Re: AA55 signature at the end of Linux bootsector

H. Peter Anvin (hpa@transmeta.com)
8 Jul 1998 09:05:13 GMT

Followup to: <Pine.LNX.3.96.980708090211.1239D-100000@einstein.london.sco.com>
By author: Tigran Aivazian <tigran@sco.COM>
In newsgroup: linux.dev.kernel
>
> Hello guys,
>
> Just a suggestion: would it not be nice to have a 0xAA55 signature at the
> end of the bootsector (NOT an MBR!) of the Linux root partition so that
> commercial bootloaders (e.g. the one that comes with UnixWare 7) could
> load it just as easily as they load dos/windows stuff instead of giving
> "Missing operating system" error?
>

You're missing that you don't just need a signature... you need a BOOT
LOADER there too!!

> Btw, just to confirm, am I right in assuming that LILO does put AA55
> signature at the end of bootsector if installed in a partition instead of
> an MBR?

Yes it does; as does it if you install it in an MBR (the MBR is just a
boot sector in itself that happens to also contain a partition table.)

-hpa

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