Messages in this thread | | | From | roque@di ... | Subject | Re: Any "file" utility for partitions? | Date | Wed, 27 Mar 1996 13:32:23 +0100 |
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>>>>> "Andries" == Andries Brouwer <Andries.Brouwer@cwi.nl> writes:
Andries> Bjorn Ekwall: : Let me tell you what I want to do with Andries> this utility:
Andries> : When booting a system enhanced with bzImage and initrd Andries> I would : like to be able to scan a large set of possible Andries> partitions. : If a partition is readable, I would like Andries> to be able to find : out more precisely what type it is, Andries> so that I can more or less : automatically find the Andries> _real_ root partition without having to : encode this in Andries> the initrd image, or having to pass an argument : to the Andries> boot-mechanism (lilo, loadlin, whatever...).
Andries> Horrors! That is not the way to write system software. Andries> How are you going to distinguish my root partition from Andries> the backup that I made last month (before doing something Andries> dangerous) with "dd if=/dev/hdc3 of=/dev/sda9" ? How are Andries> you going to distinguish between my five root partitions Andries> that all occur in /etc/lilo.conf ?
Andries> If you want to find the root partition, then read all Andries> type 83 partitions, and check for the presence of Andries> /etc/passwd. That will work for 80% of the people. But Andries> I am not going to run such software.
I'm used to Solaris systems reporting "last mounted on /path" while fscking an unmounted device... I suppose that the superblock keeps track of the last mounted path...
Then two things can happen: a) you have only one dev with a last mounted as /root and you try mounting it as root...
b) you have more than one dev in that condition... the smartest thing a "smart" boot system can do in this condition would be IMHO to require user choice...
regards, Pedro.
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