Re: NetBSD 6.0Beta and 6.0Beta2 on hpcarm doesn't create a fdisk partition during install

[David Laight <david%l8s.co.uk@localhost>]

On Sat, Jul 14, 2012 at 03:12:30AM -0400, jmitchel%bigjar.com@localhost wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I've noticed a slight issue with 6.0BETA and 6.0BETA2. After doing an
> install on a new CF card, here's what we get:
> 
> --------------
> fdisk /dev/wd0
> --------------
...
> Partition table:
> 0: Primary 'big' DOS, 16-bit FAT (> 32MB) (sysid 6)
>     start 8192, size 80325 (39 MB, Cyls 0/130/3-5/130/2), Active
> 1: <UNUSED>
> 2: <UNUSED>
> 3: <UNUSED>
> First active partition: 0
> -----------------
> 
> The surprising part is that NetBSD 6.0 BETA & BETA2 can run on this flash
> card. Part of that is because hpcarm uses Windows CE to load the NetBSD
> kernel. But there is a disklabel somewhere. Here's what disklabel says:
> 
> ------------------
> disklabel /dev/wd0
> ------------------
...
> 16 partitions:
> #        size    offset     fstype [fsize bsize cpg/sgs]
>  a:   7863408     88517     4.2BSD   2048 16384     0  # (Cyl.     87*-7888*)
>  b:    263275   7951925       swap                     # (Cyl.   7888*-8149)
>  c:   8126683     88517     unused      0     0        # (Cyl.     87*-8149)
>  d:   8215200         0     unused      0     0        # (Cyl.      0 -8149)
>  e:     80325      8192      MSDOS                     # (Cyl.      8*-87*)
> ---------------------

I'd guess that the disklabel is somewhere in sector 0 or 1.
IIRC 'disklabel -rvvv /dev/wd0a' will tell you where the label is found.

For a variety of reasons different NetBSD ports keep the disklabel in
different places.
To allow media be moved at least some systems play 'hunt the disklabel'.

In this case it looks like exactly what you wanted - I guess you've
moved a disk from hparm to x86.

There is a problem with the partitions 'c' and 'd' though. 'c' is
traditionally the whole disk, the first x86 ports used mbr partition
relative sectors - so 'c' would refer to the 'netbsd part of the disk'.
Then it was changed to use absolute sectors and 'd' got pinched as well
for 'really all of the disk'.
This is a problem if you move a disk from sparc (where 'd' is a user
partition) to x86.

        David

-- 
David Laight: david%l8s.co.uk@localhost