Subject: Re: A new partition handling scheme: wedges
To: Charles M. Hannum <mycroft@mit.edu>
From: Jason Thorpe <thorpej@nas.nasa.gov>
List: tech-kern
Date: 01/26/1998 10:55:25
On 26 Jan 1998 06:54:44 -0500 
 mycroft@mit.edu (Charles M. Hannum) wrote:

 > BTW, something I didn't mention before is that, regardless of anything
 > else we do, I believe we should, on systems that have MBRs, do
 > essentially the same thing Linux does (and that the Amiga port does in
 > RDB) -- have special MBR partition types for `NetBSD root', `NetBSD
 > swap', and `other NetBSD file system' -- and provide the old
 > partitioning system only as a fallback for compatibility.
 > 
 > The parsing rules on the i386 port would be:
 > 
 > * If there is no MBR, look for a label.
 > 
 > * If there is a MBR with a type 0xa5 partition, read the label from
 > that (for compatibility).
 > 
 > * If there is a MBR with no type 0xa5 partition, look for type 0xa7
 > (NetBSD root), 0xa8 (NetBSD swap), and 0xa9 (other NetBSD file
 > system), and generate an internal `label' based on that.

Wouldn't that limit the number of parititions you can have?

Jason R. Thorpe                                       thorpej@nas.nasa.gov
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