From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
Message-ID: <8d56cb55b108b13f7780364c26259b35@proxima.alt.za>
To: 9fans@cse.psu.edu
Subject: Compact FLASH progress (Was: [9fans] disk/^(mbr format fdisk prep))
From: lucio@proxima.alt.za
In-Reply-To: <ee9e417a040508081247498d73@mail.gmail.com>
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Date: Mon, 10 May 2004 09:52:16 +0200
Topicbox-Message-UUID: 7588fb12-eacd-11e9-9e20-41e7f4b1d025

> Although it doesn't sound like it's what you want anymore,
> you could use aux/disksim to get an sd(3)-like interface
> to an arbitrary file.

That was precisely where I wanted to go.  It all seems fine now, I
have successfully formatted the device as a Plan 9 IDE disk and booted
both 9load and the kernel from it.  Not a lot that one can do in 16Meg
(well I used to run a full development system under DOS in
considerably less disk space, but we've advanced from there :-) but
proof of concept was all I needed.

Just one caveat: It seems necessary to set the geometry "right" for
aux/disksim.  NetBSD reports a different geometry via USB from that
established by the Plan 9 ata device driver in the thin client.  There
really does not seem to be an easy route, what I did was bootstrap
Plan 9 via a DOS boot to query the geometry through /dev/sdC0/ctl.

++L

PS: Now back to the SiS_550 graphics :-(