From owner-freebsd-current Wed Nov 11 03:32:58 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id DAA04271 for freebsd-current-outgoing; Wed, 11 Nov 1998 03:32:58 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from spinner.netplex.com.au (spinner.netplex.com.au [202.12.86.3]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id DAA04266 for ; Wed, 11 Nov 1998 03:32:53 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from peter@netplex.com.au) Received: from spinner.netplex.com.au (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by spinner.netplex.com.au (8.9.1/8.9.1/Spinner) with ESMTP id TAA10496; Wed, 11 Nov 1998 19:28:24 +0800 (WST) (envelope-from peter@spinner.netplex.com.au) Message-Id: <199811111128.TAA10496@spinner.netplex.com.au> X-Mailer: exmh version 2.0.2 2/24/98 To: Robert Nordier cc: chuckr@mat.net (Chuck Robey), mike@smith.net.au, jkh@zippy.cdrom.com, current@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Is it soup yet? :-) In-reply-to: Your message of "Sat, 11 Nov 1998 13:05:17 +0200." <199811111105.NAA00886@ceia.nordier.com> Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1998 19:28:23 +0800 From: Peter Wemm Sender: owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG Robert Nordier wrote: > Chuck Robey wrote: > > > I don't know enough about the bootblocks ... I just followed Mike's > > steps in getting myself installed ok, but is it possible to write a > > program that could probe the boot disk, read the bootblocks, and decide > > if they need upgrading ... and if they do, printing a warning message, > > and then refuse to install the new kernel? > > > > If this could be done, you know this will save a *lot* of complaints > > about insufficient warnings. You could warn until you're hoarse, > > they'll *still* miss it, unless the build process itself screams at > > It'd be reasonably simple to do a dd/sh script to detect whether the > new (/sys/boot/i386/boot2) bootblocks are installed. But detecting > whether the old boot blocks are up to the task of loading boot/loader > is probably a non-starter. > > Don't think one could really refuse to install the kernel. Though a > default option to preserve a /kernel.aout (if otherwise no aout kernel > would be available in /) may be an easy route, if we must protect > folks from themselves. We could check that the /kernel (if it exists) that we are going to replace is the same format as the one we've just built and fail (with a descriptive message) if not. Then let them choose to either install an elf kernel by using a different target that renames the old kernel somewhere safe, or to override the KERNFORMAT in /etc/make.conf and try and hang onto the old a.out format. We can give explicit instructions on how to upgrade bootblocks, do preliminary tests, etc by pointing them to a README file somewhere. This way we will stop people getting their feet blown off by accident if they were not paying attention. I think this is the safest way of forcing the issue without hurting people. Cheers, -Peter To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message