PloP and repartitioning later

[kbarb]

Hi,

I set up a test machine with Plop - looks very good - and got a triple boot going after I figured out how to use it.
At first I didnt' see the line in the Docs for "The Boot Manager," so it took me a while.

Anyway . . .
I'm just wondering about what might happen with a multiboot machine using Plop if I change any properties of the partitions after Plop is installed to disk, especially if I have to uninstall it later.
I did a little investigating with a disk editor and I see how Plop stores the partition table in  . . . sector 62 ? Forget exactly which one.

Scenario 1
Suppose you have two bootable primary partitions and the 1st one is cleared.
If you use Gparted (or something else) later on, couldn't it be possible to expand the 2nd partition into the area of the 1st partition, because it's not known to be an existing partition ?

Scenario 2
Suppose you add a new partition or make similar changes, then later Full Uninstall Plop.
Isn't Plop going to replace the first track with the one that's stored on the floppy (plpback.bin), thus you possibly lose any new partitions ?

I guess you could do some tricky things with a disk editor and edit the plpback.bin with the updates.

Scenario 3
What happens when you do Short Uninstall, and rewrite the MBR ? What state are the partitions in then, because some of them have been cleared, right ?

So then, could you say then a little about how Plop is recognizing and saving any changes to partitions ?

Also, can you think of anything else to lookout for with respect to partition changes ? For example certain things you shouldn't do unless doing something else w/ Plop first to prepare for the changes ?

Last, what is the meaning of "Boot Manager update" at the install screen - I didn't quite get that one.

Sorry for so many questions but I'm trying to get an idea what things I have to prepare for so I don't get into trouble later on.

Great piece of work though - thanks very much for your time to do it.

By the way, how did you come up with the name Plop ?

Thanks a lot,

Kent

San Francisco

[Elmar]

hi,

Scenario 1
Suppose you have two bootable primary partitions and the 1st one is cleared.
If you use Gparted (or something else) later on, couldn't it be possible to expand the 2nd partition into the area of the 1st partition, because it's not known to be an existing partition ?

at first, you have to know your system. resizing with cleared partitions can be dangerous. to avoid the overlapping of a cleared partition simply activate it in the profile that you use to resize a partition. or create a temporary profile with the cleared partition as barrier. then resize the partition that is between the barrier partitions. when you reboot, let the boot manager import the new values of the resized partition.

Scenario 2
Suppose you add a new partition or make similar changes, then later Full Uninstall Plop.
Isn't Plop going to replace the first track with the one that's stored on the floppy (plpback.bin), thus you possibly lose any new partitions ?

I guess you could do some tricky things with a disk editor and edit the plpback.bin with the updates.

the full uninstall restores the first 63 sectors of your hard disk from the backup file. when you made any partition changes, then they will be overwritten with the full uninstall. choose short uninstall in that case. you will get a new mbr and the partition data in the mbr will be untouched.

Scenario 3
What happens when you do Short Uninstall, and rewrite the MBR ? What state are the partitions in then, because some of them have been cleared, right ?

you will get a new mbr and the partition data in the mbr will be untouched. also all data after the mbr will be untouched. Note: Later, when you use "restore loader" then the boot manager and its data is back.

So then, could you say then a little about how Plop is recognizing and saving any changes to partitions ?

when you use a profile that has linked partitions, then the boot manager compares the partition values of the mbr with the stored one. when they are different, then you will be asked to import them or ignore the changes.

Also, can you think of anything else to lookout for with respect to partition changes ? For example certain things you shouldn't do unless doing something else w/ Plop first to prepare for the changes ?

hmm, a bad idea is using linked partitions -> resizing a partition -> dont let import the partition values -> boot the profile. this would restore the old partition values, but because of the resize they are no longer valid.

Last, what is the meaning of "Boot Manager update" at the install screen - I didn't quite get that one.

new boot manager version comes out -> choose that option and only the program will be updated. you keep all previous configurations. its also possible to downgrade the boot manager to a previous version.

By the way, how did you come up with the name Plop ?

from a single bad comic picture that i made in 1998 during a boring skill enhancement lesson of the company where is was working. my friend saw it and was laughing extremely loud (during the lesson). later, we planed to write a small operating system and call it "plop os". but the project died early. then i wrote the first boot manager version and gave it the name "plop boot manager". "plop" is nice and short and when i made my own linux, i called it "plop linux". and later when i was searching for a short name for my one man business, i took again "plop". thats the short version of a not exciting story

best regards
elmar