> Date: Tue, 10 Oct 95 09:16:06 PDT
> From: greywolf@defender.VAS.viewlogic.com
> 
> Woof!
> 
> Curiously, what is the minimum size of a miniroot?  Is there a way that
> with a certain amount of memory one could have the option to load
> the entire miniroot into RAM so that changing the 'a' and 'b' partitions
> would not be out of the question, or is this more work than it is worth...?

The miniroot for NetBSD/sun3 is currently 6 megabytes.

As for partitioning, the typical miniroot-based install system
requires that you partition the disk before you load the miniroot.

That is sometimes done by a standalone program, based on the
same libraries you use to build the boot loader.  Another way,
is to build a kernel with a small, builtin RAM-disk root that
has the minimum set of tools needed to partition and load the
miniroot into the swap area.

The latter (ramdisk root) method is the way I chose to do it on the
Sun3 because we don't have real standalone libraries (uses PROM).

There is nothing particularly system-dependent about the miniroot
installation method.  The ramdisk kernel trick has the advantage
that no special programs are needed (normal boot program will do).

Gordon Ross