Subject: Re: formatter (was LC475)
To: Allen Briggs <briggs@puma.bevd.blacksburg.va.us>
From: Monroe Williams <monroe@teleport.com>
List: port-mac68k
Date: 10/20/1995 11:40:46
Allen Briggs <briggs@puma.bevd.blacksburg.va.us>:
>> That was it.  No e,f or h for the Free A/UX slice [3-6] (or [3-5]).
>
>The problem with this is that these slices probably don't mark the Usr
>or Root bit in the partition map.  I'll look into that, too.  Thanks to
>one person, I've got a couple of small scratch drives to fool with.
>
>If anyone has suggestions about partitioning and handling partitions,
>please let me know.

Is there any reason we can't use the "name" field of the partition
map for our own purposes?  I'm thinking we could keep the same type
("Apple_UNIX_SVR2"), but instead of using the A/UX names ("A/UX Usr
Slice X", etc.) use names like "NetBSD a" and "NetBSD g".  We could
even scan for these first and then scan the rest of the partition map
for other possible partitions using the existing algorithm (or a new 
& improved one :), so that existing disks would keep working.

I've used at least one MacOS partitioning program that allowed the user
to edit the name of a partition map entry (I think it was APS 2.7.x),
and I'm sure we could set up disklabel (or some other program) to do it
from NetBSD.

It's nice to have the kernel be clever about recognizing partitions,
but I don't want to have to outsmart it to get it to do what I want. :)
If we allow people to _tell_ it which sub-device to use for each partition,
nobody loses.

-- monroe