Re: GNU/Linux, NetBSD and Mac OS X
OS X supports UFS? Which UFS? As in FFS (which open/net/free use)? That's
pretty cool but I figured OS X would have some nifty brand new filesystem.
And no, NetBSD can't use ext2fs as /. Using ext2fs for /home is a good
idea, I use it on my system with Linux and FreeBSD. Only problem is that
FreeBSD can't fsck ext2fs but I think NetBSD can (I haven't gotten NetBSD
to mount any non-bsd partitions yet, I could probably get it too, but I
don't have the time to mess with it yet). Well, I at least know for sure
that NetBSD supports ext2.
HFS support in linux doesn't seem too bad, though I keep my macos
partition
mounted read-only unless I must write to it for some reason. I had a BAD
experience where linux messed up an hfs partition but this was back with a
2.0 kernel and I believe hfs support was refined quite a bit in the 2.2
series and here we are at 2.4. And I have worked with my HFS partition
somewhat with read/write using 2.2 kernels and 2.4 with no trouble at all.
Linux can mount UFS/FFS partitions, and read-write support is
available. But I STRONGLY suggest mounting FFS/UFS partitions read-only,
you can damage the filesystem, and in fact, I have. I've not damaged a
BSD file system, though, if I open a file in a text editor it tends to
corrupt the file (like half the file will be gone). I have killed solaris
filesystems through linux though... Which is of course a UFS, and I don't
know really much at all about OS X's file system. You've been warned.
Hope that info was helpful.
-Cameron
On Tue, 22 May 2001, Ethan Benson wrote:
> On Tue, May 22, 2001 at 12:57:35PM -0700, Matt Brubeck wrote:
> > Hi. I can't answer all of your questions, but here's a start. Good luck!
> >
> > On Tue, 22 May 2001, Edouard G. Parmelan wrote:
> >
> > > - which NetBSD and/or GNU/Linux filesystems Mac OS X support ?
> >
> > I don't know.
>
> MacOSX supports UFS HFS and HFS+. nothing else.
>
> > > - can NetBSD and/or GNU/Linux access to Mac OS X filesystem ?
> >
> > Yes. Currently the best way to do this is with hfsplusutils. These work on
> > both Linux and NetBSD (there are Debian packages available). These are
> > userland tools rather than native kernel support, but they do work.
> >
> > MacOSX UFS is supported read-only by the Linux kernel. I don't know the
> > state of support under NetBSD.
>
> its probably better since the BSDs use UFS anyway.
>
> > > - can NetBSD use an ext2fs partition as / ?
> >
> > I don't know.
>
> i would doubt it...
>
> > Do you really need to mount your NetBSD root partition under Linux, or can
> > you get by with other ext2 partitions instead?
>
> i would make /home ext2 and mount that under netbsd, thier ext2
> support should be good.
>
> > > - GNU/Linux seem to need/require yaboot. Can yaboot start NetBSD ?
> >
> > No.
> >
> > It appears that the NetBSD bootstrap system is very similar to that
> > used by yaboot/ybin, so it may not be difficult to make ybin work with the
> > NetBSD bootloader as well.
>
> this has been something i have yet to get around to doing... i was
> going to look at this but OpenBSD barfed when it saw this scsi card in
> my blue g3.
>
> > Currently however it seems you will need to go through Open Firmware in
> > order to switch operating systems. This is not too troublesome on recent
> > hardware. Oh, you should also try holding down Option while booting, to
> > see if the iBook has the built-in multiboot chooser like some iMacs and
> > G4s, and whether it will boot NetBSD (it works for yaboot and MacOS X).
>
> can someone send me more info on exactly how the netbsd bootstrap
> partition is setup?
>
> do they still require that the disk use msdos partition tables?
>
> it would be quite easy for me to add a netbsd= option to the ybin boot
> menu, i just need more info on what file i need to execute.
>
> --
> Ethan Benson
> http://www.alaska.net/~erbenson/
>
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