Todd Vierling wrote:

>On Thu, 5 Oct 2000, Bob Nestor wrote:
>
>: There's also pdisk from the MkLinux crowd, although I don't know if it's 
>: license would allow this or if it would be a good choice for new users.
>
>This might work, particularly if it's *IX code that could benefit a
>switchover to sysinst, but...
>
>: When I was working on a new version of Mkfs I had plans of doing disk 
>: partitioning and got some of the code done.  You can have that if you 
>: want it.
>
>This might not, given some of the circumstances.  What Dan's really asking
>for is, since I'm trying to make the Wasabi NetBSD CD have a HFS volume (to
>make it point-and-click easy to get to the Installer and Booter programs), a
>MacOS program that could go in the same directory as those two, without
>violating Apple licenses and etc.

I guess I'm missing something here then.  If you're looking for a program 
than runs under MacOS and does the partitioning that could be pdisk, 
although it's not point and click. It also could be an updated version of 
Mkfs which is a bit more point and click; at least it's not a command 
line utility like pdisk.  Although pdisk is normally found in only PPC 
execuatbe images it's possible to build 68k execuatables from the source. 
 I have a modified version that I'v used on both 68k and PPC myself based 
on the 0.73a source.  The 0.74a source appears to have fixed a problem 
dealing with IDE disks, but I was unable to locate the sources for it.

Mkfs is a MacOS application that is totally "owned" by NetBSD.  Or you 
might use a 3rd party disk formatter, but none that I know of are in the 
public domain.  The old APS disk formatter can still be found on some FTP 
servers, although it isn't really freeware.  It has been sold under a 
number of different names; TranSoft, APS, RealTech to name a few.  
Whoever owns the original OEM code may be willing to cut a deal for 
NetBSD, but I don't know who that might be.

If you're talking about a utility that runs under NetBSD then you might 
have a problem. The only real choices here are either pdisk or sysinst.  
Both have the same problem at the moment and that is making the NetBSD 
kernel aware of the ondisk changes and making sure that they will be 
processed the same way on the next boot of NetBSD.  At least with the 
sysinst approach you have a bit more of an integrated approach to doing 
the system installation.

-bob