On Mon, 2004-01-12 at 08:26, John T. Hoffoss wrote: > To my knowledge, almost no desktop computers have separate partitions. > Instead, the setup is in the CMOS chip. This is why BIOS updates can > change your menu options. I haven't been following this thread closely so forgive me if this has been covered. I have seen computers (old inexpensive compaq's I think) with the bios info stored on a mini drive partition. I've trashed this "bios Partion" in the past and had to download and make bootable floppies to recreate it. The hard drive bios has to go down as one of the stupidest ideas ever. I couldn't google up anything quickly to support my story so you may think I'm crazy. I wouldn't believe it either. but several years ago I did fix a computer that wouldn't boot without a partition on the primary master drive for bios info. - Tom On Mon, 2004-01-12 at 08:26, John T. Hoffoss wrote: > To my knowledge, almost no desktop computers have separate partitions. > Instead, the setup is in the CMOS chip. This is why BIOS updates can > change your menu options. > > As for David's boot menu disappearing act, I want to agree with > Matthew's response in that I have a hard time believing that would be > the case, except I've seen this behavior too, in laptops alone. (I've > got two old Dells on my workbench behind me right now that I am having > trouble with.) I've not tried a BIOS update on them yet, and I do have a > feeling that will repair the issue. > > Just my two cents, I guess. > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: tclug-list-bounces at mn-linux.org > > [mailto:tclug-list-bounces at mn-linux.org] On Behalf Of Samuel MacDonald > > Sent: Saturday, January 10, 2004 11:52 AM > > To: TCLUG Mailing List > > Subject: Re: [TCLUG] Grubb boot menu options > > > > > > Is the F12 the option that puts you into the machines setup? > > Many manufacturers use this Compaq, Dell, Micron, and others. It's a > > partition from 10 - 30 megabytes that contains programs for > > configuration, hardware testing, remote administration, etc... Most > > machines can live without this but it's a good thing to have > > if you have > > a hardware problem. This is not exclusive to laptops. Compaq has long > > used it in Servers and Desktops. > > > > I remember this happening to someone else but it was a long > > time ago. > > The person let Red Hat do the automatic partitioning, it erased the > > setup partition. The only way "I" know how to fix it is to > > rebuild the > > whole thing. Some smarter LUGer may have a way to work around it. > > > > You will need to setup and diagnostics disks from the manufacturer. > > When you setup Red Hat you will need to manually partition > > the drive to > > be sure the setup partition remains on the disk. > > > > This should be a topic at an Install Fest. I can do a setup > > partition > > clinic on a Compaq if anyone is interested. > > > > Sam. > > > > David Schiff wrote: > > > > >For what its worth the DeadRat manuals state the reason they use a > > >/boot partition is so if you have file corruption on / you can still > > >have pure kernel to boot and fix things. > > > > > >I ha a Dell Inspiron 11. It had this really nice feature of > > a one time > > >boot option, you hit f12 at start up and you get a menu of boot > > >options. I installed Fedora core w/Grubb on mbr now not only > > wont this > > >feature work (which is not surprising) but Grubb kicks in > > before I can > > >boot a cd or dvd no matter what the bios boot order is set > > to. To boot > > >from cd I have to dissable boot from hd in bios. Is there a HOWTO to > > >create a boot from cd munu option ror Grubb like the boot > > from floppy > > >option on Mandrake's LILO setup? > > > > > > > > > > > >_______________________________________________ > > >TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota > > >http://www.mn-linux.org tclug-list at mn-linux.org > > >https://mailman.real-time.com/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list > > > > > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota > http://www.mn-linux.org tclug-list at mn-linux.org > https://mailman.real-time.com/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list > > > _______________________________________________ > TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota > http://www.mn-linux.org tclug-list at mn-linux.org > https://mailman.real-time.com/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list -- Tom Penney <blots at visi.com> _______________________________________________ TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota http://www.mn-linux.org tclug-list at mn-linux.org https://mailman.real-time.com/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list