> > 	Yep. I am still fiddling with trying to compile the NetBSD
> > filesystem code under MacOS. I have some crashing related to the
> > memory allocation pool stuff, but I cannot track it down.
> 
> Gag.  I remember that in the installer,

	Now you are going back - this is well before my time :-)

> we basically disabled the disk
> buffers because we couldn't get them to work--that's one reason the
> Installer's painfully slow.

	I am trying to create BSDfs and ALOTUK(*) libs to try and
speed up the Installer, as well as allow the Booter to support other
filesystem types.

(* A Lot Of The Unix Kernel ;-)



> Are you still using CW?

	Yes. The only thing I could find to compile long longs was
CW11 or later. The debugger seems to indicate that arguments are
sometimes not being passed correctly, but it may be a problem with
the 68k code emulation in the debugger.

	I cannot justify an upgrade to a later (Pro) version of CW
(the mortage is a higher priority). I would use a GNU product in
an instant if there was a decent way to debug.


...
> >  even better would be writing an A/UX partition containing the
> >  bootblock, so that we may be able to have a Mac boot from it
> >  _without_ a Booter.
...
> Yeah.  That's the direction I'd like to eventually go.  Going to an
> installboot (awesome, Bill!) is step one.  Getting as much information
> out of the booter/kernel interface as possible is step two.

	I have been thinking about this for about a year. I reckon
that whatever program or kernel writes the bootblock should also
write a copy of the Booter environment string buffer.

Con: It would tie the disk to that particular machine's MACHID
     (and maybe its video settings and memory size)

Pro: It would mean that current kernels could be booted this way
     (i.e. they wouldn't need to know how to work out all the
	   stuff that the MacOS/Booter pair currently provide)

-- 
| Nigel Pearson, nigel@ind.tansu.com.au | "Reality is that which,   |
|    Telstra NWD, Sydney, Australia.    |  when you stop believing  |
| Office: 9206 3468    Fax:  9212 6329  |  in it, doesn't go away." |
| Mobile: 0408 664435  Home: 9792 6998  | Philip K. Dick - 'Valis.' |