Cooperative Linux

gary ng wrote:
> I am wondering how difficult it is to add this.
> 
> With the 0.8 build(udev), I can boot and run debian's
> etch installer(netinstall initrd) without any special
> procedure other than having the proper pcap driver(so
> colinux can access the network).
> 
> However, the debian installer's partition manager
> would try to partition the block device and failed. At
> the moment, I need to switch to another virtual
> terminal and do the "mke2fs /dev/cobd0" then re-run
> the partitioner so it would not try to partition it
> again.
> 
> With partition table support, it would be a smooth
> install which would be even more impressive.

It's in our todo/wish list.
The problem under colinux is, after using partition tables, all block 
devices (hda1, hda2, hda3, ... ) are relative from the sector of 
partition table.  In other words a using partition tables need to define 
a file as whole complete disk, not as single partition.

Or we need a transformer for every disk access, that would be transform 
the offset into a filename and a difference offsets.

Currently, the disk access to a partition is a direct access to the 
offset in the file (without recalculation the prameters).

-- 
Henry Nestler

Henry Nestler wrote:
> It's in our todo/wish list.
> The problem under colinux is, after using partition tables, all block 
> devices (hda1, hda2, hda3, ... ) are relative from the sector of 
> partition table.  In other words a using partition tables need to define 
> a file as whole complete disk, not as single partition.
>
> Or we need a transformer for every disk access, that would be transform 
> the offset into a filename and a difference offsets.
>
> Currently, the disk access to a partition is a direct access to the 
> offset in the file (without recalculation the prameters).
>
>   
    Option 1:
             Make each virtual disk the equivalent to a virtual physical
drive. I have not looked at the colinux disk driver,
             But this just means mapping cobd to a single physical
file.I should think that the existing Linux code should take care of
             partition tables and properly calculating offsets.
             If you want multiple files to correspond to different files
put one partition/file and have the equivalent of hda,hdb.hdc....
             The problem with this approach it breaks existing colinux
disk images and systems.
    Option 2:
             Leave the cobd1,cobd2,.... stuff alone but create a virtual
partition table that is read/written when you access /dev/cobd
             the save as if you access /dev/hda. It is more complex.
While you may wish to allow writes to the virtual partition table,
             you probably do not really want to use the information that
is written - it would not make much sense to write it in a context
            where each file is a different partition.
            





-- 
Dave Lynch 					  	    DLA Systems
Software Development:  				         Embedded Linux
717.627.3770 	       dhlii@... 	  http://www.dlasys.net
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Over 25 years' experience in platforms, languages, and technologies too numerous to list.

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