I got my 3.9 Cdrom set yesterday and today started installing it on an external usb disk so as not to wipe out my existing 3.8 setup. When I got to the disk partition, I erased the existing 'a' partition (dos) and created a new bsd 'a' partition. The partition had a default offset of 32 which looked odd to me, so I changed it to 64 and sized it to 1G. Then I created a 'b' partition. Again, the default offset was 32. That looked even odder to me, so I aborted the installation. A dmesg of the 3.8 boot (with external usb drive attached) follows at the end of this post.
So is it possible to install 3.9 on an external usb drive and then to boot from that drive? Is the default 32 offset for a and b partitions on the usb drive correct? (I don't think so, but I am asking anyways since I have not used usb hard drives with OpenBSD before). Thanks, Dave Feustel -- OpenBSD 3.8 (GENERIC) #138: Sat Sep 10 15:41:37 MDT 2005 [EMAIL PROTECTED]:/usr/src/sys/arch/i386/compile/GENERIC cpu0: Intel Pentium III ("GenuineIntel" 686-class) 797 MHz cpu0: FPU,V86,DE,PSE,TSC,MSR,PAE,MCE,CX8,SEP,MTRR,PGE,MCA,CMOV,PAT,PSE36,MMX,FXSR,SSE real mem = 536190976 (523624K) avail mem = 482353152 (471048K) using 4278 buffers containing 26910720 bytes (26280K) of memory mainbus0 (root) bios0 at mainbus0: AT/286+(00) BIOS, date 09/17/01, BIOS32 rev. 0 @ 0xfda74 apm0 at bios0: Power Management spec V1.2 apm0: AC on, battery charge unknown apm0: flags 30102 dobusy 0 doidle 1 pcibios0 at bios0: rev 2.1 @ 0xf0000/0x10000 pcibios0: PCI IRQ Routing Table rev 1.0 @ 0xf2c30/224 (12 entries) pcibios0: PCI Interrupt Router at 000:31:0 ("Intel 82371FB ISA" rev 0x00) pcibios0: PCI bus #3 is the last bus bios0: ROM list: 0xc0000/0xb000 0xcb000/0x800 cpu0 at mainbus0 pci0 at mainbus0 bus 0: configuration mode 1 (no bios) pchb0 at pci0 dev 0 function 0 "Intel 82815 Hub" rev 0x02: rng active, 7Kb/sec ppb0 at pci0 dev 1 function 0 "Intel 82815 AGP" rev 0x02 pci1 at ppb0 bus 1 vga1 at pci1 dev 0 function 0 "ATI Rage Fury" rev 0x00 wsdisplay0 at vga1 mux 1: console (80x25, vt100 emulation) wsdisplay0: screen 1-5 added (80x25, vt100 emulation) ppb1 at pci0 dev 30 function 0 "Intel 82801BA AGP" rev 0x02 pci2 at ppb1 bus 2 xl0 at pci2 dev 10 function 0 "3Com 3c905C 100Base-TX" rev 0x78: irq 3, address 00:01:03:23:4c:b3 bmtphy0 at xl0 phy 24: Broadcom 3C905C internal PHY, rev. 7 ohci0 at pci2 dev 11 function 0 "NEC USB" rev 0x41: irq 11, version 1.0 usb0 at ohci0: USB revision 1.0 uhub0 at usb0 uhub0: NEC OHCI root hub, rev 1.00/1.00, addr 1 uhub0: 3 ports with 3 removable, self powered ohci1 at pci2 dev 11 function 1 "NEC USB" rev 0x41: irq 9, version 1.0 usb1 at ohci1: USB revision 1.0 uhub1 at usb1 uhub1: NEC OHCI root hub, rev 1.00/1.00, addr 1 uhub1: 2 ports with 2 removable, self powered ehci0 at pci2 dev 11 function 2 "NEC USB" rev 0x01: irq 11 usb2 at ehci0: USB revision 2.0 uhub2 at usb2 uhub2: NEC EHCI root hub, rev 2.00/1.00, addr 1 uhub2: 5 ports with 5 removable, self powered ppb2 at pci2 dev 12 function 0 "Texas Instruments PCI2250 PCI-PCI" rev 0x02 pci3 at ppb2 bus 3 sis0 at pci3 dev 0 function 0 "NS DP83815 10/100" rev 0x00: DP83816A, irq 9, address 00:00:24:c3:4c:c0 nsphyter0 at sis0 phy 0: DP83815 10/100 PHY, rev. 1 sis1 at pci3 dev 1 function 0 "NS DP83815 10/100" rev 0x00: DP83816A, irq 11, address 00:00:24:c3:4c:c1 nsphyter1 at sis1 phy 0: DP83815 10/100 PHY, rev. 1 sis2 at pci3 dev 2 function 0 "NS DP83815 10/100" rev 0x00: DP83816A, irq 3, address 00:00:24:c3:4c:c2 nsphyter2 at sis2 phy 0: DP83815 10/100 PHY, rev. 1 sis3 at pci3 dev 3 function 0 "NS DP83815 10/100" rev 0x00: DP83816A, irq 11, address 00:00:24:c3:4c:c3 nsphyter3 at sis3 phy 0: DP83815 10/100 PHY, rev. 1 eap0 at pci2 dev 13 function 0 "Ensoniq AudioPCI97" rev 0x07: irq 11 ac97: codec id 0x83847608 (SigmaTel STAC9708/11) ac97: codec features 18 bit DAC, 18 bit ADC, SigmaTel 3D audio0 at eap0 midi0 at eap0: <AudioPCI MIDI UART> ichpcib0 at pci0 dev 31 function 0 "Intel 82801BA LPC" rev 0x02 pciide0 at pci0 dev 31 function 1 "Intel 82801BA IDE" rev 0x02: DMA, channel 0 wired to compatibility, channel 1 wired to compatibility wd0 at pciide0 channel 0 drive 1: <MAXTOR 6L080J4> wd0: 16-sector PIO, LBA, 76345MB, 156355584 sectors wd0(pciide0:0:1): using PIO mode 4, Ultra-DMA mode 5 atapiscsi0 at pciide0 channel 1 drive 0 scsibus0 at atapiscsi0: 2 targets cd0 at scsibus0 targ 0 lun 0: <SAMSUNG, DVD-ROM SD-612, 0.5> SCSI0 5/cdrom removable atapiscsi1 at pciide0 channel 1 drive 1 scsibus1 at atapiscsi1: 2 targets cd1 at scsibus1 targ 0 lun 0: <LITE-ON, DVDRW SOHW-812S, US05> SCSI0 5/cdrom removable cd0(pciide0:1:0): using PIO mode 4, Ultra-DMA mode 2 cd1(pciide0:1:1): using PIO mode 4, Ultra-DMA mode 2 uhci0 at pci0 dev 31 function 2 "Intel 82801BA USB" rev 0x02: irq 10 usb3 at uhci0: USB revision 1.0 uhub3 at usb3 uhub3: Intel UHCI root hub, rev 1.00/1.00, addr 1 uhub3: 2 ports with 2 removable, self powered "Intel 82801BA SMBus" rev 0x02 at pci0 dev 31 function 3 not configured isa0 at ichpcib0 isadma0 at isa0 pckbc0 at isa0 port 0x60/5 pckbd0 at pckbc0 (kbd slot) pckbc0: using irq 1 for kbd slot wskbd0 at pckbd0: console keyboard, using wsdisplay0 pmsi0 at pckbc0 (aux slot) pckbc0: using irq 12 for aux slot wsmouse0 at pmsi0 mux 0 pcppi0 at isa0 port 0x61 midi1 at pcppi0: <PC speaker> spkr0 at pcppi0 sysbeep0 at pcppi0 lpt0 at isa0 port 0x378/4 irq 7 npx0 at isa0 port 0xf0/16: using exception 16 pccom0 at isa0 port 0x3f8/8 irq 4: ns16550a, 16 byte fifo fdc0 at isa0 port 0x3f0/6 irq 6 drq 2 fd0 at fdc0 drive 0: 1.44MB 80 cyl, 2 head, 18 sec biomask ef65 netmask ef6d ttymask ffef pctr: 686-class user-level performance counters enabled mtrr: Pentium Pro MTRR support umass0 at uhub2 port 4 configuration 1 interface 0 umass0: Western Digital External HDD, rev 2.00/2.40, addr 2 umass0: using SCSI over Bulk-Only scsibus2 at umass0: 2 targets sd0 at scsibus2 targ 1 lun 0: <WDC WD60, 0UE-22HCT0, 0000> SCSI0 0/direct fixed sd0: 57231MB, 57231 cyl, 64 head, 32 sec, 512 bytes/sec, 117210240 sec total dkcsum: wd0 matches BIOS drive 0x80 root on wd0a rootdev=0x0 rrootdev=0x300 rawdev=0x302 /home/daf}