From owner-freebsd-current Sat Oct 14 4:20:47 2000 Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Received: from mail.gmx.net (pop.gmx.net [194.221.183.20]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 9981437B66C for ; Sat, 14 Oct 2000 04:20:43 -0700 (PDT) Received: (qmail 6395 invoked by uid 0); 14 Oct 2000 11:20:39 -0000 Received: from p3ee21638.dip.t-dialin.net (HELO speedy.gsinet) (62.226.22.56) by mail.gmx.net with SMTP; 14 Oct 2000 11:20:39 -0000 Received: (from sittig@localhost) by speedy.gsinet (8.8.8/8.8.8) id MAA29141 for current@FreeBSD.ORG; Sat, 14 Oct 2000 12:35:59 +0200 Date: Sat, 14 Oct 2000 12:35:58 +0200 From: Gerhard Sittig To: current@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: /boot partition? Message-ID: <20001014123558.K25237@speedy.gsinet> Mail-Followup-To: current@FreeBSD.ORG References: <14822.65148.853175.915459@guru.mired.org> <20001013111125.A318@peorth.iteration.net> <39E735BD.8BDA697C@FreeBSD.org> <14823.18636.646339.740562@guru.mired.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Mailer: Mutt 1.0i In-Reply-To: <14823.18636.646339.740562@guru.mired.org>; from mwm@mired.org on Fri, Oct 13, 2000 at 12:39:24PM -0500 Organization: System Defenestrators Inc. Sender: owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG On Fri, Oct 13, 2000 at 12:39 -0500, Mike Meyer wrote: > > [ ... separate /boot partition ... ] > > Since you implied a question... > > This is a standard setup for Linux, so Linux people dealing with > problems with the root file system try and make it work in -stable > (with no luck). The best example would be to make /boot one file > system so you can get vinum loaded and running, then have everything > else on a vinum disk. This minimizes the set of things you don't have > on vinum. Since you bring the Linux analogy in ... There's a mechanism used by some Linux distros (strictly speaking: available to all Linux users, but rarely used by default) to have a ramdisk with the kernel and essential drivers. This ramdisk can be handled by many boot managers and the effect is that - you don't need all the drivers you need for booting in the kernel itself -- they can be modules, too - you can have all your fses in software raid configuration and yet survive the boot stage, since the boot kernel won't have a need to touch and handle the raid configuration But I feel that a separate /boot partition will never work when you can't reach the / fs -- where are you going to mount the /boot fs? The idea is always that you have to bring in everything you need to get over the initial steps. Without vinum drivers and setup tools you cannot access vinum volumes. And when the tools live on a vinum volume themselves, you're trapped. That's when you need a separate "selfcontained" mechanism -- like a mfs or ramdisk thing. BTW: One of the most commonly seen failures is to compile a new kernel and not updating the ramdisk needed for booting ... virtually yours 82D1 9B9C 01DC 4FB4 D7B4 61BE 3F49 4F77 72DE DA76 Gerhard Sittig true | mail -s "get gpg key" Gerhard.Sittig@gmx.net -- If you don't understand or are scared by any of the above ask your parents or an adult to help you. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message