maillist alias for CWW <netbsd@hopf.math.purdue.edu> writes:

> I'm trying to use a scsi zip drive with NetBSD-1.2G on a Sparc IPX.
> I was able to disk label and newfs  disks to use. However, for
> portability, I'd like to be able to use an MSDOS format. The
> mtools 3.6 I'm using doesn't seem to support scsi media on this platform,
> although it mentions Sunos and Solaris as supported.

I cheated big-time...

First, I found a zip drive connected to a windows machine, and formatted it
there.

I then used dd to save off the first part of the disk (first two tracks
if I remember right, but that is probably overkill) and I just dd that
back onto any disk I want to be in msdos format.

> 2) Mounting as a msdos disk will not work if the zip disk is unlabled either.

This is odd...  I suspect the sparc isn't reading the MSDOS (BIOS)
partition format and using that to generate a false disklabel.  The
i386 port does this in the kernel.

--Michael