In message <199907220023.KAA22911@balrog.supp.cpr.itg.telecom.com.au>,
Simon Burge writes:
>Jonathan Stone wrote:
>
>> Yes. I have a 5000/150 (same motherboard, r4000 CPU) with a 4.5-gig
>> IBM oem-version commodity drive. Works great.
>> Built several releases on it, in fact.
>
>Have you tried with a root-filesystem >2GB, and somehow making sure that
>/boot lives above that barrier?  I'm not sure how you'd guarantee this,
>but it'd be a good FAQ entry if you can possibly test it.


>/boot itself uses the PROM routines as well, so if /netbsd had parts
>above 2GB it may have problems there too...

No, i havent, for exactly that reason. Good point, and thanks for
correcting me.  the FAQ entry should probably say `dont do that!'.

For those who care, netBSD itself works just fine with large drives.
The issue is whether the PROM is smart enough to stop using the
compact SCSI commands with shorter block numbers, or the slighlty
longer SCSI commands with full-size block numbers.  Which makes me
wonder if the magic threshold isn't smaller?  Isnt the limit on
microvax 3100 `system' disks around 1.2gig?

Whereever the line is, keep your root partition below it and all will
be well. its a very good reason to keep using separate `root' and
`other' partitions -- various people've suggested that using one giant
partition might be easier for novice installs.