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

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