F16 1MB Boot Loader Partition

jbkt23 · #1 15th November 2011, 10:12 PM

I'm doing a test install of F16 in a virtual box VM. I'm trying to simulate the conditions on my hardware where I will not be able to create the 1 MB boot loader partition. It is not an issue of size but an issue of order. I would have to create it at the end of the disk.
The installation documentation says this partition is recommended not required, but I have found no way in two attempts to circumvent anaconda's insistence to create one.

I would do without a boot loader (grub2) and grab grub to install in rescue mode if I could get past anaconda.

Any thoughts?

**AdamW** · #2 16th November 2011, 12:14 AM

The BIOS boot partition doesn't have to be at the start of the disk. It can be anywhere. (Well, I've heard a passing mention that it might need to be within the first 2TB).

A hack you could use to get around anaconda's check would just be to attach some other disk which constitutes a valid stage1 target. Any old formatted USB stick should do the trick.

jbkt23 · #3 16th November 2011, 12:28 AM

Thanks Adam,
Hmmm, I have to figure out how to configure this dummy environment on a virtual machine. I'll have to find my gparted disc and format the vdi before hand. In virtual box the usb device can't be mounted till the "guest additions" are installed, and that requires an up and running OS.
I have plenty of time. I'm happy with F14 except on my laptop, sleeps and hibernates are unreliable.

jbkt23 · #4 16th November 2011, 03:29 PM

OK, so I pre-partitioned the VBox VDI with an 8G ext2 and the remaining 2G as linux swap. Then restarted the F16 install and it accepted the layout as is without asking to create a BIOS boot partition. The software is installing now and I will see what awaits me in F16 soon.

**AdamW** · #5 17th November 2011, 10:22 PM

by pre-partitioning you probably wound up with MS-DOS disk label, not GPT, which obviously means you don't need a BIOS boot partition and anaconda won't mind there not being one.

jbkt23 · #6 18th November 2011, 01:12 AM

You are correct.
I'm glad I'm testing things in a VM before I buy. I linked the F16 vdi to the sl-6.1 vdi I was testing previously and pre partitioned there. I'm using sl-6.1 for my server now. I think now that F16 has gone to the extreme edge of desktop configure ability I will have to spend a lot of time in the VM before I foist it on the masses.