Re: [9fans] winnt boot method - hand editing boot.ini

["Russ Cox" <rsc@plan9.bell-labs.com>]

You need to copy the first sector of your Plan 9 partition
into a file bootsect.p9 on your NT drive, and then use
something like (this is from my Win2000 system):

[boot loader]
timeout=3600
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect
c:\bootsect.p9 = "Plan 9 from Bell Labs"

There are a few gotchas.  First, make sure your
9fat has the right PBS before you copy the first
sector.  For example,

	disk/format -b /386/pbslba /dev/sdC0/plan9
	dd -bs 512 -count 1 < /dev/sdC0/plan9 > bootsect.p9

will probably do the right thing.
Note that format -b doesn't do anything other than
replace the PBS code.  In particular it doesn't format
the disk.

The other gotcha is that I vaguely recall reading that
sectors you put in the [operating systems] section have
to be on a FAT drive for the boot loader to find them.
This seems unlikely, since the boot loader clearly reads
NTFS to get at the boot.ini file.  But if it is true, then you're
just out of luck.

Another option is to install something like Partition Magic
and let it handle the boot menu.  (Anyone know of a good
free program like that, just for selecting the primary partition?)

Russ