On Mon, Jun 04, 2012 at 03:33:05PM +0200, Fred . wrote:
http://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/8035.html
Does SeaBIOS support GPT disk labels? Does SeaBIOS understand GPT disk labels? Is it aware of GPT?
This is a common misunderstanding of the BIOS. The BIOS doesn't do anything with partition tables at all (at least according to the available specs). Thus, the BIOS doesn't care if it's a legacy partition table or a GPT partition table.
-Kevin
At 03:36 PM 6/4/2012, Kevin O'Connor wrote:
On Mon, Jun 04, 2012 at 03:33:05PM +0200, Fred . wrote:
http://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/8035.html
Does SeaBIOS support GPT disk labels? Does SeaBIOS understand GPT disk labels? Is it aware of GPT?
This is a common misunderstanding of the BIOS. The BIOS doesn't do anything with partition tables at all (at least according to the available specs). Thus, the BIOS doesn't care if it's a legacy partition table or a GPT partition table.
Excuse me, but isn't it the BIOS that after POST is initiating the boot process from the active partition?
Ralf
On Mon, Jun 04, 2012 at 07:11:30PM -0700, Ralf A. Quint wrote:
At 03:36 PM 6/4/2012, Kevin O'Connor wrote:
On Mon, Jun 04, 2012 at 03:33:05PM +0200, Fred . wrote:
http://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/8035.html
Does SeaBIOS support GPT disk labels? Does SeaBIOS understand GPT disk labels? Is it aware of GPT?
This is a common misunderstanding of the BIOS. The BIOS doesn't do anything with partition tables at all (at least according to the available specs). Thus, the BIOS doesn't care if it's a legacy partition table or a GPT partition table.
Excuse me, but isn't it the BIOS that after POST is initiating the boot process from the active partition?
Not quite. The BIOS loads the first sector of the hard drive (ie, the MBR) into memory and runs the code found there. It cares nothing about the partition table. It's quite common for the executable code in that first sector to analyze the partition table, load yet other code, and then jump to that code - but that activity is outside the BIOS and is easily upgradable.
At least, that's what SeaBIOS does and what the available BIOS specs call for (and what every boot loader I've seen expects the bios to do). But, who knows what crazy things various comercial BIOSes do.
-Kevin
On Tue, Jun 5, 2012 at 5:21 AM, Kevin O'Connor kevin@koconnor.net wrote:
On Mon, Jun 04, 2012 at 07:11:30PM -0700, Ralf A. Quint wrote:
At 03:36 PM 6/4/2012, Kevin O'Connor wrote:
On Mon, Jun 04, 2012 at 03:33:05PM +0200, Fred . wrote:
http://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/8035.html
Does SeaBIOS support GPT disk labels? Does SeaBIOS understand GPT disk labels? Is it aware of GPT?
This is a common misunderstanding of the BIOS. The BIOS doesn't do anything with partition tables at all (at least according to the available specs). Thus, the BIOS doesn't care if it's a legacy partition table or a GPT partition table.
Excuse me, but isn't it the BIOS that after POST is initiating the boot process from the active partition?
Not quite. The BIOS loads the first sector of the hard drive (ie, the MBR) into memory and runs the code found there. It cares nothing about the partition table. It's quite common for the executable code in that first sector to analyze the partition table, load yet other code, and then jump to that code - but that activity is outside the BIOS and is easily upgradable.
But does GPT disks even have a MBR? Isn't the GPT a replacement for MBR? If the disk doesn't have any MBR, does the BIOS load the first sector of GPT?
At least, that's what SeaBIOS does and what the available BIOS specs call for (and what every boot loader I've seen expects the bios to do). But, who knows what crazy things various comercial BIOSes do.
-Kevin
SeaBIOS mailing list SeaBIOS@seabios.org http://www.seabios.org/mailman/listinfo/seabios
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Fred . -
Kevin O'Connor -
Ralf A. Quint