Subject: Re: disklabel(8) and machdep on-disk structures issues
To: David Laight <david@l8s.co.uk>
From: Manuel Bouyer <bouyer@antioche.eu.org>
List: tech-kern
Date: 11/07/2003 21:17:57
On Fri, Nov 07, 2003 at 10:25:37AM +0000, David Laight wrote:
> Maybe leverage the code in subr_disk_mbr.c so that sparc systems can
> read disks with MBRs and i386 systems can read sparc disks?
> (Clearly there are additional endianness problems....)
> 
> The 'hunt the disklabel' in the read path could certainly benefit
> from being able to process any disk at all.  Writing could be more tricky!

IMHO this belongs to userland, not kernel.
The kernel needs to be able to read the native and NetBSD disklabel of the
port (to find root at boot time), but compatibility with other ports, or
partition information of others systems belongs to a userland tool.

-- 
Manuel Bouyer <bouyer@antioche.eu.org>
     NetBSD: 23 ans d'experience feront toujours la difference
--