[Bug 849760] Re: alternate installer does not allow multiple partitions to have bootable flag "on"

[Colin Watson]

I don't have a formal specification for the MBR partition table, but
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_boot_record includes phrases like:

  "scans the list of partitions in the MBR's embedded partition table to
find the only one that is marked with the active flag"

  "As there can be only one active partition within the partition table,
the MBR code can simply assume that the active partition on the current
drive is bootable."

I am extremely nervous about changing partman to permit multiple
bootable partitions.  I think it would be very risky given the variety
of BIOS implementations out there; there is a long history of slight
variations from common practice causing boot failures.  Can we not get
Truecrypt to support some other mechanism?  After all, it is free
software.

** Changed in: debian-installer (Ubuntu)
       Status: New => Incomplete

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/849760

Title:
  alternate installer does not allow multiple partitions to have
  bootable flag "on"

Status in “debian-installer” package in Ubuntu:
  Won't Fix

Bug description:
  When doing a manual partitioning it's sometimes necessary to have
  multiple partitions with boot flag set "on". Currently (tested with
  oneiric) there can be only one partition set as bootable. This breaks
  truecrypt loader (sigh..) as it requires that the windows partition is
  set as bootable and also the linux /boot has to be bootable for
  truecrypt loader to correctly chainl oad grub.

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