Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1998 19:28:23 +0800 From: Peter Wemm <peter@netplex.com.au> To: Robert Nordier <rnordier@nordier.com> Cc: chuckr@mat.net (Chuck Robey), mike@smith.net.au, jkh@zippy.cdrom.com, current@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Is it soup yet? :-) Message-ID: <199811111128.TAA10496@spinner.netplex.com.au> In-Reply-To: Your message of "Sat, 11 Nov 1998 13:05:17 %2B0200." <199811111105.NAA00886@ceia.nordier.com>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
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
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?199811111128.TAA10496>