From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Jan 21 06:00:06 2011 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8FE09106566B for ; Fri, 21 Jan 2011 06:00:06 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from james-freebsd-current@jrv.org) Received: from zimbra.jrv.org (rrcs-24-73-246-106.sw.biz.rr.com [24.73.246.106]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 653778FC15 for ; Fri, 21 Jan 2011 06:00:06 +0000 (UTC) Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by zimbra.jrv.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 95FF516A082; Thu, 20 Jan 2011 23:22:38 -0600 (CST) X-Virus-Scanned: amavisd-new at zimbra.housenet.jrv Received: from zimbra.jrv.org ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (zimbra.housenet.jrv [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with ESMTP id pa6+hJrxIQBZ; Thu, 20 Jan 2011 23:22:37 -0600 (CST) Received: from [10.0.2.15] (adsl-99-66-60-249.dsl.aus2tx.sbcglobal.net [99.66.60.249]) by zimbra.jrv.org (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id 7F04B16A049; Thu, 20 Jan 2011 23:22:37 -0600 (CST) Message-ID: <4D391817.5050107@jrv.org> Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2011 23:22:31 -0600 From: "James R. Van Artsdalen" User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.9.2.13) Gecko/20101207 Lightning/1.0b2 Thunderbird/3.1.7 MIME-Version: 1.0 To: David Demelier References: <4D309563.1000404@freebsd.org> <4D38AB1F.8090308@gmail.com> In-Reply-To: <4D38AB1F.8090308@gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Subject: Re: BSDInstall: merging to HEAD X-BeenThere: freebsd-current@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-current List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2011 06:00:06 -0000 On 1/20/2011 3:37 PM, David Demelier wrote: > Why does the installer use GPT partition by default? Do you know that > GPT is not supported on every (even modern) computer ? GPT is fully compatible with the universe of PC/AT BIOS-compatible computers, which is essentially all "PCs" going back to the IBM model 5170 released in 1984. GPT contains a valid boot sector which is sufficient for a PC/AT-compatible to boot the OS. There's also a valid MBR should anyone look for that. There have been reports of computers with buggy BIOSs that fail with GPT. It's not clear how to make them work since they're failing with a *valid* MBR, i.e., the failure indicates they fail with some correct MBRs and we can't be sure they'll work even if we write an MBR instead of GPT. PS. In a previous life I did PCs. Every system I released after 1988 or so would work with GPT. It's hard to get this one wrong and still be PC-compatible./ /