Skip to main content

You are not logged in. Your edit will be placed in a queue until it is peer reviewed.

We welcome edits that make the post easier to understand and more valuable for readers. Because community members review edits, please try to make the post substantially better than how you found it, for example, by fixing grammar or adding additional resources and hyperlinks.

5
  • You’re mistaken about how the Linux boot process works. There’s no need for a VBR if the MBR code understands enough of the filesystem to load the next stage, which is not subject to space constraints.
    – Daniel B
    Commented Feb 24, 2018 at 18:55
  • 1
    Also, ext2 does have a 1024-byte boot code area.
    – Daniel B
    Commented Feb 24, 2018 at 19:05
  • Btrfs seems to have 64KiB. Commented Feb 24, 2018 at 19:09
  • @DanielB The process is not specific to Linux. DOS was booted this way. The process is well known. The MBR gets execution at 0x0000:0x7c00, it relocates itself, determines the "active" partition and loads its VBR (first sector) it at the same address, 0x0000:0x7c00. This VBR was the first stage of the bootloader specific to the installed OS. Of course, this is how it was originally done, and the process has evolved over the last 40 years. You certainly do not need a VBR, especially if your installed bootloader, like GRUB, overwrites the MBR with its own code specific to its boot scheme
    – sherrellbc
    Commented Feb 24, 2018 at 19:23
  • @DanielB There are only 512 bytes to work with in the MBR and VBR (if present), so I expected the implementation to be fairly simplified. Also, thanks for the link about ext. I poked around the wiki and could not find it there.
    – sherrellbc
    Commented Feb 24, 2018 at 19:33