Subject: Re: Installation on partitions beyond 4GB limit
To: None <port-amiga@netbsd.org>
From: Gunther Nikl <gni@gecko.de>
List: port-amiga
Date: 10/19/2000 11:09:06
On Thu, Oct 19, 2000 at 02:16:48AM +0300, Petri Koistinen wrote:
> --
> Caveat: The swap (for installation) and the root partition (if you plan=
 to
> use the bootblocks) MUST BE WITHIN THE FIRST 4 gigabytes of the disk! T=
he
> reason for the former is that xstreamtodev uses trackdisk.device
> compatible I/O-calls, the reason for the latter is that the bootblock g=
ets
> a 32bit partition offset from the operating system.
> --
>=20
> Is this warning still relevant if I have AmigaOS 3.5 which comes with
> those filesystem patches to support bigger harddrives than 4GB. I don=B4=
t
> plan to use bootblocks. Only installation with xstreamtodev to move
> miniroot.fs to swap partition beyond 4GB limit. You think that it will
> work or am I going destroy partitions below 4GB limit.

  Both warnings apply, regardless of the OS version you are running! As t=
he
  INSTALL document already told you, xstreamtodev works on the _device_
  level and thus is limited to 32bit quantities (it was written before
  TD64/NSD were available when 4GB were unbelievable large ;-). If you fe=
el
  adventures you could use a different tool that doesn't have the limitat=
ions
  of xstreamtodev to transfer the miniroot to your swap partition. Of cou=
rse,
  you can mark a different partition as swap during installation and swit=
ch
  to the real swap partition later. Do NOT try writing to a partition
  beyound the 4GB barrier with xstreamtodev or you might loose other
  partitions!
  The booblocks are limited to <4GB for the root partition because the
  boostrap code in ROM has no idea about >4GB too (remember it was writte=
n
  in 1992 before TD64/NSD).

  Gunther

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