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Congratulations!Congratulations!Posted Jun 29, 2012 12:49 UTC (Fri) by cortana (subscriber, #24596)In reply to: Congratulations! by slashdot Parent article: GRUB 2.00 released
On my system, GRUB's core image (that is, GRUB itself + enough modules to allow it to read files (configuration, additional modules, kernel, initrd) from /boot comes to 26 KiB.
If you have a hard disk using MBR, this image would be embedded in the gap between the end of the MBR and the start of the first partition. With a typical layout, the this is normally only 31 KiB. Could a minimal kernel be built to fit into such a small space?
If you're using GPT then things are easier: the conventional gap before the first sector disappears entirely, and is replaced by a dedicated partition for the boot loader (misnamed the "BIOS Boot Partition" in GRUB's case). This partition can be of any size, so you can build as complex a kernel/rescue system as you like as a "boot loader"...
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Congratulations! Posted Jun 29, 2012 13:48 UTC (Fri) by joib (guest, #8541) [Link]
The "typical layout" these days is to put the start of the first partition at 1 MB (sector 2048). IIRC Windows has done that since XP, and within the last few years Linux distros have started doing the same in order to get correct alignment for 4K drives (and SSD's?).
Congratulations! Posted Jun 29, 2012 14:12 UTC (Fri) by cortana (subscriber, #24596) [Link] I think GRUB's decision to use a dedicated partition was borne of past experience--for example, some DRM software happily assumes it's OK to scribble over sectors in the gap... since partitions are not as scare a resource with GPT as their were with MBR, the balance is tipped in favour of having a dedicated partition to prevent this kind of thing happening again.
Congratulations! Posted Jun 29, 2012 19:13 UTC (Fri) by blitzkrieg3 (subscriber, #57873) [Link]
No way has windows done that since XP. There are a million articles out there that state that XP is not 4k aligned. Probably vista or some such.
Congratulations! Posted Jun 30, 2012 18:10 UTC (Sat) by elanthis (guest, #6227) [Link]
Indeed, XP installs to sector 63 by default. An article on LWN going over some of the history, and the problems XP's assumptions imposed: http://lwn.net/Articles/377895/
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