Subject: Re: Installation and MSDOS partitions
To: Perry E. Metzger <perry@piermont.com>
From: Jonathan Stone <jonathan@DSG.Stanford.EDU>
List: port-i386
Date: 02/02/1998 12:06:35
>"J. Buck Caldwell" writes:
>> Is it possible to boot with a floppy, create a NetBSD partition,
>> write disklabel etc, and mount a MSDOS partition to install from?

>"in theory". mount_msdos is on the disk, and msdosfs is in the kernel.

That's what the `unmounted fs' option on the menu of places to find a
distribution is. Unfortunately, you still need to figure out what
partition NetBSD is going to use for your DOS partition: you need
to give that to sysinst so sysinst can pass it to a mount call.

I guess we only thought of a one-disk setup that already had DOS,
where sysinst would already have created a label with the DOS
partition.  With filesets in DOS on a second disk, it's harder.

The good news is that the i386 kernel _should_ fake up a disklabel
using the MBR on your second disk; I'm just not sure which partition
(a, e, f, g, h ...) the fake label will use.

I'd try running 'disklabel /dev/sd?c' on your second disk, and see
what the label says. Hopefully, it'll be obvious.

[Simon: please file with the proto-FAQ questions ...]