From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with archive (Exim 4.43) id 1P0fam-0000fH-27 for mharc-grub-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 28 Sep 2010 15:11:56 -0400 Received: from [140.186.70.92] (port=58574 helo=eggs.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1P0faf-0000Xe-07 for grub-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 28 Sep 2010 15:11:55 -0400 Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1P0fa5-0002dQ-P0 for grub-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 28 Sep 2010 15:11:14 -0400 Received: from mail-fx0-f41.google.com ([209.85.161.41]:52156) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1P0fa5-0002dK-JK for grub-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 28 Sep 2010 15:11:13 -0400 Received: by fxm10 with SMTP id 10so4857484fxm.0 for ; Tue, 28 Sep 2010 12:11:12 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:received:received:message-id:date:from :user-agent:mime-version:to:subject:references:in-reply-to :x-enigmail-version:content-type; bh=cWlu/FOsHQgv8k14691wD8/3CXx+F8rLSzXsvEvst1g=; b=tUiY0kGzLzqpN7PCX5X768mzR95wBF3Q3IqbtIYX3dynYf2aOL1U7MiwfIKeWM29/5 K4zKau95YA+b2BCUYIblmLgjV7pQI1rG1wOfbI5F9Va5YSxbGfGGUAOPpdiuC7JAJ9V4 qiTmNQWDVu2aGFp2ULMdKWhJaX2LtsRKTzM3o= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=message-id:date:from:user-agent:mime-version:to:subject:references :in-reply-to:x-enigmail-version:content-type; b=FRA1ZVRnp7Cni/ikMhrrm1Db2gI9wzuKbNKTMdihz0zHO7BQXQNmA3+Q0LKRpVKKvT tqWp7aB47z+p5d2XnG7BvPbh2qUAWml06qwN0qaOD7ule7/mWrz0lCtyYcd6V6SzGDJC jyWeBETmY9uE+2KYSheb4RYMRf0MMRgr86eOU= Received: by 10.223.116.140 with SMTP id m12mr559310faq.64.1285701072670; Tue, 28 Sep 2010 12:11:12 -0700 (PDT) Received: from debian.bg45.phnet (gprs39.swisscom-mobile.ch [193.247.250.39]) by mx.google.com with ESMTPS id r10sm3319562faq.29.2010.09.28.12.11.08 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=RC4-MD5); Tue, 28 Sep 2010 12:11:11 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: <4CA23DCA.1010008@gmail.com> Date: Tue, 28 Sep 2010 21:11:06 +0200 From: =?UTF-8?B?VmxhZGltaXIgJ8+GLWNvZGVyL3BoY29kZXInIFNlcmJpbmVua28=?= User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux x86_64; en-US; rv:1.9.1.11) Gecko/20100805 Icedove/3.0.6 MIME-Version: 1.0 To: grub-devel@gnu.org References: <20100923221923.GA21862@riva.ucam.org> <20100924002753.GE8579@caffeine.csclub.uwaterloo.ca> <197110.28172.qm@web113213.mail.gq1.yahoo.com> <20100928080423.GN21862@riva.ucam.org> In-Reply-To: <20100928080423.GN21862@riva.ucam.org> X-Enigmail-Version: 1.0.1 Content-Type: multipart/signed; micalg=pgp-sha512; protocol="application/pgp-signature"; boundary="------------enig638996FB1305FC79FC832CB5" X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.6 (newer, 2) Subject: Re: Guidance on conflicts between GNU GRUB and proprietary software 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: Tue, 28 Sep 2010 19:11:55 -0000 This is an OpenPGP/MIME signed message (RFC 2440 and 3156) --------------enig638996FB1305FC79FC832CB5 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On 09/28/2010 10:04 AM, Colin Watson wrote: > On Mon, Sep 27, 2010 at 09:55:17PM -0700, Bogdan wrote: > =20 >> Another potential solution that I have not seen proposed - GRUB could = create its=20 >> own partition in order to reserve space. >> =20 > We do this - well, we expect that the user or the OS installer does thi= s > - on GPT, as it's obviously the right and proper thing to do there. On= > MBR, it's unfortunately mostly impractical for a couple of reasons (the= > first is the most important, though the second does come back to bite > you): > > * The BIOS can often only read from relatively near the start of the > disk, and core.img must be readable by the BIOS. If some other > operating system is already installed - the common dual-boot case, > and the case where this problem is overwhelmingly most likely to > matter - it's likely to occupy a large stretch of partitioned space= > right after the boot track. > > * The MBR format has so many irritating restrictions on primary > partitions that the more partitions an operating system needs to > create by default, the more stress we put on partitioning > algorithms. (Most people don't notice any of this until they try t= o > install on a machine whose OEM helpfully created three or four > primary partitions already.) > > =20 Using an embedding partition on msdos as an optional alternative (not as replacement) to MBR gap is a clear possibility, good idea and was proposed before but details are very unclear. Like: - How to create such partition - How does grub find it and ensures that it's an embedding partition? Any false positive will result in data loss. Obviously no msdos type is completely unused by now so it's not a way. --=20 Regards Vladimir '=CF=86-coder/phcoder' Serbinenko --------------enig638996FB1305FC79FC832CB5 Content-Type: application/pgp-signature; name="signature.asc" Content-Description: OpenPGP digital signature Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="signature.asc" -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.10 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/ iF4EAREKAAYFAkyiPcoACgkQNak7dOguQglrYwEAi6t5ecW8Dxol9kPocI/HYBCY C088bQr1EP4p7XYuy7sA/3rsnUj68vtubSEvimCEeuuJVz2161tgwhOSWwaqV/L1 =JLwW -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --------------enig638996FB1305FC79FC832CB5--