From: Frank T Lofaro <fl0p+@andrew.cmu.edu> Subject: Re: FAQ? Booting MSDOS from partition 1 fails Date: Thu, 15 Apr 1993 02:41:11 -0400
Excerpts from netnews.comp.os.linux: 14-Apr-93 FAQ? Booting MSDOS from
par.. Dag H. Wanvik@kvatro.no (972)
>Somebody said MSDOS is touchy and needs to be installed *before* any
>Unix(Linux) on the other primary partitions.
>Is is the MBR (master boot record) on the disk which is the problem?
>When I try to boot, the BIOS tells me "missing operating system".
>Thanks,
MS-DOS is *so* brain-damaged in this respect it isn't even funny, it is
really perverse and sad. I get the same "missing operating system"*
error if I make the DOS paritition in a politically incorrect manner. To
have it work, you probably have to make a DOS partiton under DOS (there
are undocumented/poorly documented restrictions on DOS partitions, I
think in my case (and yours too, since you mention starting at partition
1) it was starting it right at sector (?) 1, instead of a little ways
after there like DOS wanted. Maybe it needs space at the beginning
before the real partition begins for bott info/code. If they were smart,
that would go *inside* the partition... Sigh.
Try making DOS paritions under DOS, and Linux partitions under Linux
and you should be okay.
P.S. DOS really sucks when it comes to trying to create two DOS
partitons too! Actually DOS fdisk is a hose in general. (I needed to
when copying my DOS files from one part of the HD to another so I could
optimize the placement of my Linux partitions. Not a fun experience).
* Missing Operating System, how appropriate. DOS isn't an OS ;)