Is installboot supposed to write to the entire disk?

[Jason Mitchell <jmitchel%bigjar.com@localhost>]

Hello,

I'm not sure if this is a bug or if it's for a case that I wasn't using. I went to change the boot block on an USB drive that I'd burned the install image to. I did:

installboot -o console=com0,speed=9600 /dev/sd0d /usr/mdec/bootxx_ffsv1

and couldn't get the drive to boot -- I kept getting an error that flashed on the screen (error code == 2). Anyway, once I told installboot to write to /dev/rsd0a everything worked fine.

Is there a use case where there's no partition table and NetBSD takes up the entire disk? Or should installboot prevent people like me from being stupid in this way and only write to a NetBSD slice or wedge?

I don’t know if this applies to any other ports (i386?), therefore I’m posting here. Also, I’m not subscribed to this list, so please keep my email in the cc field.

Thanks,

Jason M.