Re: Linux not adhering to BIOS Drive boot order?

Christopher Friesen (cfriesen@nortelnetworks.com)
Tue, 16 Jan 2001 14:54:23 -0500

Timur Tabi wrote:

> And this is a problem that has plagues all PC operating systems, but has never
> been a problem on the Macintosh. Why? Because the Mac was designed to handle
> this problem, but the PC never was.
>
> The Mac never enumerates its devices like the PC does (no C: D: etc, no
> /dev/sda, /dev/sdb, or anything like that). It also remembers the boot device
> in its EEPROM (the Startup Disk Control Panel handles this).

Are you sure about that? According to my documentation on installing linux on a G4
with scsi disks, you need to specify a device enumeration string like the following
to tell the system where to look for the boot device:

/pci@f2000000/pci-bridge@d/ATTO,ExpressPCIProUL2D@4,1/@6:5

where the '6' is the SCSI ID of the drive, and the '5' is the partition number of the
boot partition. So if you change SCSI IDs or add a new partition and change the
partition numbering of the drive, your computer can't boot anymore.

Chris

-- 
Chris Friesen                    | MailStop: 043/33/F10  
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