Subject: partition types...
To: None <port-i386@netbsd.org>
From: Peter Seebach <seebs@plethora.net>
List: port-i386
Date: 02/06/1999 00:03:26
Hmm.  My 1.3.3 box is giving me a warning about an "old" NetBSD partition
type.  I remember there's a new one, but I'm a bit shy about converting things
lest I screw something up...

But this leads me to a new question:

Could there ever be a way for NetBSD-i386 to recognize multiple "BSD"
partition tables on a single disk?

This would be *very* useful to me.  In particular, I have two applications:

1.  On systems with screwy geometry, I could make a small NetBSD partition
in the first 1024 cylinders of a disk's geometry, for /, so I could boot - and
then mount partitions from elsewhere on the disk.

2.  I've been thinking about setting a machine up to dual-boot with one of
the other BSD-style Unix systems (probably BSD/OS), and it would be really
cool if I could mount their filesystems.  Obviously, 4.4BSD FFS should be
pretty compatible with 4.4BSD FFS, but it'd be really nice if I could have
them in different FDISK partitions.

So, how would this be notated?  Since the whole disk is 'sd0', I think this
would pretty much require a significant renumbering of some sort... But it
might be worth thinking about it so, if an opportunity comes along, it can
be taken.

(Note:  The reason I care about multiple FDISK partitions on one disk is,
of course, that my laptop only takes one.)

-s