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SubjectRe: CONFIG_BSD_DISKLABEL
Date
Marc Espie <espie@quatramaran.ens.fr> writes:

> >When I looked in the partition table files for NetBSD, I found this
> >line:
> >
> >#define DOSPTYP_NETBSD 0xa9 /* NetBSD partition type */
> >
> >It would be appreciated if this ID would also make it to the header
> >files.
>
> Iick !!!! Not like that. If the netbsd people changed their partition
> type, there's likely to be a reason behind that.
>
> For OpenBSD, we changed the partition type because disklabel did change
> the disk layout slightly (meaning of a, b, c, d partitions) AND because
> we increased the number of partitions (seen OPENBSD_MAXPARTITIONS ?):
> the change was needed, as it was otherwise impossible to install both
> netbsd/freebsd and openbsd on the same machine (net/free was getting
> confused).
>
> You have to assume that netbsd did not change its partition type
> gratuitously. Find the reason behind the change, check that it does NOT affect
> things from the linux point of view (since linux only has to link the
> partitions in its partition list --- not have to rely on them for booting).

The primary reason NetBSD changed the partition type number is because
many NetBSD/i386 developers like to have both NetBSD and FreeBSD on
the same machine for testing, and having to edit the partition table
to switch from one OS to the other was a pain. AFAIK no change was
made to the disklabel structure.

> Otherwise, blindly recognizing 0xa9 as netbsd is likely to break a few disks...

If the disk contains NetBSD 1.3.3 or later, it won't be a problem.

--
Mirian Crzig Lennox Systems Anarchist
"There's a New World Order coming every minute.
Make mine extra cheese."

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