> (Have cc'ed to port-sparc as well)

> NetBSD writes a SunOS compatible label onto the disk for the boot
> prom.

Right.  Boot drives have to have a SunOS-compatible label.

> Unfortunately SunOS can only allocate paritions in units of cylinders
> (no partiail cylinders),

This is not quite true.  Partitions have to *begin* on cylinder
boundaries.  They can *end* anywhere, as far as I can tell; I certainly
have ended partitions partway through cylinders on SunOS machines often
enough.  format(8) even allows it, and editing the label with sunlabel
or moral equivalent works Just Fine too.

Also, "cylinder" throughout here is really "nsect * ntrack sectors,
where those values are the ones in the disk label", which does not have
to bear any relationship to any actual cylinder size - and indeed, with
ZBR disks, it can't be correct for more than part of the disk no matter
what.

> so NetBSD/sparc also has to starts and end partitions on cylinder
> boundaries.

They have to start on cylinder boundaries.  I don't know whether
disklabel and the kernel allow them to end on cylinder boundaries, but
I do know that when I use sunlabel to create a label with
non-cylinder-multiple partitions, the kernel does not get unhappy.

					der Mouse

			       mouse@rodents.montreal.qc.ca
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