Re: Minix partition problems

[Waldi Ravens <waldi@moacs.indiv.nl.net>]

In <9510130805.AA00979@mail.imc.exec.nhs.uk>, Chris Ridd <chris@imc.exec.nhs.uk> wrote:

> >Don't change the partition IDs, unless your harddisk driver supports
> >the XHDI protocol (AFAIK the ICD driver doesn't).
> 
> So how would ICD present a (say) Linux ext2 partition to GEMDOS?

The same way it presents a partition with a minix filesystem, GEMDOS
does not support either filesystem type. :-)

The difference is that (AFAIK) no ext2.xfs for MiNT exists. Therefor
a partition with an ext2 filesystem does not have to be visible while
GEMDOS/MiNT is running. So changing the partition ID to something
other than `GEM' or `BGM' is no problem. In fact it would be an
advantage, because of TOS's 14 partitions limit and because you
can be sure that GEMDOS will not accidently make a mess of your
ext2 filesystem.

OTOH a minix.xfs for MiNT does exist, so partitions with a minix
filesystem must be visible under MiNT. A harddisk driver, which
supports the XHDI protocol, will not ignore partitions with ID
`RAW', but it will treat them differently from `GEM'/`BGM'. The
BIOS function Getbpb() will fail for `RAW' partitions, so GEMDOS
will not accidently destroy a filesystem on such a partition,
while a smart filesystem driver like minix.xfs can still access
those partitions. Alternatively an XHDI supporting driver can be
configured to not ignore certain partition IDs, but handle such
partitions as if the ID were `RAW' (for example `MNX' or `MIX'
for partitions containing a minix filesystem).

A harddisk driver, which does not support the XHDI protocol, will
of course ignore all partitions with an ID different from `GEM'
or `BGM'. Such partitions are not visible under GEMDOS/MiNT.


Waldi