Subject: Re: Installer and root partition roulette
To: Ken Nakata <kenn@synap.ne.jp>
From: Allen Briggs <briggs@canolog.ninthwonder.com>
List: port-mac68k
Date: 07/24/1998 20:43:54
> If there were a way to distinguish between ext2fs and ffs formats,
> could the root device be ext2fs?

If ext2fs is compiled into the kernel, I'm not sure that there's a
reason why the root FS could not be ext2fs.  I've never looked into
it, though.  We can certainly boot off non-ffs roots (NFS), but I
don't recall if there's something extra needed for that.

> As an alternative, would it make sense if we made Installer and kernel
> prefer an AUX Root partition with "NetBSD" in its name over a plain
> AUX Root partition?

Unless it's changed, the kernel (at least) will prefer an A/UX Root
partition in cluster 0 (a field of the partition data).  I did that
to allow it to coexist with A/UX (which I was booting from an A/UX
Root partition with cluster set to 1).

> Or maybe we could arrange some kind of agreement with MacLinux people
> on partition naming (or type) convention so that both OSes will be
> able to distinguish correctly the other's partitions from their own.

That would be good.  Dialogue with them, in general, would be a good thing.

-allen

-- 
                    Allen Briggs - briggs@ninthwonder.com