Re: [ros-dev] [ros-diffs] [cgutman] 48700: [USETUP] - Remove code that was corrupting disk data and causing setup to fail in rare cases - Write the MBR in all cases (Windows setup behavior too) - We can overwrite GRUB and L...

[Eric Kohl]

Javier Agustìn Fernàndez Arroyo schrieb:
>   "Windows setup behavior too"
>  
>  Please correct me if im wrong.... but Windows doesnt take care about 
>  existent MBR, if it has "non-recognized" partitions (aka, non-FAT/NTFS 
>  formatted partitions)
>  
>  IMO ReactOS should take care of this, detecting Ext2/3/4, reiserFS, and 
>  so.... and not just copy Windows behavior.....
>  
>  
>  On Sun, Sep 5, 2010 at 4:03 AM, James Tabor <jimtabor.rosdev(a)gmail.com 
>  <mailto:[e-mail]>> wrote:
>  
>      Hi!
>  
>      Please test this with GRUB and LILO, since I use LILO on my main
>      hardware test. I do not have access to it for the moment. During the
>      installation of the boot CD, I do not overwrite the MBR. I just hope
>      it works when I get back to work with the project.
>  
>      Thanks,
>      James
>  
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Hi!

Being cooperative was my intention when I wrote this part of usetup. The 
bad thing about this approach is that usetup needs to deal with all 
kinds of different situations that developers cannot even think about. 
The only proper way to fix this situation was: "Don't touch it if you 
don't know how to deal with it!" The result was that usetup could only 
handle empty harddisks and Windows boot managers correctly. Except for 
these two cases there are lots of different situations that a setup 
application cannot deal with. That's where the user must fix things. 
That's why usetup enables users to save the bootsector to a floppy disk. 
  This enables them to fix the unknown situations themselves. 
Unfortunately this means that newbies might not be able to install the 
bootcode properly. But I thought it was better not to overwrite a 
bootsector that to unintentionally damage a system.

The question how to handle this correctly is a difficult one. Microsoft 
chose the easy way as they behave like they are the owner of the system 
and overwrite everything as they see fit. But implementing this part of 
the setup in a way that fits everyones needs is a very difficult task. 
Just think about the different filesystems and different versions of 
LILO and GRUB and what about other third-party boot-managers...

Regards,
Eric