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Date: Wed, 23 Aug 1995 01:26:05 +1000
From: Bruce Evans <bde@zeta.org.au>
Message-Id: <199508221526.BAA13856@godzilla.zeta.org.au>
To: bde@zeta.org.au, msmith@atrad.adelaide.edu.au
Subject: Re: Using space in a DOS filesystem
Cc: hackers@freebsd.org
Sender: hackers-owner@freebsd.org
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>> >But if the slab _is_ the boot device, how do we read the tools from it?
>> 
>> With difficulty.  Don't boot from it.

>That more or less rules that approach out completely.  We're trying to
>do an ersatz partition that can do everything a "real" partition does.
>That's going to have to include booting.

The standard boot loader isn't going to work on it unless it is partition
(within another partition :-().

>> It would be relatively easy to check the partition once you have located
>> it.  You might be able to boot from the DOS file system, run some

>I can understand that.  How would you feel about being able to recognise
>one of these ersatz partitions if the info were passed in to the kernel 
>at bootstrap time?

The mount of root would probably fail if the partition was invalid.  I
guess you could put the partition boundaries in the data for the program
replaces the standard boot loader.  How are you going to select where
to boot from?  Standard boot managers should be able to handle the
partition within a partition method (:-().

Bruce