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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.mel.connect.com.au!munnari.OZ.AU!news.ecn.uoknor.edu!paladin.american.edu!zombie.ncsc.mil!news.mathworks.com!newsfeed.internetmci.com!news.msfc.nasa.gov!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!startide.ctr.columbia.edu!wpaul From: wpaul@ctr.columbia.edu (Bill Paul) Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Subject: Re: Booting from primary disk on secondary PCI IDE controller Date: 31 Dec 1995 18:39:35 GMT Organization: Columbia University Center for Telecommunications Research Lines: 86 Message-ID: <4c6ld7$46p@sol.ctr.columbia.edu> References: <4c1avr$73@daneel.sds.no> <4c30sb$p1l@uriah.heep.sax.de> <4c5u6j$3k0_001@gifu.sds.no> NNTP-Posting-Host: startide.ctr.columbia.edu X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2] Daring to challenge the will of the almighty Leviam00se, Tore Haraldsen (toreh@bootes.sds.no) had the courage to say: : In article <4c30sb$p1l@uriah.heep.sax.de>, : j@uriah.heep.sax.de (J Wunsch) wrote: : > : >Modify the code for the bootblocks in sys/i386/boot/biosboot/boot.c, : >remake the bootblocks, and the disklabel -B -b boot1 -s boot2 fd0 : >in order to install the new blocks on your floppy. : > : What about the -a option to the kernel, can it be made to work? : I do not have an up and runnning system, so it is a bit hard for me to look : into myself... : -- tore The -a option only works if you compile your kernel with: config kernel swap generic instead of: config kernel root on wd0/sd0/whatever This causes config(8) to use /sys/i386/i386/swapgeneric.c rather than auto-generating a unique swapkernel.c file with explixit root fs assignments. Unfortunately, I don't think swapgeneric works in 2.1.0. Right before 2.0.5 came out, the swapon code in the kernel was changed in a way which broke it. It used to be that swapgeneric would simply assign swapdev to be the 'b' partition on whatever the boot device was and then let the swapon code mount it further down the line. (This is a bit of a simplification, but it's close enough for the sake of discussion.) Later, swapon was changed to accept the _name_ of a device rather than a major/minor number and to (in the future) allow an arbitrary number of swap devices. (The table of devices was supposed to be dynamically allocated, but it isn't yet.) The main point of this excersize was to allow the install floppy to mount a swap partition that wasn't going to exist until after you punched the 'Commit' button. Unfortunately, it was decided that swapgeneric didn't need to be updated to handle these changes, so it languished. I hacked on it a couple months ago to make it compile again, but it no longer does any swap device assignments. (I tried to make it work like it did previously, but I ended up making far too many changes before I even got close, so I quit while I was behind.) It does let you specify a root device, however, which is its one remaining saving grace. What I would dearly love to do, had I the time (ha!), is to modify it so that: a) it understands slices b) it would work with CD-ROMs, thereby allowing you to boot with a CD as your rootfs (I wasn't able to work on this at all until recently, since I only just got a system with a CD-ROM drive in it) b) it would understand NFS, thereby allowing you to boot diskless without having to use netboot (this would also allow you to use any of the sup[ported network cards rather than the limited number that netboot knows about) d) allow you to set a swap device and the dump device in addition to a root device Assuming I did it correctly, you could also add support for setting all of the same things from userconfig without too much additional trouble. I think. I say this because it would allow the settings to be saved with dset just like all the other userconfig variables. I think I'll make this my next project once I'm finished with all the NIS stuff. It'll make swapgeneric incredibly useful and ruin all the plans people have to get rid of it. :) -Bill -- ============================================================================= -Bill Paul (212) 854-6020 | System Manager Work: wpaul@ctr.columbia.edu | Center for Telecommunications Research Home: wpaul@skynet.ctr.columbia.edu | Columbia University, New York City ============================================================================= License error: The license for this .sig file has expired. You must obtain a new license key before any more witty phrases will appear in this space. =============================================================================