Messages in this thread | | | Date | Wed, 17 Jan 2001 11:56:53 +0100 | From | David Balazic <> | Subject | Re: Linux not adhering to BIOS Drive boot order? |
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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/
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