From pepper@guest.reppep.com  Sun Jun  2 07:23:51 2002
Return-Path: <pepper@guest.reppep.com>
Received: from guest.reppep.com (guest.reppep.com [64.81.19.110])
	by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 69EC937B408
	for <FreeBSD-gnats-submit@freebsd.org>; Sun,  2 Jun 2002 07:23:50 -0700 (PDT)
Received: (from pepper@localhost)
	by guest.reppep.com (8.11.6/8.11.6) id g52ENlH02012;
	Sun, 2 Jun 2002 10:23:47 -0400 (EDT)
	(envelope-from pepper)
Message-Id: <200206021423.g52ENlH02012@guest.reppep.com>
Date: Sun, 2 Jun 2002 10:23:47 -0400 (EDT)
From: Chris Pepper <pepper@rockefeller.edu>
Reply-To: Chris Pepper <pepper@rockefeller.edu>
To: FreeBSD-gnats-submit@freebsd.org
Cc:
Subject: RFE: BootMgr should provide more identifying info (see also docs/38816)
X-Send-Pr-Version: 3.113
X-GNATS-Notify:

>Number:         38826
>Category:       kern
>Synopsis:       [bootmgr] [request] BootMgr should provide more identifying info (see also docs/38816)
>Confidential:   no
>Severity:       non-critical
>Priority:       low
>Responsible:    freebsd-bugs
>State:          closed
>Quarter:        
>Keywords:       
>Date-Required:  
>Class:          change-request
>Submitter-Id:   current-users
>Arrival-Date:   Sun Jun 02 07:30:01 PDT 2002
>Closed-Date:    Sat Jan 26 01:06:35 UTC 2008
>Last-Modified:  Sat Jan 26 01:06:35 UTC 2008
>Originator:     Chris Pepper
>Release:        FreeBSD 4.6-RC i386
>Organization:
>Environment:
System: FreeBSD guest.reppep.com 4.6-RC FreeBSD 4.6-RC #0: Fri May 31 22:33:23 EDT 2002 root@guest.reppep.com:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC i386


	
>Description:
BootMgr should be somewhat smarter about identifying boot options. Currently,
BootMgr offers me something like:

F1: ??
F2: ??
F3: FreeBSD
F4: FreeBSD

It would be better if BootMgr could identify F3 as having a bootable /
partition, and F4 as non-bootable, F2 as Windows XP, and F1 as a Compaq/HP
utility partition (not apparently bootable from BootMgr).
>How-To-Repeat:
>Fix:
How does BootMgr identify partitions now? By tag number, or something
else? If by tag number, it should be able to identify NTFS, ext3, and
Compaq utility partitions. Alternatively, sysinstall might allow users
to provide names for otherwise unrecognized partitions, but these could
become out of date over time.

Additionally, it would be very useful if BootMgr could identify bootable
vs. non-bootable FreeBSD partitions (perhaps just by the presence of a
root fs?), and/or the version of FreeBSD installed on each, although this
may not be feasible. I'd like to have one partition for -STABLE and another
for testing, and it would be great if BootMgr could help keep them straight.

Note: this RFE was spun out of docs/38816.
>Release-Note:
>Audit-Trail:
State-Changed-From-To: open->closed 
State-Changed-By: linimon 
State-Changed-When: Sat Jan 26 01:04:50 UTC 2008 
State-Changed-Why:  
Unfortunately our boot loader is very space-constrained because of the 
way i386 disks are laid out by default.  We've had to go hunting for 
bytes to save in the past.  Therefore, while this is a good idea, it's 
not feasible. 

Sorry that it took so long to address this PR. 

http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=38826 
>Unformatted:
