> In article <199903171103.naa13...@ceia.nordier.com> you wrote: > > Søren Schmidt wrote: > > > >> OK, easy enough, this is what I want to do: > >> > >> Boot from an ata disk on major# 30, device name "ad", plain and simple. > > > > I'd be inclined to handle this outside the boot code, by treating the > > passed in major# as describing the device rather than specifying > > the driver. > > Why not have the boot blocks pass in a device 'name' rather than a > major number. If the goal is to ditch major numbers entirely with > a properly working DEVFS, then using major numbers in the new boot > loader seems to be the wrong way to go. Until DEVFS is a reality, > the kernel will still need to perform a name to major number translation, > but it should be left up to the kernel.
Because there's no way to work out a name either. All the loader has to go on is the BIOS unit number and the disklabel, the latter of which can't be relied on to be up-to-date (ie. it reflects what the disk was when it was laid out, not what some nominal kernel is going to call it). The *only* way for this to work is for the kernel to hunt for the root device, possibly with some helping hints from the loader. -- \\ Sometimes you're ahead, \\ Mike Smith \\ sometimes you're behind. \\ m...@smith.net.au \\ The race is long, and in the \\ msm...@freebsd.org \\ end it's only with yourself. \\ msm...@cdrom.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majord...@freebsd.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message
