Removing i386 Bootloader

On Sun, Aug 27, 2006 at 06:36:28PM -0700, Jeff_W wrote:
> Removing i386 Bootloader. How does one do this?

What are you trying to do, removing a bootloader would
(typically) overwrite
part of the disk with zeros, thus making it unbootable.

> I tried installboot -c /dev/rwd0c but get the
following:
> 
> # installboot -v -c /dev/rwd0c
> installboot: Opening file system `/dev/rwd0c'
read-only: Device not configured

Well, wd0c is a reference to the NetBSD 'mbr' partition
(that is split
into the netbsd partitions by the netbsd label). 
installboot operates
on a filesystem partition.....

> The Windows parrtition is actually /dev/rwd0e so I
tried that:
> 
> # installboot -v -c /dev/rwd0e
> File system:         /dev/rwd0e
> File system type:    raw (blocksize 8192, needswap 0)
> Primary bootstrap:   (to be cleared)
> installboot: i386: bootstrap removal is not supported
> installboot: Clear bootstrap operation failed

You are lucky - if it had done anything that windows
partition would be toast!
 
> Is there some other method to remove the NetbSD boot
selector/loader thing?

Removing it would leave you with a completely unbootable
disk.
You could use different mbr boot code, but I don't suspect
it would help you.

> I recently had to reinstall windozeXP and I'm getting
an "Error 3" when
> selecting XP.

Presumably this is the problem you are actually trying to
solve!
"Error 3" means that the first sector of (in
this case) your XP partition
doesn't contain any boot code.
The XP installation needs to write this, although sometimes
it only
seems to write its boot code to sector zero of the disk.

> I though maybe installing a different boot manager
would fix things so I
> installed GAG-4.6,

I don't know anything about that, one advantage of the
netbsd bootselect
code is that it sits entirely within the space (in sector 0
of the disk)
that is allocated for the bootstrap code.  Almost everything
else has
a lot of code squirrelled away somewhere else on the disk.

> however selecting XP still dumping me into the NetBSD
boot
> selector so I think I just need to clear it out.

Possibly you've managed to get the netbsd bootselect code
written to the
start of your XP partition.

You need to replace it with the correct code, not delete it.

	David

-- 
David Laight: davidl8s.co.uk

boot dos w/ fdisk;

 fdisk /mbr

On 8/28/06, David Laight <davidl8s.co.uk> wrote:
> On Sun, Aug 27, 2006 at 06:36:28PM -0700, Jeff_W wrote:
> > Removing i386 Bootloader. How does one do this?
>
> What are you trying to do, removing a bootloader would
(typically) overwrite
> part of the disk with zeros, thus making it unbootable.
>
....
> Possibly you've managed to get the netbsd bootselect
code written to the
> start of your XP partition.
>
> You need to replace it with the correct code, not
delete it.
>
>         David
>
> --
> David Laight: davidl8s.co.uk
>