2006/525: New Boot Sparc

[Casper.Dik at sun.com]

>
>Peter Memishian has pointed out that the statement that
>/etc/path_to_inst is a "pure cache" is not correct.
>It is true that a functional instance file can be rebuilt
>but solaris does rely on the instance number ordering
>in the instance file not to change, otherwise devices
>could be renumbered.  Additions to the instance file
>aren't necessary to boot, because the earlier version
>must have been bootable too.  And since changes are
>cumulative, any additions in the updated file can be merged
>without needing manual intervention.  Hence a discrepancy
>between the two instance files is not cause to invalidate
>the archive.


With the proviso that under no circumstances the version
in the archive can be used to assign NEW device instances.

I.e., when you have a new USB device plugged in at boot and
the /etc/path_to_inst file has a record of old USB devices
not yet reflected in the boot archive, there must not be overlap
in device IDs.

In other words: we must be using the non-bootarchive version
of /etc/path_to_inst before assigning new device instance numbers.

Casper