> point is that an ID of 165 isnt wrong at all, in the case where its on
> a FreeBSD partition on a non-NetBSD disk:).

There's nothing wrong with allowing (FreeBSD | NetBSD1.3.2) and NetBSD1.3.3+
to coexist on the _same_ disk either! I am in fact doing that on my -current
box.

Does our current code respect the "active" partition flags in the MBR? If
not then maybe we should, at least as a tiebreaker. DOSish boot selectors
like System Commander already use the active partition to keep track of
the boot menu selection. This would allow people to get a formal release
and -current dual-booting on the same machine, or even multiple versions
of -current, if that's what they want.

> Perhaps eventually (2.0? later?) the warning should be
> "No NetBSD MBR partition found, using FreeBSD partition"...

Pardon me, but I think the only case that rates a warning is where we cannot
find a 169 partition on the root disk. Anyone who has a long term coexistence
of {Free,Net}BSD on their system would be driven batty by all the warnings.

Maybe in the short term, there should be a warning like:

wd1: disk appears to be FreeBSD or old NetBSD, see installboot(8) if the latter

So that it is pretty clear to anyone who _should_ upgrade, and also to anyone
whose system is already transitioned, what is going on.

Todd Whitesel
toddpw @ best.com