Re: newfs seems stuck in loop

[der Mouse <mouse%Rodents-Montreal.ORG@localhost>]

>> The 6-byte limitation of old VAXstations is not a limitation of the
>> controller, but of the firmware in the boot monitor.  [...]
>> Once the OS driver takes over, it can use 8-byte disk block numbers.

Well, it can try.  Depending on how recent the disk is, it may not
recognize 16-byte read and write CDBs (which are the ones with 8 bytes
of block number).

You're probably going to be better off with the 10-byte versions, which
have only 4 bytes of block number ("only" - 32 bits of block number can
address two terabytes of disk).

> And, fyi: If you can make sure that the boot monitor will only access
> data in the first 1G of a disk, you can actually have a disk of any
> size also as the boot disk.  And since Unix partitions the disk, all
> you need to do is make sure that the root partition (partition a) is
> less than 1G, and you are home free.

The boot partition, actually, not necessarily the root partition.
I have some Suns with the same problem (ROM code restricted to 6-byte
CDBs) on which I have a tiny boot partition (a few tens of megs at
most) and use kernels configured with root specifically put somewhere
else.  (I generally mount the boot partition as /kernels and symlink
/netbsd -> kernels/netbsd.)

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