Date: Sat, 18 Apr 1998 22:35:46 +0200 (CEST) From: Andrzej Bialecki <abial@nask.pl> To: freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: There was PicoBSD - let there be a Mini... Message-ID: <Pine.NEB.3.95.980418220717.3473A-100000@korin.warman.org.pl>
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Hi!
I seem to have some crazy ideas from time to time... Here's one of them.
I propose to add another type of installation combined with a special
distribution set. The idea behind it is to let people who are completely
new to FreeBSD just try the system without really installing it (which
bears all the hassle of repartitioning etc.), and to have positive enough
impression to install i then in normal way. I admit that this idea occured
to me when I tried the JavaPC preview. :-)
Here's what the setup would be like:
* the whole installation (available in sysinstall :-) would place FreeBSD
on an existing DOS partition. Installation program would create the file
with filesystem on it (which will then be mounted on a vn(4) device). This
will require (well, it depends) ca. 16-24MB of free space on a DOS
partition.
* then the special distribution set would be transferred to the vn-mounted
file. This distribution would contain (among others): basic system
utilities, pretty minimal XWindow with SVGA server and a nice window
manager (qvwm?) with file manager (FreeBSD Explorer?); and of course
Netscape/Mozilla browser with Java.
* the most important requirement of this set would be that each element
work as expected with almost no setup on user's part (except
network/dialup setup, which can be done with user-friendly script).
* the whole thing would be started from DOS (using fbsdboot.exe). This
will probably require special C:\kernel with small MFS, containing
init(8), mount, vnconfig etc.. which after booting would first mount the
DOS partition, and then vnconfig the previously created file with OS on
it, and mount it on /.
Well, that's basically the whole idea. How do you like it?
I'm willing to try it anyway, and even to write some of the glue code
needed to incorporate it into sysinstall.
Andrzej Bialecki
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abial@nask.pl | if(halt_per_mth > 0) { fetch("http://www.freebsd.org") }
Research & Academic | "Be open-minded, but don't let your brains to fall out."
Network in Poland | All of the above (and more) is just my personal opinion.
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