Subject: Re: Two NetBSDs on one (i386) drive
To: Andrew Gillham <gillham@vaultron.com>
From: Rick Byers <rb-netbsd@BigScaryChildren.net>
List: tech-kern
Date: 12/19/2001 12:22:37
On Wed, 19 Dec 2001, Andrew Gillham wrote:

> > If we recognize more than one NetBSD partition on a disk, that means
> > more than one disklabel.  Wouldn't that cause a bunch of problems?  For
> > example, how do I write the second disklabel when I've booted from the
> > first partition?  I would find it confusing because now there are two
> > different NetBSD views of the disk (i.e. the meaning of "wd0a" depends on
> > which partition you booted from - what if you boot from a floppy?)
>
> Isn't the disklabel inside the NetBSD partition on i386?  e.g. at offset
> xyz from the start of the partition, not the start of the disk?

Exactly!  That is why I think having more than one NetBSD partition could
cause problems and confusion.  I still don't understand the need for being
able to boot from more than one NetBSD partition on the same disk (since
you could just use one boot partition, one bootloader and different
root/data partitions for the seperate systems).

Rick