Subject: Re: A new partition handling scheme: wedges
To: Charles M. Hannum <mycroft@mit.edu>
From: Jason Thorpe <thorpej@nas.nasa.gov>
List: tech-kern
Date: 01/26/1998 10:55:25
On 26 Jan 1998 06:54:44 -0500
mycroft@mit.edu (Charles M. Hannum) wrote:
> BTW, something I didn't mention before is that, regardless of anything
> else we do, I believe we should, on systems that have MBRs, do
> essentially the same thing Linux does (and that the Amiga port does in
> RDB) -- have special MBR partition types for `NetBSD root', `NetBSD
> swap', and `other NetBSD file system' -- and provide the old
> partitioning system only as a fallback for compatibility.
>
> The parsing rules on the i386 port would be:
>
> * If there is no MBR, look for a label.
>
> * If there is a MBR with a type 0xa5 partition, read the label from
> that (for compatibility).
>
> * If there is a MBR with no type 0xa5 partition, look for type 0xa7
> (NetBSD root), 0xa8 (NetBSD swap), and 0xa9 (other NetBSD file
> system), and generate an internal `label' based on that.
Wouldn't that limit the number of parititions you can have?
Jason R. Thorpe thorpej@nas.nasa.gov
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