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Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!munnari.oz.au!news.Hawaii.Edu!ames!agate!library.ucla.edu!news.mic.ucla.edu!magnesium.club.cc.cmu.edu!news.sei.cmu.edu!bb3.andrew.cmu.edu!andrew.cmu.edu!cd27+ From: Christopher Dalton <cd27+@andrew.cmu.edu> Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.questions Subject: [SUMMARY] NetBSD-0.9 partitioning Date: Thu, 2 Sep 1993 20:59:19 -0400 Organization: Doctoral student, Mathematics, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA Lines: 44 Message-ID: <747017959.22507.0@unix10.andrew.cmu.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: andrew.cmu.edu Thanks to everyone that replied. Since several people sent me mail saying they also wanted the answers, I thought I would post a summary. Late last night, I wrote: >Please pardon me for having no clue: > >1. When I use fdisk to create a partition for NetBSD, what kind of >partition should I create? Fdisk wont create a non-dos partition >... ? > >2. Fdisk doesn't tell me the offset or precise size, how do I >figure them out? (It doesn't mention cylinders at all, only K.) > >3. I should make the partition of type 0xA5 with a partition >editor; where can I find one (ftp)? > >4. Why can't NetBSD use the same install procedure as 386BSD (which >didn't require a clue)? Answers: 1,2,3. Get a nice partition editor such as 'pfdisk' (Available at uceng.uc.edu in /pub/wuarchive/systems/linux/INSTALL/dos_utils and doubtless many other places). Use it to create the partition. Said program works in cyls (not Megs or % or other fuzzy stuff), and there is no problem writing whatever you want for the partition type (in this case decimal 165). If you write down the information from the pfdisk "l" command, you will have all the numbers you need to follow the installation notes. 4. Because the 386BSD installation procedure sucks the big wazoo. Basically the 386BSD procedure is inflexible, not allowing to user to choose swap partition size or much of anything. Could a procedure be written that is as flexible as NetBSD and as nice as 386BSD? Prolly. Is it a priority? Not for me to decide. (There has been some debate about installation in this group.) Note: shouldn't pfdisk or something similar be put in .../NetBSD-0.9/utilities ?