In article <1992Aug5.175351.25361@ncsu.edu> jlnance@eos.ncsu.edu (JAMES LEWIS NANCE) writes:
quoted text
> Will this patch allow me to create a large MS-DOS file which I could mount
> and use as my root file system?

As you've pointed out, you could not mount it directly as the root FS,
but with a little help of a RAM disk (or a kernel hack), this would
almost work. Almost, because the organization of all MS-DOS hard disks
seems to be incompatible with bmap and the loop devices depend on bmap.

The situation will improve as soon as variable block sizes are fully
supported. It'll take a total rewrite of the loop devices code, but
then it will work in all configurations.

At the moment, the loop devices are only good to experiment with file
systems and to work on floppy disk images.

- Werner
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  / Werner Almesberger, ETH Zuerich, CH      almesber@nessie.cs.id.ethz.ch /
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