Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!att!tsdiag!ka2qhd!moria!dcm
From: dcm@moria.UUCP (David C. Miller)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.i386
Subject: Re: extended file names
Keywords: filenames unix
Message-ID: <114@moria.UUCP>
Date: 6 Apr 90 13:18:52 GMT
References: <511373@nstar.UUCP> <3096@auspex.auspex.com> <1990Mar30.024922.16985@nebulus.UUCP> <3105@auspex.auspex.com> <1990Apr2.230603.2687@i88.isc.com>
Organization: The Black Chasm
Lines: 22

In article <1990Apr2.230603.2687@i88.isc.com> stevea@i88.isc.com (Steve Alexander) writes:
>The version of V.4 that I'm using only seems to be able to boot from
>S5 or the BFS (boot file system, called /stand).  I couldn't boot new kernels
>from a UFS root, they had to be copied to /stand.
>
>--
>Steve Alexander, Software Technologies Group    | stevea@i88.isc.com
>INTERACTIVE Systems Corporation, Naperville, IL | ...!{sun,ico}!laidbak!stevea

What you have seen is the motivation behind the creation of the BFS
file system.  The BFS filesystem allows you to have a root filesystem
of any type without the bootstrap having to know how to read it.
I'm guessing that the boot off of S5 was done with a floppy?  I'm
not familiar with the i386 port, just the 3B2.  On the 3B2 you can boot
off the /stand (BFS) filesystem or off the floppy (BFS or S5).

Without BFS, you would need to rewrite the bootstrap every time you
added a new filesystem type.

--
David C. Miller
...!tsdiag!ka2qhd!moria!dcm