aboot not working or something

[bdina at seresc.net]

Quoting Michal Jaegermann <michal at ellpspace.math.ualberta.ca>:

> On Mon, Apr 04, 2005 at 05:08:18PM -0400, Bryan Dina wrote:
> > 
> > It seems I am seeing some inconsistencies here... I don't see any ways
> > to switch fdisk to BSD mode,
> 
> Once you will start fdisk then its says immediately "m for help"
> or something like that.  If you will do press 'm' then you will see
> among other things:
> 
>     b   edit bsd disklabel

unfortunately when I said that my fdisk has no "b" to switch to bsd disklabel,
it really does not, I had used "m" for help, and it is not listed.  Like I said
(I believe on this list) I am not new to Linux, I have been a use since kernel
2.0 when fdisk used to be the defacto-standard... I am just new to Linux on the
Alpha, I have always run FreeBSD on mine.  As a project I am switching, it has
been fun so far, it sounds sorta weird but I like solving these types of
problems :).  I am worried that I have a weird AC or something.  I downloaded it
from the Bit Torrent links on alphalinux.org, I have 5 iso files... should I
look elsewhere to get the core??  also I have heard of a core 1.0, mine is 0.9...

> 
> Well ....
> 
> To erase an old partition table (a good idea) you can do
> 
>    dd if=/dev/zero count=2 > /dev/sda (or whatever your boot disk
>                                        device happens to be).
> 
> either from a text console during an installation or after you
> booted into a "rescue" mode.
> 
> DiskDruid will accept an existing partition table, even if this is of a
> BSD type, but it may get confused if you have some lefovers of an old
> MS-DOS type partition table.  If you will ask to partition it will write
> a table of the second kind and a firmware on your machine does not know
> how to deal with it.  For non-boot disks you may use one or another
> partitioning.  Linux does not care.

Im a fairly certain I have not written MS-DOS type partitions... fdisk does
always report it starts in BSD disklabel.

--Bryan