AB destroys active flag on all harddisks.

[Allan]

First time AB is used, it seems to delete active flags on all HD's in the system. This leaves all other HD's impossible to boot from BIOS.

As AB can only be installed to first HD, this is a nasty habbit.
I need to be able to boot all my disks from BIOS.

BM never touched the active flags.

[Ben Rietbroek]

Hi,

BM never touched the the active flags because it itself resides in
a partition that needs the active flag for it to start.
AiR-BOOT is a track0 loader and sets the active flag on the partition
last booted from it.

However, there is something to say for the fact that it clears the
active flags on other the disks. I will look into this.

Regards,

Ben.

[Allan]

I still don't see any purpose for changing the active flags
on the disk where AB is installed; but at least nobody is
using it there.

I still think, it shouldn't mess with active flags at all.

[Ben Rietbroek]

I still don't see any purpose for changing the active flags
on the disk where AB is installed

Actually there is.

If you plan to remove AiR-BOOT and use a standard MBR that just boots
the active partition, the last partition booted with AiR-BOOT will be the
active one.

With regard to removing the active flags on other disks but the boot-disk,
I agree with you; AiR-BOOT should not touch them.

This has been implemented in the v1.1.0 as will be released with eCS 2.2.

[Allan]

Replying to rousseau:

I still don't see any purpose for changing the active flags
on the disk where AB is installed

Actually there is.

If you plan to remove AiR-BOOT and use a standard MBR that just boots
the active partition, the last partition booted with AiR-BOOT will be the
active one.

This is not true.
My first disk has BM as last partition on disk, and some other test-primary partitions
in the first part. After installing AB, the active partition is just set to the first
primary partition - even though that hasn't been bootet for years.
Before installing AB, the BM partition of course had the flag.

If I remove AB, that disk is unbootable - as the the partition AB has choose to give
the flag really isn't bootable anymore.

All the times AB boots to other disks - or logical partitions - who gets the flag ?

Since AB never uses or requires the flag, it should never change it.

If it never changed it, then it might actually boot BM, which was in use before.
(as a side note, AB can't boot BM. That is actually a bug.)

With regard to removing the active flags on other disks but the boot-disk,
I agree with you; AiR-BOOT should not touch them.

This behavior has been changed in v1.1.0 that will be released with eCS 2.2.
AiR-BOOT will not touch the active flags on disks other but the boot-disk anymore.

Thank you very much for that - that was the biggest problem.

[Ben Rietbroek]

Replying to yoda:

Replying to rousseau:

I still don't see any purpose for changing the active flags
on the disk where AB is installed

Actually there is.

If you plan to remove AiR-BOOT and use a standard MBR that just boots
the active partition, the last partition booted with AiR-BOOT will be the
active one.

This is not true.
My first disk has BM as last partition on disk, and some other test-primary partitions
in the first part. After installing AB, the active partition is just set to the first
primary partition - even though that hasn't been bootet for years.

That is because you just installed it; it defaults to the first primary.
Also. AiR-BOOT *has* to modify the active flags on the boot-disk because
otherwise DOS would not boot. (It's PBR code fails if the partition is not active)

I meant when removing AiR-BOOT, the last partition booted with it
will have it's active flag set.

Before installing AB, the BM partition of course had the flag.

If I remove AB, that disk is unbootable - as the the partition AB has choose to give
the flag really isn't bootable anymore.

All the times AB boots to other disks - or logical partitions - who gets the flag ?

Since AB never uses or requires the flag, it should never change it.

If it never changed it, then it might actually boot BM, which was in use before.
(as a side note, AB can't boot BM. That is actually a bug.)

With regard to removing the active flags on other disks but the boot-disk,
I agree with you; AiR-BOOT should not touch them.

This behavior has been changed in v1.1.0 that will be released with eCS 2.2.
AiR-BOOT will not touch the active flags on disks other but the boot-disk anymore.

Thank you very much for that - that was the biggest problem.

Anyway, I uploaded the v1.1.0 archive.
This also contains the documentation.
See: ​http://svn.netlabs.org/air-boot and click on the "AiR-BOOT versions for eComStation" link.

[Allan]

Replying to rousseau:

Replying to yoda:

Replying to rousseau:

I still don't see any purpose for changing the active flags
on the disk where AB is installed

Actually there is.

If you plan to remove AiR-BOOT and use a standard MBR that just boots
the active partition, the last partition booted with AiR-BOOT will be the
active one.

This is not true.
My first disk has BM as last partition on disk, and some other test-primary partitions
in the first part. After installing AB, the active partition is just set to the first
primary partition - even though that hasn't been bootet for years.

That is because you just installed it; it defaults to the first primary.
Also. AiR-BOOT *has* to modify the active flags on the boot-disk because
otherwise DOS would not boot. (It's PBR code fails if the partition is not active)

This sounds a bit strange. I have always had an MS-DOS 5.0 partition on my 1'st disk,
as I have some very old projects that sometimes need maintenance, and to have a place
for doing BIOS updates. For same reason, I have always used BM to boot anything on the disk.
I have never had a problem booting MS-DOS or anything else.
BUT, as we know, BM needs the active flag, or it will not boot - so it can't change that
to the DOS partition. Nevertheless, MS-DOS boots fine.

Thats why I wonder, when you say it requires it.

This behavior has been changed in v1.1.0 that will be released with eCS 2.2.
AiR-BOOT will not touch the active flags on disks other but the boot-disk anymore.

Thank you very much for that - that was the biggest problem.

Anyway, I uploaded the v1.1.0 archive.
This also contains the documentation.
See: ​http://svn.netlabs.org/air-boot and click on the "AiR-BOOT versions for eComStation" link.

Tested it on my 4 disk desktop PC. So far, no problem with the other 3 disks. Thank you.