Re: rdb for ofppc (was: marvell relation support 20100602)

[Frank Wille <frank%phoenix.owl.de@localhost>]

On Wed, 09 Jun 2010 18:03:47 +1000
matthew green <mrg%eterna.com.au@localhost> wrote:

> > I already implemented RDB in ofwboot last year, but I was too weak
> > to find a good, preferable MI, solution for the kernel. I have to
> > motivate me to work on that again... :)
> 
> sys/kern/subr_disk_rdb.c ? :)

That would be easy, but as bad as subr_disk_mbr.c. It wouldn't allow to
use MBR and RDB together in one kernel.

Optimal would be a solution that allows us to combine all partition table
styles which are needed for a port, with auto-detection. And in the GENERIC
config for ofppc we would just add:

options         MBR_PARTITIONS          # MsDOS MasterBootRecord
options         RDB_PARTITIONS          # AmigaDOS RigidDiskBlock
options         APM_PARTITIONS          # Apple Partition Map
options         RAW_PARTITIONS          # Raw NetBSD disklabel

This could be useful for several ports which are supporting native
partitions besides MBR and disklabel, e.g. sgimips, sparc, macppc,
atari, etc.

But that's quite a huge project for a newbie like me alone. So I would
probably just add a special disksubr.c for ofppc which handles all the
required partition tables, as already done by other ports.


> or something with wedges?

I'm not sure if I understand the concept of wedges 100%. This means you
could reserve the last part of the disk for NetBSD with MBR, while still
using RDB at the beginning of the disk? But it would also need to be
supported by ofwboot, to be able to boot the kernel from a wedge?


-- 
Frank Wille