On Tue, Apr 18, 2017 at 11:50:27AM -0400, Phil Susi wrote: > On 2/1/2017 6:33 PM, Brian C. Lane wrote: > > That's the MBR boot code normally used to boot a BIOS system. If it > > causes problems on a non-x86 system you should zero it out (or write the > > system bootloader after partitioning). > > Brian, do you know why parted adds the boot code but fdisk does not? > Maybe we should consider removing it? It's only use is to chain load > the "active partition" boot loader. I can only think of three times > this is going to be used: > > 1) Booting DOS/Windows: they have commands to add the boot code after > the fact, and normally they would partition the disk first. > > 2) Booting with LILO installed to a partition: LILO had a switch to > write the MBR boot code if you ever wanted to do this and anyone still > uses LILO. > > 3) Booting with GRUB installed to a partition: GRUB strongly recommends > installing to the MBR instead, and if you really must put it in a > partition, and don't already have MBR boot code, you can use LILO to add it. >
Yeah, I can't think of any good reason to keep it. We should probably just zero it out to prevent old code from causing problems. -- Brian C. Lane (PST8PDT)
