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Received: by minnie.vk1xwt.ampr.org with NNTP id AA1170 ; Tue, 23 Feb 93 14:28:42 EST Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd Path: sserve!manuel.anu.edu.au!munnari.oz.au!hp9000.csc.cuhk.hk!saimiri.primate.wisc.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!ufo!seaview!kaleb From: kaleb@seaview (Kaleb Keithley) Subject: Re: how do I undo 386BSD boot blocks? Message-ID: <1993Feb12.010335.26398@jpl-devvax.jpl.nasa.gov> Sender: usenet@jpl-devvax.jpl.nasa.gov (For NNTP so rrn will be able to post) Nntp-Posting-Host: seaview.jpl.nasa.gov Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory (NASA) References: <C2B059.JCA@space.physics.uiowa.edu> <1lelqg$dfc@terminator.rs.itd.umich.edu> Date: Fri, 12 Feb 1993 01:03:35 GMT Lines: 38 In article pauls@css.itd.umich.edu (Paul Southworth) writes: >In article ljg@space.physics.uiowa.edu (Larry Granroth) writes: > >fdisk /mbr > >That will over-write the master boot record to prepare it for DOS. > >>(Maybe this should be added to the FAQ?) > >Actually it is in INSTALL.NOTES. > There are some poor assumptions about telling people to use 'fdisk /mbr'. First, not everyone has DOS. Some of us have OS/2, or some version of System V/386. I'm certainly not going to buy a copy of DOS just so I can 'fdisk /mbr', and I know on one would actually suggest that anyone make a bootleg copy. Second, not everyone that has DOS has DOS 5. DOS 5 is the first version that has the /mbr option. See the above. Third, and I've said this before, and yes, I've heard that the *real* 0.2 is supposed to address this, and yes, I know that there's a better version of bootblocks on agate; never the less, 386BSD shouldn't be messing with the master boot record. Other UNIX implementations achieve what the 386BSD bootblocks do with a "boot partition", i.e. the vanilla master boot record boots a small executive in a "boot partition", which in turn boots UNIX. There's a de facto, if not published, standard. It should be followed. Anyone want to make a change to TCP/IP? Or X? Aw, come on, they're only little changes! And they'll be so much better for the change! No? I didn't think so. -- Kaleb Keithley kaleb@devvax.jpl.nasa.gov