From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Jul 21 22:38:37 2005 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0B26C16A421 for ; Thu, 21 Jul 2005 22:38:37 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from ross@axe.homelinux.net) Received: from smtp-out6.blueyonder.co.uk (smtp-out6.blueyonder.co.uk [195.188.213.9]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 011B843DA3 for ; Thu, 21 Jul 2005 22:38:18 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from ross@axe.homelinux.net) Received: from lucy.axe.homelinux.net ([82.36.124.90]) by smtp-out6.blueyonder.co.uk with Microsoft SMTPSVC(5.0.2195.6713); Thu, 21 Jul 2005 23:39:01 +0100 Received: from [192.168.0.3] (purplehaze [192.168.0.3]) by lucy.axe.homelinux.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7133C47584; Thu, 21 Jul 2005 23:38:16 +0100 (BST) Message-ID: <42E023D5.3050506@axe.homelinux.net> Date: Thu, 21 Jul 2005 23:38:13 +0100 From: Ross Kendall Axe User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird 1.0.5 (X11/20050711) X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Lowell Gilbert References: <42DC1173.6020307@axe.homelinux.net> <42DEB7CC.7070003@axe.homelinux.net> <44wtnki6bt.fsf@be-well.ilk.org> In-Reply-To: <44wtnki6bt.fsf@be-well.ilk.org> X-Enigmail-Version: 0.92.0.0 OpenPGP: url=http://www.rossaxe.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/.pgpkey Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-OriginalArrivalTime: 21 Jul 2005 22:39:01.0882 (UTC) FILETIME=[FDEA05A0:01C58E44] Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: /boot on a separate partition X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 21 Jul 2005 22:38:37 -0000 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Lowell Gilbert wrote: > Ross Kendall Axe writes: > > >>Garance A Drosihn wrote: >> >>>At 9:30 PM +0100 7/18/05, Ross Kendall Axe wrote: >>> >>> >>>>... I want to place the /boot directory in a small 25MB partition >>>>at the start of the drive. Setting up the partition with sysinstall >>>>is easy enough, but does anyone have any suggestions of how to >>>>diddle the bootloader to accept this configuration? >>> >>> >>>I doubt you can on FreeBSD. The problem is that the OS would have >>>to mount both / and /boot before it could do anything, and FreeBSD >>>doesn't do that. It assumes the partition that you are loading >>>from is '/', and uses that to find (for instance) /etc/fstab so >>>it can find out what the other partitions are. >> >>I would have though that putting '/sbin/mount /boot' at the start of the >>/etc/rc would sort that out. Surely the contents of /lib, /bin and >>/sbin are enough to get you that far? > > > The kernel has to be loaded *first*. Yes, by the bootloader, which _can_ read /boot :-) I think I misunderstood Garance's post. I took it to mean that given /, the kernel has no way to find /boot, which seems untrue to me. Re-reading it, I think he meant that given /boot (which the kernel assumes is /) it has no way to find the correct /. Bear in mind that my experience is with Linux, where the location of / is given on the kernel's command line (or hardcoded into the kernel) and thus need not be the same partition that holds the kernel. My understanding (now) is that FreeBSD assumes that the partition the kernel was loaded from is /. Ross -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.7 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Thunderbird - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFC4CPU9bR4xmappRARAp8JAJ9isKClgSJaW9NY+hcobSa6rlmWrQCg3Vj4 hq5aRhkQ8ToN2yUmYwmPPSQ= =kxsD -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----