Strange booting problem

[jd1008]

On 07/01/2015 05:36 PM, Chris Murphy wrote:
> On Wed, Jul 1, 2015 at 4:37 PM, jd1008 <jd1008 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> So, let me ask a simple question.
>> Technically (I mean programatically), how difficult is it to
>> fix both BIOS and fdisk so that unless a partition is marked
>> as bootable, the partition table will not contain the boot signature
>> and BIOS will still accept the partitioning scheme, but
>> move on to the next drive in the boot order?
> The problem isn't with fdisk. If there's a problem it's that this BIOS
> instance isn't smart enough to qualify the MBR it received, fail it
> for $REASONS, and then ask for the MBR from the next device in
> sequence.
>
> Answers in no particular order, sorta tongue in cheek, being the
> deviloper's advocate (pun intended):
>
> - Learn assembly, get hired to a company that OEMs firmware, fix and
> advocate pushing it to users. (i.e. I think this is hard to do and
> management would probably say no it's not worth the money resources
> for this.)
>
> - We have already done exactly this, it's called UEFI.
>
> - We have already done exactly this, it's called coreboot, maybe your
> system can use that? (Actually, I've never used coreboot, I don't know
> that it will qualify an MBR and do a fallback as described.)
If I had a standalone tool on a bootable CD to use
to save current BIOS, flash one that could do the
right sequencing, and if it did not work, I would then use
the standalone tool to restore the saved BIOS.
I know of no such tool that would work on the Dell E6500 series laptops.
One almost needs to be able to pull out existing rom,
insert the rom of the bios you suggest, and try it.