At 9:42 PM +0000 3/19/03, Nuno Teixeira wrote:
>Can anyone explain to me why we need it? Why it isn't possible to boot
>NetBSD "normaly" like a PC?

I don't think there is a real fundamental reason, but it makes an 
awful lot of things a lot easier.  We only got the native sysinst 
stuff working rather recently and (I think) the MacOS installation 
tools were easier for people with Macs to use than what used to be 
available.

There are lots of bugs in the ROM device drivers that booting all the 
way to MacOS fixes.  We can let MacOS initialize the devices and just 
write the code to use them after we do get going.  We didn't have or 
need any disk partitioning utilities at all until very recently.

There *have* been people who have worked on making native booters of 
one sort or another.  Some have gotten to the point of working under 
some circumstances, but AFIK nothing beyond that.  I believe there 
isn't enough benefit to motivate people.  Of course if you're 
motivated I'm sure the list can provide pointers to what has been 
done so before.
-- 
The opinions expressed in this message are mine,
not those of Caltech, JPL, NASA, or the US Government.
Henry.B.Hotz@jpl.nasa.gov, or hbhotz@oxy.edu