In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> you write: > > The NetBSD loader is, unsurprisingly, not subject to this restriction. I'd > be tempted to go with packaging this and using it as our primary boot > mechanism unless anyone objects. The one problem I can think of is that it > stores the bootcode in /boot, which is a directory under Linux systems. Do > we want to leave /boot as a directory and move the BSD bootcode in there > (presumably patching things slightly in the process) or leave it as is? > >the location of "/boot" as a file is pretty irrelevant for i386. when >"installboot" is run, it hard codes the inodes for it into the 2nd >stage loader (biosboot.sym) and reloads it. so when you run installboot >you can simply give it a pathname other than "/boot" and it will use it >when it comes to booting. > >to be honest, i've slowly come to appreciate /boot as a directory.
FreeBSD has a directory /boot too (in -STABLE it holds the stage 3 loader and its configuration, and in -CURRENT i believe the kernel(s) and modules have moved in there too). So it would seem sensible to make NetBSD follow the others. (Does NetBSD/i386 not use /usr/mdec any more?) Tony.