Re: BSD Disk labels

["Christopher C. Chimelis" <chris@debian.org>]

On 14 Aug 2001, Falk Hueffner wrote:

> the Debian installation manual says:
> 
> "Another conventional requirement is for the `a' partition to start
> from the beginning of the disk, so that it always includes the boot
> block with the disk label."
> 
> I'm not sure about this paragraph.  If I start it from the very
> beginning of the disk, I'd destroy the partition table when putting a
> file system on it. Also, it'd conflict with aboot. Is this supposed to
> be a dummy entry? If so, we should clarify it, and add a size
> suggestion (say, 5mb).

You're correct -- the installation manual is wrong for Alpha in this
regard.  I'm not sure about the size suggestion, though (I would actually
go with a 2 sector pad, personally).  Chances are, that sentence is a
hold-over from the MILO-only times, btw, when the padding wasn't needed.

C