Why doesn Mkfs 1.4 recognize the partition Ive decided to convert to a NetBSD partition?
This problem (and some minor incompatibilities with some formatters) have been fixed as of Mkfs 1.45. Please obtain a copy of the latest version and try it instead. A description of the reasons behind the problem (and the now obsolete work-arounds) follow below. From Bob Nestor (rnestor@metronet.com): Mkfs 1.2 made the assumption that the disk Partition Map was something like 20 entries in size and used anything that looked like it might be a valid entry. Mkfs 1.4 uses the size of the Partition Map as recorded in the Partition Map itself. Unfortunately there is a little known bug in the way some disk formatters create the Partition Map when they format the disk. Some, but not all, formatters have an off-by-one error in sizing the Partition Map. The latest Apple HD Formatter exhibits this as I recall. Certain 3rd party disk formatters catch this and report the disk as damamged, but correctable. We could “fix” mkfs to handle this off-by-one error and use the block following the Partition
