> geometry the disk uses.  Note that this faked partition entry isn't
> normally used for anything at all.  It is only here in case some BIOS
> insists that the first sector contains a partition table.

Not just the BIOS -- our boot code assumes that there will be a valid
partition table at block 0 also. We have to, as the BIOS passes us a
device number but no partition information. Our boot block always reads
block 0 and searches for a NetBSD partition, and loads the next bootstrap
from that partition.

> For the record, if you install NetBSD as the only OS on a disk, and start
> the NetBSD partition at the very first sector, the bios geometry is
> totally irrelevant during the installation.

Um, we do still use the BIOS geometry because we issue C-H-S BIOS calls to
load the kernel. But the boot code queries the kernel before it does anything
that requires geometry knowledge. I think we assume that no disk will have
less than 3 or 4 sectors per track in order to get away with this, however.

> Could people interested in installing NetBSD with this setup please
> test this on their machines and report back any problems they might
> have?  Thanks.

Will do.

Todd Whitesel
toddpw @ best.com