swap                    swap    defaults        0 0
> /dev/sdb2               swap                    swap    defaults        0 0
> /dev/sdc2               swap                    swap    defaults        0 0
>
> Only the DOS partitions and the swap are used in this new configuration.
> This is a new "Fedora Linux 2" installation on a completely
> different IDE hard disk, in which I have to enable boot disks in
> the BIOS to boot the new system.
>
> Immediately after installing the new system I reverted (in the BIOS)
> to the original to make sure that I was still able to boot the old
> system and the DOS partition. Everything was fine.
>
> Then I installed linux-2.6.8 after building a new kernel with
> the old ".config" file used as `make oldconfig`. Everything was
> fine after that, also.
>
> I have now run for about a week and I can't boot the DOS partition
> anymore! I can boot from a DOS diskette and DOS sees 'C:', but
> not 'D:'. DOS 'thinks' that C: is bootable but I get "Missing
> operating system" when it attempts to boot. I have executed
> `fdisk /mbr`, and `sys C:`, as well as Norton's `ndd`. Everything
> seems to 'think' that the system should boot. However, it
> doesn't.
>
> I can boot Linux from an emergency floppy and re-run LILO to
> make my first SCSI bootable. It will boot Linux, but not
> DOS. I can also boot DOS from a floppy and access the
> "C:" partition, but not the "D:" one.
>
> It looks like the new operating system, linux-2.6.8, has
> done something bad when it used my SCSI disks for swap.
>
> I can copy everything  from C: and D: from within Linux
> and then re-do the DOS partitions, BUT.... bad stuff
> will happen again unless the cause is found. I never
> had any such problem with linux-2.4.26 and below. I
> could even execute dosemu and run DOS compilers, editors,
> and assemblers. Not anymore. DOSEMU-1.3.1 won't even
> compile with the new 'C' compiler, but that's another
> problem.
>
>
> Cheers,
> Dick Johnson
> Penguin : Linux version 2.6.8 on an i686 machine (5537.79 BogoMips).
>              Note 96.31% of all statistics are fiction.
>
> -
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
> Please read the FAQ at  http://www.tux.org/lkml/

Re: Linux-2.6.8 Hates DOS partitions

[Richard B. Johnson]

On Wed, 13 Oct 2004, Norbert van Nobelen wrote:

> msdos==vfat?
> lilo installed in MBR (Unsafe in some situations!!)?
> toggle bootability flag with fdisk (under linux ofcourse)?
>


Yep.  MS-DOS is VFAT. fdisk says it's bootable.

>
>
> On Wednesday 13 October 2004 19:31, Richard B. Johnson wrote:
>> Hello DOS haters!
>>
>> I used to boot my system as:
>>
>> aic7xxx	[SCSI 0]
>>  	/dev/sda  LILO boot record
>>  	/dev/sda1 DOS drive C:
>>  	/dev/sda5 DOS drive D:
>>          [SCSI 1]
>>  	/dev/sdb1 ext2 root "/"
>>  	/dev/sdb2 swap-file
>>  	[SCSI 2]
>>  	/dev/sdc1 ext3 fs
>>  	/dev/sdc2 swap-file
>>  	/dev/sdc3 ext3 fs
>>
>>
>> /dev/sdb1			/		ext2	rw,noatime  0   1
>> /dev/sdc1			/alt		ext2	rw,noatime  0   2
>> /dev/sdb2			none		swap	defaults    0	2
>> /dev/sdc2			none		swap	defaults    0	2
>> /dev/sdc3			/home/users	ext2	rw,noatime  0	2
>> none				/proc		proc	defaults  0	2
>> /dev/sda1			/dos/drive_C	msdos	defaults  0     2
>> /dev/sda5			/dos/drive_D	msdos	defaults  0     2
>>
>>
>> Then I added a completely different hard-disk to
>> boot the following:
>>
>> LABEL=/ (/dev/hda2)     /                       ext3    defaults        1 1
>> none                    /dev/pts                devpts  gid=5,mode=666  0 0
>> none                    /dev/shm                tmpfs   defaults        0 0
>> none                    /proc                   proc    defaults        0 0
>> none                    /sys                    sysfs   defaults        0 0
>> /dev/sdb1		/home/project		ext2	defaults	0 0
>> /dev/sda1		/dos/drive_C		msdos	defaults	0 0
>> /dev/sda5		/dos/drive_D		msdos	defaults	0 0
>> /dev/hda3               swap                    swap    defaults        0 0
>> /dev/sdb2               swap                    swap    defaults        0 0
>> /dev/sdc2               swap                    swap    defaults        0 0
>>
>> Only the DOS partitions and the swap are used in this new configuration.
>> This is a new "Fedora Linux 2" installation on a completely
>> different IDE hard disk, in which I have to enable boot disks in
>> the BIOS to boot the new system.
>>
>> Immediately after installing the new system I reverted (in the BIOS)
>> to the original to make sure that I was still able to boot the old
>> system and the DOS partition. Everything was fine.
>>
>> Then I installed linux-2.6.8 after building a new kernel with
>> the old ".config" file used as `make oldconfig`. Everything was
>> fine after that, also.
>>
>> I have now run for about a week and I can't boot the DOS partition
>> anymore! I can boot from a DOS diskette and DOS sees 'C:', but
>> not 'D:'. DOS 'thinks' that C: is bootable but I get "Missing
>> operating system" when it attempts to boot. I have executed
>> `fdisk /mbr`, and `sys C:`, as well as Norton's `ndd`. Everything
>> seems to 'think' that the system should boot. However, it
>> doesn't.
>>
>> I can boot Linux from an emergency floppy and re-run LILO to
>> make my first SCSI bootable. It will boot Linux, but not
>> DOS. I can also boot DOS from a floppy and access the
>> "C:" partition, but not the "D:" one.
>>
>> It looks like the new operating system, linux-2.6.8, has
>> done something bad when it used my SCSI disks for swap.
>>
>> I can copy everything  from C: and D: from within Linux
>> and then re-do the DOS partitions, BUT.... bad stuff
>> will happen again unless the cause is found. I never
>> had any such problem with linux-2.4.26 and below. I
>> could even execute dosemu and run DOS compilers, editors,
>> and assemblers. Not anymore. DOSEMU-1.3.1 won't even
>> compile with the new 'C' compiler, but that's another
>> problem.
>>
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Dick Johnson
>> Penguin : Linux version 2.6.8 on an i686 machine (5537.79 BogoMips).
>>              Note 96.31% of all statistics are fiction.
>>
>> -
>> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
>> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
>> More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
>> Please read the FAQ at  http://www.tux.org/lkml/
>

Cheers,
Dick Johnson
Penguin : Linux version 2.6.8 on an i686 machine (5537.79 BogoMips).
             Note 96.31% of all statistics are fiction.

Re: Linux-2.6.8 Hates DOS partitions

[Andries Brouwer]

On Wed, Oct 13, 2004 at 01:31:34PM -0400, Richard B. Johnson wrote:

> Only the DOS partitions and the swap are used in this new configuration.
> This is a new "Fedora Linux 2" installation on a completely
> different IDE hard disk, in which I have to enable boot disks in
> the BIOS to boot the new system.
> 
> Immediately after installing the new system I reverted (in the BIOS)
> to the original to make sure that I was still able to boot the old
> system and the DOS partition. Everything was fine.
> 
> Then I installed linux-2.6.8 after building a new kernel with
> the old ".config" file used as `make oldconfig`. Everything was
> fine after that, also.
> 
> I have now run for about a week and I can't boot the DOS partition
> anymore!
> 
> I can copy everything  from C: and D: from within Linux
> and then re-do the DOS partitions, BUT.... bad stuff
> will happen again unless the cause is found.

Well, if you do and the same thing happens, we know that there is something
reproducible here. That is always good to know. It might be that you did
something a week ago and forgot all about it and now have a strange bug.

If this is reproducible, then there are lots of possible explanations.

Have you considered the numbering of the disks? You changed things in
the BIOS. Did the Linux SCSI disk numbering remain the same?

Andries

Re: Linux-2.6.8 Hates DOS partitions

[TimO]

Andries Brouwer wrote:
> On Wed, Oct 13, 2004 at 01:31:34PM -0400, Richard B. Johnson wrote:
> 
> 
>>Only the DOS partitions and the swap are used in this new configuration.
>>This is a new "Fedora Linux 2" installation on a completely
>>different IDE hard disk, in which I have to enable boot disks in
>>the BIOS to boot the new system.
>>
>>Immediately after installing the new system I reverted (in the BIOS)
>>to the original to make sure that I was still able to boot the old
>>system and the DOS partition. Everything was fine.
>>
>>Then I installed linux-2.6.8 after building a new kernel with
>>the old ".config" file used as `make oldconfig`. Everything was
>>fine after that, also.
>>
>>I have now run for about a week and I can't boot the DOS partition
>>anymore!
>>
>>I can copy everything  from C: and D: from within Linux
>>and then re-do the DOS partitions, BUT.... bad stuff
>>will happen again unless the cause is found.
> 
> 
> Well, if you do and the same thing happens, we know that there is something
> reproducible here. That is always good to know. It might be that you did
> something a week ago and forgot all about it and now have a strange bug.
> 
> If this is reproducible, then there are lots of possible explanations.
> 
> Have you considered the numbering of the disks? You changed things in
> the BIOS. Did the Linux SCSI disk numbering remain the same?
> 
> Andries
> -
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
> Please read the FAQ at  http://www.tux.org/lkml/
> 
> 

Having experienced a similar but not exact situation; I'm going to
suggest that your BIOS is to blame.  (AMI?)  If you hadn't already
done a MBR restore; I would have suggested for you to remove the ATA
disk to see if you could once again boot to DOS.  You might remove
it anyway to see if a boot from DOS floppy will again allow you to
'see' the DOS D:\ partition.
   My situation actually arose from a motherboard swap; AOpen/Award/K7
--> GByte/AMI/AthlonXP.  Linux booted fine and ran for 2 weeks with-
out problem.  I could even see/read all the DOS/VFAT partitions just
fine.  It wasn't until I went to boot Win98 that I noticed the prob-
lem(Invalid system disk).  Booting from a floppy showed a "Drive not
ready" for C:(hda2); D:(hdc1) looked fine but became corrupt as soon
as I wrote to it, and E:(hdc2) didn't even show.  I made sure to
transfer the IDE settings exactly but no amount of war would allow
both systems to boot from the same hard drive(ATA)on the GByte/AMI
board and I eventually managed to trash the Linux / as well.  Another
motherboard with an Award/Pheonix Bios, a little restoration and all
is once again right with the(my) world.

oh, YMMV   :)

Re: Linux-2.6.8 Hates DOS partitions

[Denis Vlasenko]

> Having experienced a similar but not exact situation; I'm going to
> suggest that your BIOS is to blame.  (AMI?)  If you hadn't already
> done a MBR restore; I would have suggested for you to remove the ATA
> disk to see if you could once again boot to DOS.  You might remove
> it anyway to see if a boot from DOS floppy will again allow you to
> 'see' the DOS D:\ partition.
>    My situation actually arose from a motherboard swap; AOpen/Award/K7
> --> GByte/AMI/AthlonXP.  Linux booted fine and ran for 2 weeks with-
> out problem.  I could even see/read all the DOS/VFAT partitions just
> fine.  It wasn't until I went to boot Win98 that I noticed the prob-
> lem(Invalid system disk).  Booting from a floppy showed a "Drive not
> ready" for C:(hda2); D:(hdc1) looked fine but became corrupt as soon
> as I wrote to it, and E:(hdc2) didn't even show.  I made sure to
> transfer the IDE settings exactly but no amount of war would allow
> both systems to boot from the same hard drive(ATA)on the GByte/AMI
> board and I eventually managed to trash the Linux / as well.  Another
> motherboard with an Award/Pheonix Bios, a little restoration and all
> is once again right with the(my) world.
> 
> oh, YMMV   :)

Hehe. I have a HP box here which insists that there are 240 heads
on large IDE drives, not typical 255. This wreaks havoc when I
try to swap disks between this box and some saner one. Most OSes
do not boot after swap.

Of special note is total brain damage of NT4 bootloader.
Boot sector contains plain simple divide overflow bug and
even when fixed, the same bug is apparently present in NTLDR.
Result: cannot boot if NTLDR or kernel file is farther than 2Gb
from disk beginning.
--
vda

Re: Linux-2.6.8 Hates DOS partitions

[Richard B. Johnson]

On Wed, 13 Oct 2004, Andries Brouwer wrote:

> On Wed, Oct 13, 2004 at 01:31:34PM -0400, Richard B. Johnson wrote:
>
>> Only the DOS partitions and the swap are used in this new configuration.
>> This is a new "Fedora Linux 2" installation on a completely
>> different IDE hard disk, in which I have to enable boot disks in
>> the BIOS to boot the new system.
>>
>> Immediately after installing the new system I reverted (in the BIOS)
>> to the original to make sure that I was still able to boot the old
>> system and the DOS partition. Everything was fine.
>>
>> Then I installed linux-2.6.8 after building a new kernel with
>> the old ".config" file used as `make oldconfig`. Everything was
>> fine after that, also.
>>
>> I have now run for about a week and I can't boot the DOS partition
>> anymore!
>>
>> I can copy everything  from C: and D: from within Linux
>> and then re-do the DOS partitions, BUT.... bad stuff
>> will happen again unless the cause is found.
>
> Well, if you do and the same thing happens, we know that there is something
> reproducible here. That is always good to know. It might be that you did
> something a week ago and forgot all about it and now have a strange bug.
>
> If this is reproducible, then there are lots of possible explanations.
>
> Have you considered the numbering of the disks? You changed things in
> the BIOS. Did the Linux SCSI disk numbering remain the same?
>
> Andries
>

I just had to reinstall the "Fedora Linux 2" release from scratch the
second time. What it does is, even though I told it to leave my
SCSI disks alone, and even though I bought a new ATA Disk just for
it, and even though I carefully told the installation program to
use ONLY /dev/hda... Guess what? It installed a piece of GRUB
on my first SCSI, /dev/sda, where the LILO boot-loader for DOS
and linux-2.4.26 exists! It looks like it put it in a partition
table!

So, every time I install a new Linux version, GRUB writes something
else there. Eventually it probably gets big enough to make the DOS D: 
partition go away, and soon DOS drive C: becomes unbootable. I can't
find any other reason.

The GRUB configuraton file on a pristine install does not
seem to access /dev/sda, but it does...

# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE:  You do not have a /boot partition.  This means that
#          all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /, eg.
#          root (hd0,0)
#          kernel /boot/vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/hda1
#          initrd /boot/initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/hda
default=0
timeout=10
splashimage=(hd0,0)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
title Fedora Core (2.6.5-1.358)
 	root (hd0,0)
 	kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.5-1.358 ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet
 	initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.5-1.358.img
title Other
 	rootnoverify (hd1,0)
 	chainloader +1


I just got this installed again and configured sendmail to receive
mail when I got your message. I now have to configure a printer
and install a non-kerberos versions of ftp, telnet, and rlogin
before I can go home. The ones supplied with this distribution are
incompatible with my old Sun Workstations and people use those
to communicate with this machine.

This is the second time I've had to reinstall everything from
scratch in the past two weeks and I can tell you that there is
nothing "free" about free software.

Cheers,
Dick Johnson
Penguin : Linux version 2.6.5-1.358 on an i686 machine (5537.79 BogoMips).
             Note 96.31% of all statistics are fiction.

Re: Linux-2.6.8 Hates DOS partitions

[Rafael J. Wysocki]

On Thursday 14 of October 2004 00:51, Richard B. Johnson wrote:
> On Wed, 13 Oct 2004, Andries Brouwer wrote:
> 
> > On Wed, Oct 13, 2004 at 01:31:34PM -0400, Richard B. Johnson wrote:
> >
> >> Only the DOS partitions and the swap are used in this new configuration.
> >> This is a new "Fedora Linux 2" installation on a completely
> >> different IDE hard disk, in which I have to enable boot disks in
> >> the BIOS to boot the new system.
> >>
> >> Immediately after installing the new system I reverted (in the BIOS)
> >> to the original to make sure that I was still able to boot the old
> >> system and the DOS partition. Everything was fine.
> >>
> >> Then I installed linux-2.6.8 after building a new kernel with
> >> the old ".config" file used as `make oldconfig`. Everything was
> >> fine after that, also.
> >>
> >> I have now run for about a week and I can't boot the DOS partition
> >> anymore!
> >>
> >> I can copy everything  from C: and D: from within Linux
> >> and then re-do the DOS partitions, BUT.... bad stuff
> >> will happen again unless the cause is found.
> >
> > Well, if you do and the same thing happens, we know that there is 
something
> > reproducible here. That is always good to know. It might be that you did
> > something a week ago and forgot all about it and now have a strange bug.
> >
> > If this is reproducible, then there are lots of possible explanations.
> >
> > Have you considered the numbering of the disks? You changed things in
> > the BIOS. Did the Linux SCSI disk numbering remain the same?
> >
> > Andries
> >
> 
> I just had to reinstall the "Fedora Linux 2" release from scratch the
> second time. What it does is, even though I told it to leave my
> SCSI disks alone, and even though I bought a new ATA Disk just for
> it, and even though I carefully told the installation program to
> use ONLY /dev/hda... Guess what? It installed a piece of GRUB
> on my first SCSI, /dev/sda, where the LILO boot-loader for DOS
> and linux-2.4.26 exists! It looks like it put it in a partition
> table!
> 
> So, every time I install a new Linux version, GRUB writes something
> else there. Eventually it probably gets big enough to make the DOS D: 
> partition go away, and soon DOS drive C: becomes unbootable. I can't
> find any other reason.

AFAICT, there is a bug either in the version of GRUB that is distributed with 
FC2 or in the FC2 installer.  I've heard people complaining that the FC2 GRUB 
prevents WinXP from booting when installed, although I've installed SuSE 
along with XP for many times with no such problems.

The workaround seems to be not to install GRUB and use LILO if you need a 
dual-boot system with FC2.

Greets,
RJW

-- 
- Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?
- That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.
		-- Lewis Carroll "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"

Re: Linux-2.6.8 Hates DOS partitions

[Denis Vlasenko]

> I just had to reinstall the "Fedora Linux 2" release from scratch the
> second time. What it does is, even though I told it to leave my
> SCSI disks alone, and even though I bought a new ATA Disk just for
> it, and even though I carefully told the installation program to
> use ONLY /dev/hda... Guess what? It installed a piece of GRUB
> on my first SCSI, /dev/sda, where the LILO boot-loader for DOS
> and linux-2.4.26 exists! It looks like it put it in a partition
> table!
> 
> So, every time I install a new Linux version, GRUB writes something
> else there. Eventually it probably gets big enough to make the DOS D: 
> partition go away, and soon DOS drive C: becomes unbootable. I can't
> find any other reason.

If you want to be sure that DOS boots, you may boot Linux by booting
into DOS first and then use loadlin/linld. I do it all the time.

> This is the second time I've had to reinstall everything from
> scratch in the past two weeks and I can tell you that there is
> nothing "free" about free software.

Bullshit. Commercial software can mess things up too.

Two weeks ago I personally witnessed how simple chkdsk
(standard one from NT install CD, not a fancy utility)
mangled NT4 domain controller's mirrored boot partition
to the point of "inaccessible boot device" BSOD.

It was not fun at all. Luckily I had a complete backup.
--
vda

Re: Linux-2.6.8 Hates DOS partitions

[Darren Williams]

Hi Denis

On Thu, 14 Oct 2004, Denis Vlasenko wrote:

> > I just had to reinstall the "Fedora Linux 2" release from scratch the
> > second time. What it does is, even though I told it to leave my
> > SCSI disks alone, and even though I bought a new ATA Disk just for
> > it, and even though I carefully told the installation program to
> > use ONLY /dev/hda... Guess what? It installed a piece of GRUB
> > on my first SCSI, /dev/sda, where the LILO boot-loader for DOS
> > and linux-2.4.26 exists! It looks like it put it in a partition
> > table!
> > 
> > So, every time I install a new Linux version, GRUB writes something
> > else there. Eventually it probably gets big enough to make the DOS D: 
> > partition go away, and soon DOS drive C: becomes unbootable. I can't
> > find any other reason.
> 
> If you want to be sure that DOS boots, you may boot Linux by booting
> into DOS first and then use loadlin/linld. I do it all the time.
> 
> > This is the second time I've had to reinstall everything from
> > scratch in the past two weeks and I can tell you that there is
> > nothing "free" about free software.
I think you are misinterpreting "free", for example:
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/philosophy.html#AboutFreeSoftware

is a good start, it has nothing to do with $$$$$ :)

> 
> Bullshit. Commercial software can mess things up too.
> 
> Two weeks ago I personally witnessed how simple chkdsk
> (standard one from NT install CD, not a fancy utility)
> mangled NT4 domain controller's mirrored boot partition
> to the point of "inaccessible boot device" BSOD.
> 
> It was not fun at all. Luckily I had a complete backup.
> --
> vda
> 
> -
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--------------------------------------------------
Darren Williams <dsw AT gelato.unsw.edu.au>
Gelato@UNSW <www.gelato.unsw.edu.au>
--------------------------------------------------

Re: Linux-2.6.8 Hates DOS partitions

[Andries Brouwer]

On Wed, Oct 13, 2004 at 06:51:59PM -0400, Richard B. Johnson wrote:

> So, every time I install a new Linux version, GRUB writes something
> else there. Eventually it probably gets big enough to make the DOS D: 
> partition go away, and soon DOS drive C: becomes unbootable. I can't
> find any other reason.
> 
> The GRUB configuraton file on a pristine install does not
> seem to access /dev/sda, but it does...
> 
> # grub.conf generated by anaconda
> splashimage=(hd0,0)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
> title Fedora Core (2.6.5-1.358)
> 	root (hd0,0)
> 	kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.5-1.358 ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet
> 	initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.5-1.358.img
> title Other
> 	rootnoverify (hd1,0)
> 	chainloader +1

Don't be confused by the absence of the letter s.
hd0 may well be sda in case you boot from SCSI.