> >   Exactly how would you get a root file system on a tape drive and be able
> > to do random accesses from it :-)
> 
> I don't know *how* to do it, but I know this is possible on e.g. SUNs and HPs.
> So, this isn't impossible. Maybe some SUN/HP-guru could enlighten us?

I seem to recall (from reading about it) that a common procedure to boostrap
v7 on pdp-11s was to boot from a tape with a carefully prepared file system
on it. The important thing was to arrange it so, that it only needed to be
read in forward direction. I presume it relied on the relevant inodes to be
cached in core. For files it should not be too difficult to arrange, if every
file is read just once.

-Olaf.
--
___ Olaf 'Rhialto' Seibert    rhialto@mbfys.kun.nl     Ooey-Gooey-Fluffy-Barfie
\X/ I'm not weird, I'm differently percepted. D787B44DFC896063 4CBB95A5BD1DAA96