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>>>>> "Peter" == Peter Maydell <pm215@cam.ac.uk> writes:
    Peter> Firstly, are there restrictions on where you're allowed to put
    Peter> partitions? If you define partitions (using sunos format) with a
    Peter> starting at cyl 0 and then dd the miniroot into it, the PROM
    Peter> refuses to boot that partition. Also, I seem to have managed to

  I think this is because your dd is trashing the disklabel. If you started
xd1a a cyl 1, that wouldn't happen. Normally, newfs knows to skip the
disklabel...

    Peter> As I understand it you're supposed to dd the miniroot into
    Peter> partition b (swap). So I defined some plausible looking partitions
    Peter> (a = root, b = swap, g = /usr, c = whole disk) for xd1 and dd'd
    Peter> the miniroot into /dev/xd1b. If you then reboot and tell the PROM
    Peter> to boot xd(0,1,1) it successfully loads the kernel. However, the
    Peter> kernel then decides that its root fs should be on /dev/xd1a and

  What happens if you add -as ?  That sounds like a bug to me!
  You don't mention which version you are trying to install.

    Peter> If you dd the miniroot into /dev/xd1a then it boots correctly but
    Peter> then the install process runs newfs on /dev/xd1a which trashes the
    Peter> miniroot before install has finished using it :-<

  Yes :-)

    Peter> Is there a way to tell the kernel to use a given device as the
    Peter> root disk?  This would presumably be the Right Way to solve the

  yes. Boot with -a, and it will prompt.

    Peter> problem.  My other plan of attack is to define partitions in SunOS
    Peter> such that xd1a is the right size for the swap partition, boot the
    Peter> miniroot from it, and then redefine the disklabel in install to
    Peter> swap xd1a and xd1b. Would this work?

  Sounds okay.

   :!mcr!:            |  Sandelman Software Works Corporation, Ottawa, ON  
   Michael Richardson |Network and security consulting and contract programming
 Personal: mcr@sandelman.ottawa.on.ca. PGP key available.
 Corporate: sales@sandelman.ottawa.on.ca. 


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