In article <199701220219.SAA25576@mail.calweb.com>,
Rick Copeland <rickgc@calweb.com> wrote:
> partition   start     (c/t/s)      nblks        (c/t/s)         type
> a(root)       0      (0/00/00)   536870911  (1022611/03/31)*    unused
> 
> The question I have is how did Netbsd come up with the "nblks" number
> (536870911)?  Does the "(c/t/s) mean cylinders/tracks/sectors? And if so how
> did it come up with "(1022611/03/31)"?

I guess it's some garbage it got from the existing label...

>        cylinders:1224

If you think this value is correct, you can repartition the disk
based on it.

I am using a system with just an 'a' partition and a 'b' partition.
In such a case your partitioning could be something like:

partition   start     (c/t/s)      nblks        (c/t/s)         type
a(root)       0      (0/00/00)        ?        (1000/0/0)       BSD4.2
b(swap)       0   (1000/00/00)        ?         (224/0/0)       swap
c(disk)       0      (0/00/00)        ?        (1224/0/0)       unknown

All this is from memory, e.g. the BSD4.2 value could be just 4.2, or
was it ffs? And maybe the swap should be of different size?

Additional partitions would be over 'c', the convention is to use 'g'
for /usr, 'h' for home, 'f' for /var. I have all those directories on
'a' except /home, which is on a separate disk.

The nblks values I let the edlabel program calculate... I only enter
cylinders myself.

Anyway, the point is to give starting values for partitions, and the
number of cylinders they take up. You shouldn't leave gaps, nor make
overlaps, or exceed the 'c' partition total.

And you should definitely check the disk geometry values and correct
them if necessary.

The values for partition type can be spied from an include file
somewhere in /usr/include/sys.

I hope I wasn't too incoherent, or give any major misinformation. If
I was, I hope someone corrects me. Anyway, I hope this helps.

Jari Kokko