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Re: LILO question...



On Sun, 15 Sep 1996, Ze'ev Maor wrote:

> OK, not exactly a problem, but still a question I would like an answear
> for. Why is it that throughout the LILO documentation, wherever there's a
> suggestion to backup the MBR, the dd command that's given includes bs=512,
> why do you need to back the partition table (i.e. why not just do 
> bs=446) especialy concidering that when later on the command for 
> unistalling LILO the command given is dd ..... bs=446 i.e. you only copy
> the code segment without the partition table and the magic number into the
> MBR...

There is no special reason. Or, rather, there is an excellent one - the 
512 number is "nice" while the 446 is "not nice". However, when one 
_writes_ the MBR, one has to use the "not nice" number, so that is what 
one finds in the docs. 

---MAV                              (finger for PGP signature block)
My opinions are my own and only my own. Standard disclaimer applies.
Marc A. Volovic (marc@cs.huji.ac.il)       Linguists do it cunningly


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