Subject: Re: [OT] Making bootable disk for diskless SPARC
To: Kazuyoshi Kato(kaz-k) <kazk@yyy.or.jp>
From: Ken Nakata <nakata@sequent.com>
List: port-sparc
Date: 02/29/2000 17:22:24
"Kazuyoshi Kato(kaz-k)" wrote:
> No, I just wondered if I could create NetBSD/SPARC bootable disk with
> Mac.
> I know that NetBSD/mac68k doesn't write disklabels that SPARC boot PROM
> can understand, though as I told to other guys who gave me replies, I
> have an experience that Silverlining, a MacOS formatter was able to
> "read" disklabels of the drive which was formatted by SunOS format
> command, so I assumed the possibility that it or other MacOS formatters
> could "write" disklabels which boot PROM can understand.
> Not sure such, "writing" function it had then, and still has now,
> though...

You are right that NetBSD/mac68k does not understand sparc disklabels
even though some MacOS disk formatters do as you say.  NetBSD/mac68k
doesn't even support BSD disklabels, so anything without MacOS
partitions or MS-DOS mbr partitions cannot be mounted under
NetBSD/mac68k.

However, if you could somehow create a sparc disk image complete with
bootloader, disklabel and filesystems, I'd bet you can write it to a raw
disk drive (rsdXc) with dd command.  But of course the problem is how
you are going to create a sparc disk image on a mac68k...

Ken