From owner-freebsd-stable Sun Jul 23 13:53:58 2000 Delivered-To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Received: from mass.osd.bsdi.com (adsl-63-202-177-51.dsl.snfc21.pacbell.net [63.202.177.51]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5169837B8E7 for ; Sun, 23 Jul 2000 13:53:53 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from msmith@mass.osd.bsdi.com) Received: from mass.osd.bsdi.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by mass.osd.bsdi.com (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id OAA17013; Sun, 23 Jul 2000 14:02:44 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from msmith@mass.osd.bsdi.com) Message-Id: <200007232102.OAA17013@mass.osd.bsdi.com> X-Mailer: exmh version 2.1.1 10/15/1999 To: "Patrick M. Hausen" Cc: mi@aldan.algebra.com (Mikhail Teterin), jhb@pike.osd.bsdi.com (John Baldwin), stable@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: No /boot/loader (dangerously dedicated) In-reply-to: Your message of "Sun, 23 Jul 2000 16:44:56 +0200." <200007231444.QAA94743@hugo10.ka.punkt.de> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Date: Sun, 23 Jul 2000 14:02:44 -0700 From: Mike Smith Sender: owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG > > I explicitly installed _all_ production machines "dangerously dedicated" > _to_get_around_ geometry problems. So I could swap SCSI controllers > of different brands with different translations. That was a silly idea. > So I just wouldn't need to care if the disk was > 1GB or not. > Try what happens if you install a "proper" partition table with > an Adaptec controller and swap it for an NCR one - boom! Actually, no. Both of these controllers' firmware will read the on-disk geometry and prefer that. > Try the same with a dedicated disk ... "Dangerously dedicated" is known to kill the Symbios BIOS code in some cases. > Folks, gemoetries are for brain damaged PC operating systems. > All the box needs to boot is a proper MBR. BIOSes that > don't boot from a dedicated disk are _broken_. Half right, half wrong. Note that a "dedicated" disk does not have a proper MBR. > I definitely would mind _reinstalling_ > 20 servers to upgrade > to 5.x eventually. I don't know where *anyone* has gotten this stupid idea from so listen up real good: THIS CHANGE TO BOOT0 WILL NOT REQUIRE ANY SYSTEM TO EVER BE REINSTALLED. The change that's being made is to desupport the creation of incorrectly laid out 'dedicated' disks. Your existing layouts will continue to work just fine. You could never use MBR-based OS selector with any other dedicated disk, so you are not losing any more functionality. PLEASE STOP SPREADING FUD AND UNSUBSTANTIATED RUMOURS. THANKYOU. -- ... every activity meets with opposition, everyone who acts has his rivals and unfortunately opponents also. But not because people want to be opponents, rather because the tasks and relationships force people to take different points of view. [Dr. Fritz Todt] To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-stable" in the body of the message