Re: boot.S vs diskboot.S

[Colin Watson]

On Mon, Feb 21, 2011 at 11:27:43AM -0500, Phillip Susi wrote:
> What is the difference between these two files?  It looks like boot.S
> contains a BPB and is meant to be used when installing grub to the
> partition boot sector of a FAT or NTFS partition, and diskboot.S does
> not, and is meant to be used as the MBR.  It looks like boot.S is used
> in the MBR anyway though.

boot.S is the thing you put in your boot sector, whether that's the
master boot sector or a partition boot sector.  diskboot.S is prepended
to core.img when it's being booted from a hard disk, so when GRUB is
installed to the MBR it would reside in the second sector.  boot.S jumps
to diskboot.S which in turn jumps to the GRUB kernel proper.

Whether FAT or NTFS is in use is not relevant here.

-- 
Colin Watson                                       address@hidden