Thomas Mueller wrote:

> 
> > Could this be done within one primary partition?
> ^ Yes, doing it with 2 primary partitions is much more fun!
> ^ You need the fixes to mbr_bootsel, the boot code and kernel autoconf code
> ^ (see a load of bugs I've raised recently) to be able to boot 2 different
> ^ copies of netBSD off different partitions on the same disk.
> 
> I guess then the primary partition for -current could be small, how big would it
> need to be?

define small?  depends how much you want to put in it :-)  Remember it
mught become your main 'root' someday.  Gave mine 2Gb - given the size
of IDE disks that is small!

>  But I'd rather save primary partitions given the limited quota.

Quota? Whats that :-)
> 
> If I use LILO as the boot loader, there would be no problem finding the intended
> partition (hopefully).  But I thought I read in earlier messages that NetBSD's
> regular installer would not install to a second NetBSD primary partition,
> however such a second installation could be performed manually.  I saw a
> lilo.conf file, set up to boot Windows XP, FreeBSD and Linux, ironically, in
> newsgroup comp.unix.bsd.openbsd.misc; it ought to work for NetBSD in place of
> OpenBSD or FreeBSD.

Don't know how LILO loads netbsd.  However the netbsd kernel will find
the disklabel (and hence the definitions of wd0[a-p]) using code that is
independant of where the kernel was loaded from - unless you use my
fixed mbr_bootsel et al.
> 
You ought to be able to persuade the netbsd installer to install a
second netbsd partition by changing the type of the original one before
starting the install.  I'd try before the install - don't rely on the
installer getting it right (it may already have decided where the netbsd
disklabel is...

> 
> > Is root invariably a?
> ^ No - but you have to intercept the loader (while it is counting down)
> ^ in order to select a different device. eg boot wd0f:
> ^ Your kernel has to use the boot boot slice as its root fs as well.
> 
> I assumed root fs would have to be on the same subpartition as the kernel.

No! if your kernel config specifies 'root on ? type ?' then it will use
the slice number passed in.  But if it says 'root on wd0h type ffs' then
the root filesystem will de wd0h - regardless of where the kernel was
loaded from - doesn't even need to be the same disk!

	David