In article <CORYWEST.92Aug2144042@rio-grande.rice.edu> corywest@rice.edu (Cory West) writes:
quoted text
>                                               It seems that
>using bootlin and the 96c-pl2 kernel, I can't mount an extended
>partition as a root partition.  I have the partition marked ok in
>my fstab and I can mount it if I boot from floppy, but I can't
>mount it as the root partition.  
>       Is this known and expected bahavior or should I fiddle
>with it some more?  I am booting with bootlin.com from DOS using
>boot.sys as a multiplexer.

0.96c doesn't mount any other type of filesystem than the original minix
one as root - you have to get 0.97.  0.97 should be able to mount any
type of filesystem (you could even have a msdos fs as your
root-partition if you are evil and perverse - but don't tell anyone or
they'll whisper about you behind your back). 

Note that I (surprise, surprise) haven't tested the new root-mounting
features.  I don't see why it shouldn't work, but assuming it doesn't,
please mail me about it.

0.97 also finally cleans up the 'struct super_block' information - it's
no longer at all minix-specific.  I got tired of hearing about it, and
when liljeber noticed problems with the msdos-fs in a pre-release I
decided to clean it up once and for all.  So now the minix filesystem is
in no way special: but it happens to be well tested, and should have no
bugs (famous last words), so it's the way to go if you aren't too
adventurous. 

                Linus