Re: Xenix Filesystem

From: Brian K. White (brian_at_aljex.com)
Date: 07/26/04 

Date: Sun, 25 Jul 2004 23:28:40 -0400

Tony Lawrence wrote:
> Brian K. White wrote:
>
>> Linux doesn't understand divvy, so to mount a xenix fs under linux,
>> you just need to have created the filsystem under xenix by writing
>> to a whole fdisk partition or whole-disk device, _not_ the normal
>> way where divvy divides up a fdisk partition into divvy partitions
>> and then writes filesystems to those. This means using for example
>> /dev/hd11 as the mkfs target in xenix for the 1st fdisk partition on
>> the 2nd drive. IE: if migrating an old xenix box and there is no
>> room to make cpio/tar files, then add a 2nd drive, make at least one
>> fdisk partition that is only 512 Megs since a xenix filesystem
>> cannot exceed 512 megs anyways.
>
> Given enough space, and knowledge of the sizes, I would think you
> could dd out what you want. And doesn't Linux mount let you specify
> an offest anyway?
> Never tried this, though, just thinking out loud.

Possibly, but since I don't know anything about the low level details of any
filesystem, I don't know if a dd copy of a filesystem in a divvy partition
might not have disk geometry data and pointers/addresses that are relative
to the entire disk, or the fdisk partition it's in, or if 100% of the info
in a filesystem is self contained and no part of it refers to anything
except other points within the filesystem.

Since it's possible to have multiple 512 meg filesystems on one disk, my
guess is that it's at least possible that the fs can be transplanted to a
different disk and still be valid. I always wanted to try it sometime but
theres been no shortage of other things to do. This would be easy to test if
you have a working xenix install and add a 2nd drive to it, you can just dd
the whole device node that corresponds to the divvy partition. Or even just
use xenix to find out the exact start and end points of the filesystem
within the fdisk partition, then use dd from linux.

If you only have a linux box and a hard drive from a dead xenix system it
would be a nice puzzle.
I don't know how to locate the exact start and end point of a filesystem in
a divvy partition in a fdisk partition. 

-- 
Brian K. White  --  brian@aljex.com  --  http://www.aljex.com/bkw/
+++++[>+++[>+++++>+++++++<<-]<-]>>+.>.+++++.+++++++.-.[>+<---]>++.
filePro BBx  Linux SCO  Prosper/FACTS AutoCAD  #callahans Satriani

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