Date: Fri, 09 Jan 2004 20:24:08 -0500 From: Richard Coleman <richardcoleman@mindspring.com> To: hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Discussion on the future of floppies in 5.x and 6.x Message-ID: <3FFF5438.40709@mindspring.com> In-Reply-To: <20040107235737.I32227@pooker.samsco.home> References: <20040107235737.I32227@pooker.samsco.home>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
Scott Long wrote: > All, > > Every FreeBSD release cycle in the past year has hit bumps due to install > floppy problems. This is becoming more and more of a burden on the > Release Engineering Team, as we simply do not have the resources to > constantly battle the floppies. > > FreeBSD/i386 is the only port left that generates install floppies. > Their primary purpose is to fascilitate installing FreeBSD on systems > where a CDROM is either not available or is incompatible with the > 'Non-Emulated El Torito' boot method that we use on our CDs. Systems that > cannot boot these CDs are typically those that are also not certified for > WinNT4, Win2K, or WinXP. Thus, nearly all machines produced after 1997 > can boot our CDs. > > It is certainly possible to run FreeBSD 5.x on machines of this and prior > vintage, and I certainly do not want to dispute or question any motives > here. However, the number of machines in this category is steadily > declining as time goes on, while the effort put into supporting install > floppies seems to be on the rise. I certainly do not want to orphan these > machines, so we need to find a compromise. > > One solution is to find a dedicated 'floppy maintainer' that will > frequently assess the floppies during the normal developement periods and > work closely with the Release Engineering team to ensure that there are > few surprises when it's time to cut a release. I would expect this person > to develop and execute a test plan that covers all of the common aspects > of installing via floppy: basic sanity checks, loading drivers, installing > via the various mechanisms, etc. This person should also be comfortable > with modifying makefiles and the sysinstall source. > > The other solution is to replace install floppies with an 'Emulated El > Torito' CD image. I'm not going to go into the differences between > 'non-emulated' and 'emulated' except to say that 'emulated' is the method > used on FreeBSD 4.x (and prior), Win95, and Win98. Virtually every system > in existance that supports a CDROM supports this method. This image would > contain the loader, kernel, and MFS root, just like the current > 'bootonly.iso' image, but would be configured for emulated booting. Users > could download this image, burn it, boot it, and then install FreeBSD just > like they normally would. Of course this adds the requirement of needing > a CD burner, but these devices are becoming common enough that it could > be a reasonable expectation. > > Switching to this method doesn't entirely remove the headache of release > floppies, but it does make it signficantly easier to deal with them. The > 'emulated' method actually uses a 2.88MB floppy image that combines the > first two 1.44MB floppies that we traditionally produce. By combining > them, we have a bit more flexibility since the driver modules that are on > the second floppy can go back into the kernel image and benefit from the > compression that happens there. > > So, this is something to consider before 5.3. After that, we are > stuck with the consequences of whatever we choose (or don't choose) for > the entire 5.x lifespan. I do not cherish the thought of fighting > floppies for another 2-3 years. I'm happy to work with someone who steps > forward and is committed to maintaining the floppies as they are today. > Otherwise, we need to seriously consider the alternative. > > Thanks, > > Scott I apologize if this is a dumb question. But rather than using two floppies during the install process, why not three or four? Richard Coleman richardcoleman@mindspring.com
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?3FFF5438.40709>