On Thu, 23 Jul 1998, Bill Studenmund wrote:
> Because it's only in the last 3 months that folks have really wanted to
> dual boot NetBSD and Linux.

Great.  So I'm pushing into new frontiers.  With a 68k Mac.  Great. =)

> W/ ext2fs support in the NetBSD kernel, NetBSD could mount some of the
> Linux partitions. Also, you only need one swap partition. I think they
> can both share. :-)

Ah, handy tip on the swap partition, which I was wondering about.  Do I
need to change the swap partition into a BSD partition in Mkfs, if it's
A/UX (which is all Linux needs) to begin with?  Or does it matter on the
swap partition?

So is ext2fs support in the NetBSD kernel by default?  I have some of the
posts from last week saved, discussing whether the mount_ext2fs stuff was
working right or not, but if there was a consensus answer then I didn't 
save it.  Last I saw it was up in the air whether MacLinux was big-endian,
and if so whether a kernel re-compile was necessary to support it.

Uh... and a no-brainer question: NetBSD uses a ffs file system, right?

>> a pretty easy sidestep to that potentially confusing point, it would make
>> sense to have a "Set.." button (like the MacOS kernel file alternative) 
>> for the drive and partition that pops up the exact same dialogues as in 
>> the Installer.  Oh well, something for the Booter-master's to-do queue
>
> Sounds good to me. But then again I'm not the booter keeper. :-)

It shouldn't have sounded good, because apparently I apparently confused
myself while discussing the issue, and lost track of my original point. =/
So... back up a sec.  It's the Installer (rather than the Booter, which 
was just a tangent to my original question) that lacks what I need, and
the pop-ups I suggest above should have been accredited to Mkfs instead...

Mkfs util:  Provides dialogue boxes for both device and partition
Installer:  Provides dialogue box for device only
Booter:     Provides fields for both device and partition 

As soon as the Installer gets the device, it jumps right in and tries to
mount everything it can (I assume), and then bombs with a mountfs() error,
which half the time hangs my entire system.  In for a penny, in for a
pound: Why doesn't the Installer just use the same partition dialogue as
Mkfs, seeing as they already use the same device dialogue?

Before anyone suggests mounting the BSD partition from within Linux, I
should point out that I can't, as we're still working on Quadra SCSI
support right now.  If only it weren't for that whole licensing issue
between the two camps... =/


BTW, in response to my own question earlier (and contrary to Paul's guess),
the Linux booter would not attempt to grab the first Unix-root partition it
sees, because (I should have remembered this) it specifically requires the
root device and partition as one of its boot parameters.

And one last question: Think there's any chance of using something akin
to LILO, the Rhapsody dual-booter, or OpenFirmware for selecting an OS
at start-up, once MacLinux and MacBSD can both boot without the help of
MacOS?  Just trying to plan for the future... =)
-jope

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