One thing that I don't like for Fedora 12

qinhan · #1 25th November 2009, 12:40 AM

It changes the active partition after installation. For example, I had windows XP installed on sda1 and sda1 used to be the active partition. Then after I installed fedora on sda2, sda2 becomes the active partition. It didn't ask if you want to do that during the installation. I found this out because it cost me a lot of time to figure out the issue after a crashed install of fedora, after which my computer doesn't boot from HD any more.

stoat · #2 25th November 2009, 12:58 AM

Hello qinhan,

I understand your sentiment about that and even have to say that I don't care for it either because I use NTLoader as my main boot loader. That means I have to change it back after I install Fedora nowadays. It's no big deal really, once you become aware of it and get used to thinking about it as a possible factor in boot loader dilemmas. It wasn't always this way. It started with Fedora 11. Anyway, in this other thread here, JEO takes a reasonable stab at explaining a possible reason for this change...

http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=231421

qinhan · #3 25th November 2009, 01:34 AM

stoat,
Thanks for your reply. The change may be reasonable. But I would suggest somewhat more robust implementation. What I experienced is that after I choose which partition to install fedora, the installation crashed and obviously the active partition had already been changed at that time. Then after rebooting, the computer was not going anywhere since now the active partition is pointing to one that doesn't have any boot loader on it. If the active partition should be changed, it should be changed after grub is installed. My 1c.

stoat · #4 25th November 2009, 01:58 AM

Fair enough. You can always make your thoughts known to the developers...

FedoraProject.org

In the meantime, here's something you might be interested in...

The GParted LiveCD

It's a handy free utility to have around for times like you described. It can boot the computer with a live Linux system and run gparted. With it you could have changed the active partition. I keep one around at all times.

***DBelton*** · #5 25th November 2009, 08:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stoat

Fair enough. You can always make your thoughts known to the developers...

FedoraProject.org

In the meantime, here's something you might be interested in...

The GParted LiveCD

It's a handy free utility to have around for times like you described. It can boot the computer with a live Linux system and run gparted. With it you could have changed the active partition. I keep one around at all times.

I concur. the gparted livecd is an indispensable tool and I wouldn't be without it

Trapper · #6 25th November 2009, 10:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stoat

Anyway, in this other thread here, JEO takes a reasonable stab at explaining a possible reason for this change...

http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=231421

Quote:

From JEO - Many BIOSes will not try to boot a drive even if it has grub in the MBR if they detect that no partitions on the drive are set active (parted boot flag on). This has bitten me many times on several systems. One partition on a bootable drive should be set active. For grub in the MBR, any one primary partiton set active will allow it to boot.

Wouldn't it be much more sensible for the installer to determine if there's an active partition or not and leave things alone if there is one and set an active partition if there isn't one? You know ..... like everyone else does. I personally consider arbitrarily changing current settings that don't need changing to be intrusive and rude. You know ..... a windows sort of thing.

RahulSundaram · #7 26th November 2009, 04:30 AM

Hi,

I have heard of this problem before but haven't seen any bug reports filed. I would highly recommend doing so.

marcrblevins · #8 26th November 2009, 05:03 AM

ginhan,
I believed it ask you grub was going to be the boot loader. You must have notice that.

What that changed, anyone?

I used to dual boot years ago. I'm now a Fedora user on this rig, Windows 2000 Pro expired, hence, used the whole drive since for Fedora Core 6, the best!

HansdeGoede · #9 27th November 2009, 07:44 AM

Hi,

Good news, further evaluation of this issue has lead to the conclusion that
the removal of the active flag from an existing partition indeed is unwanted
behavior.

So I've just changed this, and for F-13 we will no longer do that, see:
http://git.fedorahosted.org/git/?p=a...118ad9faf24cc9

Regards,

Hans

***DBelton*** · #10 28th November 2009, 04:34 AM

Thank you Hans. I would think that setting the partition that Fedora is installed to as active would be wanted, but changing other existing partitions would be unwanted.