Subject: Re: Possibly moving the start of the disklabel in NetBSD-only disks
To: Bob Nestor <rnestor@augustmail.com>
From: Bill Studenmund <wrstuden@zembu.com>
List: port-macppc
Date: 08/14/2000 16:35:45
On Fri, 11 Aug 2000, Bob Nestor wrote:

> Bill Studenmund wrote:
> 
> >In general, I'd like to depreciate shoving in struct disklabels in favor
> >of using Apple Partition Maps. We should always be able to READ struct
> >disklabels, but I think our default should be something more compatible
> >with the other OSes which run on our hardware. :-0
> >
> We're on the same page then and I have no objections at all.

:-)

> >Hmmm... There is the difficulty that bootxx, the loader which we shove
> >into the partition, won't work without open firmware. :-( The StartManager
> >booter is quite a different beast than the OF boot loader.... Hmmm....
> >
> Well if the Start Manager can be used, what's to keep us from having 
> installboot adjust Block0 and the driver table to get the Kernel loaded 
> from the selected root partition? If we still need a secondary loader 
> couldn't it be stored in a spearate Partition named something like 
> "NetBSD_Driver"?

Oh, what I was trying to say is that our bootxx, the thing which gets
shoved into this partition, is infact an OpenFirmware-using program. So
the primary boot loader we use will not work with the StartManager.

I'm not really sure how we indicate that a partition is an OF based
"driver" or if it is a MacOS based driver.

> Is the driver count in Block0 being updated so the Start Manager doesn't 
> look at the additional entries?  Not that this would keep NetBSD from 
> booting, but it might screw up MacOS from booting at some point.

The program I'm working on should do this. :-)

Take care,

Bill