From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id ; Wed, 17 Jan 2001 05:57:36 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id ; Wed, 17 Jan 2001 05:57:26 -0500 Received: from rcum.uni-mb.si ([164.8.2.10]:37392 "EHLO rcum.uni-mb.si") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id ; Wed, 17 Jan 2001 05:57:11 -0500 Date: Wed, 17 Jan 2001 11:56:53 +0100 From: David Balazic Subject: Re: Linux not adhering to BIOS Drive boot order? To: "Matthew D. Pitts" Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Message-id: <3A657A75.A7345720@uni-mb.si> MIME-version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.75 [en] (WinNT; U) Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit X-Accept-Language: en Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Matthew D. Pitts (mpitts@suite224.net) wrote : > Guys, > > > And this is a problem that has plagues all PC operating systems, but has never > > been a problem on the Macintosh. Why? Because the Mac was designed to handle > > this problem, but the PC never was. > > Quite true on this point. Amiga handles it too. > > The Mac never enumerates its devices like the PC does (no C: D: etc, no > > /dev/sda, /dev/sdb, or anything like that). It also remembers the boot device > > in its EEPROM (the Startup Disk Control Panel handles this). > > For ATA drives the bios handles this. No it doesn't. Put your root-fs on hda6 ( not unusual in dual boot setups ), delete hda5, watch your linux fail to boot. ( the kernel will be loaded , but it won't find the root-fs , because it looks in hda6 , but the partition has "migrated" to hda5 ) > > > The only way to solve this problem is the DESIGN IT INTO THE OS! Someone needs > > to stand up and say, "This is a problem, and I'm going to fix it." There needs -------------------------^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Amen to that ! > > to be a "device mount order database" or some kind, and all the disk drivers > > need to access that database to determine where to put the devices it finds. > > NO! What needs to happen is: > 1) the person who installs a second scsi card should read the manual BEFORE > installing it so they know how to disable the boot features if they aren't > needed, This won't fix the "kernel doesn't find root-fs" problem. > > or > > 2) install only one bootable scsi card, period. Same ( or similar ) problem as before ... > Anything else is a useless kludge that will come back and bite us in the > ass. Kludges are bad, unfortunately that is all we have currently :-( > > > The only problem is BIOS boot. That information is, I believe, stored in the > > ESCD, but I don't know if it's reliable enough and complete enough to be usable > > by Linux. > > It seems to work well enough. For the "load the kernel" part. Most of the times. > > Matthew D. Pitts > mpitts@suite224.net > -- David Balazic -------------- "Be excellent to each other." - Bill & Ted - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/