Steven M. Bellovin wrote:

> In message <Pine.LNX.4.31.0203131555220.19589-100000@uranus.terran>, "B. James 
> Phillippe" writes:
> 
>>Hello,
>>
>>I would like to know what the general consensus is on the ability to "fall
>>back" to a stable kernel when running in -current userspace.  I am a
>>new-to-NetBSD convert from Linux :-) and my frame of referencce is that it
>>was not uncommon to get "stuck in the middle" when trying to track
>>development kernels; if the dev kernel was broken in some way that required
>>booting into the stable kernel, some of the user-space bins/libs needed to
>>be swapped as well.  I'm just curious to know if I'm in for a repeat
>>experience if I attempt to track NetBSD-current.
>>
>>
> My understanding is that that won't work well -- -current userland 
> often relies on new kernel features that 1.5.x kernels don't have.
> 


I thought the bootloader allows you to not only to specify which kernel 
to boot but what root device to use. So In theory you could have two 
root partions a stable one (kernel and user level tools) as well as a 
current one.