[svlug] Boot program

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Jonathan Jefferies (jonathanj at allant.com):

> Does anyone know what boot manager comes with FreeBSD?

Yes.  Booteasy.

> So - and I've only heard about this system -
> what is the smoothest way to remove the 
> FreeBSD bootmanager.

The question omits mention of what you want to put in its
place.  Probably, you desire to overwrite it with the unnamed MBR
program from Microsoft.

> And is it the same code as lilo - which is what I would suspect.?

No.  However, Booteasy is extremely similar to lilo.

> Another way to ask the same thing is
> "what software will re-write the MBR?"

Hell, what software _doesn't_ overwrite the MBR?  The more usual problem
is _preventing_ this from happening.  For example, any time you install
WinNT or any version of MS-DOS (including those in Win9x), the Microsoft 
installer overwrites your Master Boot Record (the first 446 bytes of
sector zero) with its brain-dead MBR program.  Without asking your
permission.

Re-installing the unnamed Microsoft MBR program:

If you ever suspect that the MBR has somehow become totally messed up,
boot a write-protected, virus-free MS-DOS installation floppy (v. 6.22 
would be ideal), and type "FDISK /MBR".  To make sure, issue the command
five or six times.  You will see no visual feedback except getting a fresh
DOS prompt with no errors.  Please note that this operation poses no
risk to your partition table or anything else on your hard drive.

Please note, also, that if you ordinarily have something more competent
than Microsoft's program in your MBR, you'll have to reinstall it
after using DOS's (undocumented) "FDISK /MBR" trick.

-- 
Cheers,                Linux:  It is now safe to turn on your computer.
Rick Moen
rick (at) hugin.imat.com

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