Re: I've been asked a question . . .

Colin Panisset (Colin.Panisset@nospam.nms.otc.com.au)
Thu, 10 Nov 1994 16:39:31 +1100 (EST)

Once upon a time, Matthew Young was heard to say:

}
} I've been asked a question about "SCO Unix" - has anyone heard of
} this ??? The person concerned looks after a number of machines that have
} 2 hard disks each with OS2 on one hard disk and DOS on the other - he was
} "told" that DOS _needed_ to be on the first hard disk and wanted to know
} if "SCO Unix" also needed to be on the first hard disk.
}

Mnnnyearrgghhh.... perhaps. If he was told this be a salesdroid, then
it's probably an incomplete comprehension of the facts by the 'droid in
question.

PC BIOSes load the boot sector from the designated boot device. It's
expected to be in a certain format. DOS provides this format (surprise),
and lots of people don't understand that it can be replicated/simulated.

I'd advise the person in question to search out 'lilo' from somehere
like sunsite.unc.edu or tsx-11.mit.edu (the Linux archives). It allows
you to have multiple boot images under a single boot sector, and lets
you choose your boot image at a boot prompt.

Of course, this may also be a bizarre SCO-ism. They do lots of weird and
stupid things.

-- Colin.