der Mouse sez:
#  > > If you don't want to rely on the filesystem type in the disk label,
#  > You still haven't addressed what to do with disks with port-specific
#  > compatability disklabels that don't _have_ types...like the sparc and
#  > sun3 ports, which support Sun-style disklabels, which don't have typed
#  > partitions.
#  > 
#  > Should the compatability code just return "undefined" for all its
#  > partitions?  That renders the boot disk (often the only disk) incapable
#  > of supporting these nice make-sure-I-don't-shoot-myself-in-the-foot
#  > things you've been touting....

Then Greg Woods sez:
#  Yes, I think that would be the best compromise.  If you do wish to
#  support such features then indeed I don't have any problem with
#  requiring that you upgrade your boot disk labels to the new format.

That would be _great_, but the sun/sparc ROMs have knowledge of how the
disklabel is set up -- if it doesn't look like a Sun disk label, the
machine will refuse to even attempt to boot with the message 'Disk label
invalid or missing.' or something.

This almost makes sense, although I think they should have implemented
a three-level boot scheme instead, with the third level being what the
second level is now, the second level being what the first level is now,
and the first level being ALWAYS at the first available block on the disk
(or some pre-defined location).  The first level boot block would contain
the code to extract the label and partition map so that you could actually
boot from something other than sdXa -- which is what the ROM code provides
for now.

Unfortunately, unless someone is _really_ good with forth code, _really_
intimate with the details of the sun EEPROM/NVRAM layout, and has a PROM
burner/NVRAM programmer, this point is moot, and we're stuck with main-
taining StunOS disk labels.

#  I have always thought of this compatability code as merely a stop-gap
#  measure and a convenience anyway....
#  -- 
#							   Greg A. Woods

				--*greywolf;
--
"You're...mocking me, aren't you?"	-- Buzz Lightyear