[GRLUG] Active Partitions

[Tim Schmidt]

On Dec 5, 2007 9:44 AM, Justin Denick <justin.denick at gmail.com> wrote:
> No, the machine will not boot, regardless of where the bootloader is
> installed, if
> there isn't an active partition. Thus, far this is the only board I
> have seen exhibit
> this behavior. And it isn't Intel specific, as my older Intel board
> will boot w/o an
> active partition.

Hrmm...  Shouldn't be the board's problem at that point.  If the
bootloader (in this case, LILO's first stage loader) is installed in
the MBR, it's executed first thing after POST, and control of the
system is then it it's hands alone.  The BIOS no longer has an active
role in the boot process past this point.  So either your version of
LILO requires an active partition, is misconfigured, improperly
installed, or has a bug.

see: http://axiom.anu.edu.au/~okeefe/p2b/power2bash/power2bash.html

--tim