Re: [9fans] New to Plan 9

[Jack Johnson <knapjack@gmail.com>]

On Tue, 21 Dec 2004 22:52:22 +0000, James Fox <grey_fox_j@hotmail.com> wrote:
> Basically,  whether I let Plan 9 install it's bootloader in the MBR, or I
> try to chainload (using the Solaris or FreeBSD multi-booters), the booting
> fails immedialy, with either the message 'MBR...Error!' if I use the Plan 9
> bootloader, or just '...Error!' if I use another bootloader.

I seem to recall having issues with various bootloaders (though not
necessarily Plan 9's) when clobbering one OS with another.  As
standard practice I tend to nuke the MBR each time now with an old
Win98 floppy and 'fdisk /mbr' (I think) just to make sure it's clean. 
2K/XP has a 'fixmbr' that does a similar trick (possibly leaving
behind some carnage) which seems to be easily clobbered by any other
bootloader.

At least a couple of us here have gravitated toward Smart Bootmanager:

http://btmgr.sourceforge.net/about.html

It tends to be friendly toward just about any OS and is insanely
useful for booting any ancient machines off CD-ROM in a pinch (or for
an install).

Good luck!

-Jack