From owner-freebsd-arch Fri Oct 25 16:55:31 2002 Delivered-To: freebsd-arch@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3CBBB37B401 for ; Fri, 25 Oct 2002 16:55:30 -0700 (PDT) Received: from mailman.zeta.org.au (mailman.zeta.org.au [203.26.10.16]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id AAD0E43E4A for ; Fri, 25 Oct 2002 16:55:28 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from bde@zeta.org.au) Received: from bde.zeta.org.au (bde.zeta.org.au [203.2.228.102]) by mailman.zeta.org.au (8.9.3/8.8.7) with ESMTP id JAA19960; Sat, 26 Oct 2002 09:55:03 +1000 Date: Sat, 26 Oct 2002 10:06:14 +1000 (EST) From: Bruce Evans X-X-Sender: bde@gamplex.bde.org To: Terry Lambert Cc: Mark Valentine , Julian Elischer , Poul-Henning Kamp , "M. Warner Losh" , Subject: Re: cvs commit: src/lib/libdisk Makefile chunk.c write_alpha_disk.c write_i386_disk.c write_pc98_disk.c In-Reply-To: <3DB9D2A6.5FBF0CE9@mindspring.com> Message-ID: <20021026095818.B5924-100000@gamplex.bde.org> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-freebsd-arch@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG On Fri, 25 Oct 2002, Terry Lambert wrote: > Mark Valentine wrote: > > > I fail to see how using ad0a makes it play better with other systems. > > > > Because DOS doesn't refer to its partition by its index in the MBR partition > > table, and apparently some tools therefore feel free to reorder the table on > > a whim. This is a bug in the tools, so they belong in the same bin as BIOSes that interpret the MBR. > > /dev/ad0a results in a method of locating the partition which is closer to > > the DOS algorithm, and therefore survives this. > > > > /dev/ad0s1a makes an incorrect assumption about the MBR partition table index > > being fixed, and therefore blows up. > > OK, say we buy this. > > How does the DOS algorithm distiguisch between partitions, if not by > the order in the table? Not. IIRC, it doesn't permit multiple primary DOS partitions, but logical drives just move around if you add one in the middle. Since DOS doesn't have anything like mount, you get to edit C: and D: in numerous config files instead of just in fstab when the drives move. Bruce To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-arch" in the body of the message