> > However, I think I agree with keeping these geometry parameters
> > together in the Makefile.

Take a look at 1.4.2, or the patch for distrib/sparc/ramdisk/Makefile
in the cvs-diff file at the top level of the sparc 19991223 snapshot.

It is not difficult to write a tiny disktab file with any desired geometry,
and the tools will either accept an explicit geometry (vnconfig) or an
argument to override the pathname of /etc/disktab (disklabel).

However, I am of the opinion that the whole ramdisk business needs to be
overhauled. We should populate a directory tree with the desired ramdisk
contents FIRST, and put it into a tarball. Then we build up vnd ffs's of
various sizes and extract the tarball into them until we get a "good fit".
Once we know how big to make the ramdisk, we tweak a .inc file over in the
kernel conf directory and _then_ go over to config/make the install kernels.

I have posted about this on tech-install already. I am waiting for the dust
to settle from 1.4.2 so I can start tracking -current again (plus I need a
breather to work on non-NetBSD stuff), so I will not be hacking on this
right away. But if anyone is thinking of fixing the ramdisk stuff, I wanted
to let you know what direction I think it should be going in.

Todd Whitesel
toddpw @ best.com