-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On 04/20/2016 03:17 PM, Carlos E. R. wrote:
Now, the nuisance.
When Windows (I boot it about once a month) tries to do certain updates (not others) it says that the update failed to be applied for some obscure reason (no, they are unable to figure it out in their help sites). I figured long ago that this is because it does not see partition #1 as bootable. Ie, that Windows is not in control of the boot process.
Here's why that happens. Windows booting uses BCD (boot configuration database). And windows uses the active flag on the partition to locate the appropriate BCD. When booting Windows, it uses the boot partition to locate the BCD. But for anything else, such as applying updates, it uses the active flag. It turns out that there is a very simple solution to this problem. I'm currently using that on my laptop (with Windows 7) and on and older desktop (with Vista). I described it in a blog post https://nwrickert2.wordpress.com/2015/06/15/generic-boot-code/ In any case, here is the quick and dirty solution: echo -e -n '\004' > x ### should create x as a 1 byte binary 4 cat /usr/share/syslinux/altmbr.bin x > altmbr.4 ##### That creates the file "altmbr.4" which is based on the syslinux "altmbr.bin" generic boot code. It will always boot partition 4, regardless of the active flag. So now install that in the MBR, and set the active flag for partition 1 (to keep windows happy). And you will still boot with the grub menu. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2 iQEcBAEBAgAGBQJXGNjfAAoJEGSXLIzRJwiFrRsH/iNpi9OKAMUUvbPcLBKRv0D/ fmkaldwp5oTGDUI8K397A2mnt7FqxFEXdyw9VtIZNjvIx9nCeLmUnHUIcO5XWlQj U8L0cSiuGDTlkLxUThQFq/NMaF2tZ3H8Q7kUmf5M1QgFlTQch0cQhVna120gS5eC dntlaUjVBNjdevkwixZpEGhR+Gbeh5qPxxvSqoPpcvESfQVphhqOFzoYIyRn40Wk HLgxu14vtG0BHN3LdrAsPtq0wnSxBal2Obup0Emw4cc7JuBiaWThRBgihs0PP06X BA6bNc53EUUBDY5ILG/rQKYdW3lwDnAd1cpmrCv/6GDGgDQ3RsR4R9qmb79wjZo= =V0Ll -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org