How does FreeBSD access NetBSD, OpenBSD?

[Loren M. Lang]

On Fri, Jan 28, 2005 at 12:41:28PM -0500, Jerry McAllister wrote:
> > 
> >      On Fri, 28 Jan 2005 11:18:55 -0500 (EST) Jerry McAllister
> > <jerrymc at clunix.cl.msu.edu> wrote:
> > >> 
> > >> I have FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and NetBSD on the same hard drive of my system.
> > >> How can I mount the NetBSD or OpenBSD partitions from FreeBSD?
> > >> 
> > >> Slice 1 - Ext3fs for data between linux/bsd
> > >> Slice 2 - OpenBSD slice with 4 ufs partitions and swap (a,b,e,f,g)
> > >> Slice 3 - FreeBSD slice with 4 ufs partitions and swap (a,b,d,e,f)
> > >> Slice 4 - Extended slice composed of:
> > >>    Slice 5 - NetBSD slice with 4 ufs partitions and swap (a,b,e,f,g)
> > >>    Slice 6 - Unformatted as of yet.
> > >
> > >Hmmm,  First thing I see is that only 4 slices are allowed on a drive.
> > 
> >      Not true.  In fact, I have 8 slices on one of my drives.  The slice
> > entries in the Master Boot Record, wherein they are known as "primary
> > partition" entries, are four in number, but one of those four can point,
> > instead of to a "partition" (i.e., "slice" in UNIX terms), to a chain of
> > "logical partition" table entries, known collectively as the "extended
> > partition".  The FreeBSD kernel appears to have no trouble with this at
> > all.
> 
> Well, somebody else has already posted a better answer than mine.
> So, problem solved.
> 
> But, geez, I would hate to deal with all that much complication on 
> one disk.   Extra disks are too cheap to get in to it that deep.

But then I'll need more IDE controllers, and my PCI slots are already
filled with other toys.

> 
> ////jerry
> 
> 
> >      The main limitation w.r.t. FreeBSD is that the slice containing the
> > bootable root file system must be a "primary" rather than a "logical".
> > This limitation probably means that FreeBSD's boot loader isn't smart
> > enough to understand and follow the logical partition/slice chain to
> > locate the file system containing the kernel to be loaded.  From what
> > I've read, LINUX's LILO boot loader *can* do this.  Perhaps the FreeBSD
> > loader will be made smarter someday, but I'd guess that would be a low-
> > priority item on the developer team's to-do list.
> > 
> > 
> >                                   Scott Bennett, Comm. ASMELG, CFIAG
> > **********************************************************************
> > * Internet:       bennett at cs.niu.edu                              *
> > *--------------------------------------------------------------------*
> > * "A well regulated and disciplined militia, is at all times a good  *
> > * objection to the introduction of that bane of all free governments *
> > * -- a standing army."                                               *
> > *    -- Gov. John Hancock, New York Journal, 28 January 1790         *
> > **********************************************************************
> > 

-- 
I sense much NT in you.
NT leads to Bluescreen.
Bluescreen leads to downtime.
Downtime leads to suffering.
NT is the path to the darkside.
Powerful Unix is.

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