From owner-freebsd-hackers Sun Sep 21 00:20:35 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) id AAA19011 for hackers-outgoing; Sun, 21 Sep 1997 00:20:35 -0700 (PDT) Received: from sax.sax.de (sax.sax.de [193.175.26.33]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) with SMTP id AAA19006 for ; Sun, 21 Sep 1997 00:20:31 -0700 (PDT) Received: (from uucp@localhost) by sax.sax.de (8.6.12/8.6.12-s1) with UUCP id JAA22338 for hackers@FreeBSD.ORG; Sun, 21 Sep 1997 09:20:30 +0200 Received: (from j@localhost) by uriah.heep.sax.de (8.8.7/8.8.5) id IAA07587; Sun, 21 Sep 1997 08:52:33 +0200 (MET DST) Message-ID: <19970921085233.JH45420@uriah.heep.sax.de> Date: Sun, 21 Sep 1997 08:52:33 +0200 From: j@uriah.heep.sax.de (J Wunsch) To: hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Is there a way to prompt for boot device? References: <199709200219.WAA13122@smoke.marlboro.vt.us> <19970920130551.DB36336@uriah.heep.sax.de> <199709202124.XAA18194@bitbox.follo.net> X-Mailer: Mutt 0.60_p2-3,5,8-9 Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Phone: +49-351-2012 669 X-PGP-Fingerprint: DC 47 E6 E4 FF A6 E9 8F 93 21 E0 7D F9 12 D6 4E Reply-To: joerg_wunsch@uriah.heep.sax.de (Joerg Wunsch) In-Reply-To: <199709202124.XAA18194@bitbox.follo.net>; from Eivind Eklund on Sep 20, 1997 23:24:25 +0200 Sender: owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk As Eivind Eklund wrote: > > What the heck would break if we started shipping GENERIC in 3.0 with > > `swap generic'? What might break if we allowed -a for other kernels > > as well? I assume the answer to both questions is just ``nothing''. > > It is a minor security breach - it would e.g. allow somebody with > physical access to boot from a floppy[1] even if the machine isn't > set up to do so from the BIOS. As Nate also pointed out, you can do this already right now. Say ``fd(0,a)kernel'' at the boot prompt, and away you go. Also, i assume your answer was for question #2? So this still leaves question #1: what would break if we shipped `swap generic' kernels as GENERIC? The root file system is being adjusted automatically anyway, swap and dump spaces are configured at /etc/rc time. Except of allowing -a, there's IMHO not much more difference to a `swap generic' kernel then. -- cheers, J"org joerg_wunsch@uriah.heep.sax.de -- http://www.sax.de/~joerg/ -- NIC: JW11-RIPE Never trust an operating system you don't have sources for. ;-)