On Fri, 25 Jun 1999, Erik E. Fair wrote:

> We would do well to integrate HFS/HFS+ support well enough to do several
> things:
> 
> 1. boot a kernel from it.

That we don't need to do. All we need to do is make files OF is happy
booting. :-)

> 2. run on an FFS on a vnd inside an HFS/HFS+ file.

This would require #3.

> 3. mount & manipulate HFS/HFS+ files like a more or less normal FS.

The problem is that both filesystems which read HFS files (and AFAIK the
only HFS+ one) are under licenses which can't get in the tree. hfsfs
originally from Paul Hargrove is under the GPL, and Apple's hfs stuff is
under their goofy license, which last I heard can't go in our tree.

> #2 would give us the ability to let people download an "hqx" file that
> unpacks into a kernel and an FFS-in-single-file into a MacOS HFS/HFS+
> system to "try before you buy" (i.e. run NetBSD on that FFS on vnd in an
> otherwise pristine HFS/HFS+).

I'm trying to get macos boot floppies working. Will post in another
message. With macos floppies, we wouldn't be quite where you suggest, but
we'd be closer. :-)

To really do what you want, we probably would need a lot of hackery.

We'd need something like:

boot with memory disk as mini-root
add hfsfs lkm to kernel
mount hfs filesystem
make vnd on it
overwrite root mountpoint so fs on vnd is now root fs
Do something so init stays sane. :-)

Take care,

Bill