DragonFly MBR

[Ben Cadieux]

>    Well ... if we/you want to Do It Right, the boot selector really should
> ask the user what operating systems actually are installed.

Then the MBR would need to be reinstalled every time repartitioning
was done?  It would also need to be reinstalled from DFly then (or
wherever the apps are written to customize the mbr and rewrite it).

> decides what ID's should be listed anyway -- what is the typical scenario?
> Only DF and Windows?  DF, FreeBSD, Windows ... and Linux?

The popular IDs are used.  I haven't played around with Linux enough
yet - from what I gather it's non-standard and can't be booted from a
regular MBR.  Perhaps there's an install option on some to make it
follow standards, not sure.

>    What about OSX or Darwin?  Net- and OpenBSD?  (HURD?  BeOS?  OS2?)

Right now it lists FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Fat12, Fat16, Fat32 and
Unknown for anything else.  Clearly we don't have enough room for
everything (unless we want to use more sectors)?

> I (also) run NetBSD.  NetBSD lets the user name the alternatives when
> bootcode is installed via fdisk:

That's a neat feature.

>    ..and it even fits in 512 bytes.  A good idea worth stealing.  :-)

Well, I have to be picky about which features are implemented, some
might be worth more :)

 - BC