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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 29/01/14 19:21, Richard Elkins
wrote:<br>
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<blockquote cite="mid:52E954D3.5050905@gmail.com" type="cite">
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charset=ISO-8859-1">
Elfy,<br>
<br>
I am not trying to be picky but it is not just an issue of
"settings". There are issues about mixtures of MBR boot loaders,
VBR boot loaders, boot managers, their ages, and what order
partition boot chaining is performed. To whatever degree that
folks have time and energy and resources, there are subtleties
that are worth verifying. Of course, I respect that we all need
to prioritize our time.<br>
<br>
A useful if simplified reference: <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/library/l-linuxboot/">http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/library/l-linuxboot/</a><br>
More detailed description of the MBR: <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_boot_record">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_boot_record</a><br>
and the partition-resident Volume Boot Record (VBR) i.e. partition
boot record: <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volume_boot_record">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volume_boot_record</a><br>
<br>
For example, imagine a circa 2007 PC running Windows XP that had
12.04 added in 2012 as a dual-boot machine. Both OSes are
stable. The MBR is probably a 2005 bootloader created by Windows
XP. The boot manager is probably the Windows XP NTLDR. The user,
based on the Windows C:\boot.ini file, selects either Windows or
12.04 to boot. If Windows is selected, then NTLDR initiates the
loading of the rest of Windows from the current partition. If
12.04 is selected, the 12.04 Linux kernel in the destination
partition is booted. <br>
<br>
Depending on how 12.04 was installed, it is also possible that the
boot manager invoked by the MBR is the 12.04 Grub. In this case,
the user selects either Windows or 12.04 from the Grub menu. Grub
boots up Windows in the destination partition or 12.04 in the
current partition.<br>
<br>
So, in just this example, we can see the interaction of at least 3
different bootloaders and there are two different orders in which
either OS can be invoked.<br>
<br>
Note that I inadvertently forgot the multi-boot with MACOSX
scenario in the previous mail. I have done this successfully in
the past with an iMac but dare not attempt this today with my
wife's Macbook Air without risking being exiled to the couch!<br>
<br>
Richard<br>
<br>
<br>
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<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
You can do as you wish - and the more testing you can do - the
happier we will be.<br>
<br>
However, for the majority of people they don't have the time. <br>
<br>
The testcases we use are in fact generic ones for Ubuntu and all the
flavours who use the tracker.<br>
<br>
I can almost guarantee that if we made the upgrade testcases anymore
complicated with more variants that the numbers reported would drop
from the ~12 we'll get to close to zero.<br>
<br>
There is no way that we can cover ever eventuality. <br>
<br>
Elfy<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Ubuntu Forum Council Member
Xubuntu QA Lead</pre>
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