Date: Wed, 21 Jan 1998 14:22:30 +0100 (CET) From: Andrzej Bialecki <abial@nask.pl> To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Cc: jkh@freebsd.org Subject: Setting root device Message-ID: <Pine.NEB.3.95.980121140336.7908A-100000@korin.warman.org.pl>
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Hi!
Is there some generic way to set the root device from bootblock?
Presently, if I'm correct, we have two choices:
* ask for root device (btw., how strange that this code is tied to
swapgeneric.c and "swap on" config clause, not the "root on"...)
* set default (compiled in)
(I'm not talking about _startup_ device, but about where do I look for
root to mount it).
What I'd like to see is to have an option to explicitly set the rootdev,
and not have it interpreted by bootblock.
The problem I have is with the new Intel mb, Dakota. I have an ATAPI
CD-ROM on channel 0 (no other IDE disks whatsoever), set as non-bootable
in BIOS, and only one SCSI disk on channel 0 of 7895. BUT... I can never
automatically mount root because the bootblock thinks I'm booting off of
the wd(0,a), and of course the kernel doesn't find it's root after that
(because in fact it was booted from sd(0,a)). Why is it so?
Anyway, I'd like to be able to set something like "rootdev=da0a" in boot
prompt, and to have it interpreted by kernel (which knows better what to
do with this string, as by this time it has already found a da0 disk).
Any ideas?
And the second thing: I attach the patch which IMHO can help with using
"-a" option from bootblock.
And the third one: why '-a' does not have precedence over booting from
compiled-in MFS? I noticed that if I have an MFS in kernel (and the kernel
has support for swapgeneric) '-a' is silently ignored...
Andrzej Bialecki
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abial@warman.org.pl | if(halt_per_mth > 0) { fetch("http://www.freebsd.org") }
Research & Academic | "Be open-minded, but don't let your brains to fall out."
Network in Poland | All of the above (and more) is just my personal opinion.
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