On Mon, Feb 08, 1999 at 02:23:05PM +0100, Havard.Eidnes@runit.sintef.no wrote:
> > Hmm, if you install our mbr code with fdisk -i, and your BIOS
> > has support for int13-extensions on the disk you want to boot,
> > then it is possible to boot partitions beyond the 8GB limit (if
> > the partition's bootcode does support booting beyond that
> > limit, too; yes, our bootcode does).
> 
> Hum, well, yes, if the BIOS is happy with the MBR, that is.  Some
> BIOSes aren't happy with our current /usr/mdec/mbr, see PR 6954,
> i.e. it refuses to run the code, apparently because some consistency
> check done by the BIOS on the MBR fails.

Yep.  I have had trouble, in particular, with newer Award BIOS on various
VIA MVP3 chipset motherboards.  In fact, I think I haven't ever seen a
modern Award BIOS run our MBR, period.

We also run into trouble with BIOSes which report INT13 extensions for
all drives, but actually only support them when they're "necessary" --
I have an open PR on this.  With a few trivial changes, INT13 extension
support can be compiled out of the MBR and first-stage loader, but it's
certainly not obvious how to, and there should be a more elegant solution.
I have NFC what that solution might be, however.