From owner-freebsd-current Thu Dec 31 06:24:26 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id GAA04761 for freebsd-current-outgoing; Thu, 31 Dec 1998 06:24:26 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from ceia.nordier.com (m1-30-dbn.dial-up.net [196.34.155.30]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id GAA04756 for ; Thu, 31 Dec 1998 06:24:21 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from rnordier@nordier.com) Received: (from rnordier@localhost) by ceia.nordier.com (8.8.7/8.6.12) id QAA18260; Thu, 31 Dec 1998 16:09:30 +0200 (SAT) From: Robert Nordier Message-Id: <199812311409.QAA18260@ceia.nordier.com> Subject: Re: HEADS UP: FLAG DAY COMING (was Re: New aout-to-elf build failures.) In-Reply-To: from Andrzej Bialecki at "Dec 31, 98 01:52:13 pm" To: abial@nask.pl (Andrzej Bialecki) Date: Thu, 31 Dec 1998 16:09:28 +0200 (SAT) Cc: rnordier@nordier.com, peter@netplex.com.au, current@FreeBSD.ORG X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4ME+ PL31 (25)] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG Andrzej Bialecki wrote: > On Thu, 31 Dec 1998, Robert Nordier wrote: > > > Peter Wemm wrote: > > > > > === INCOMPLETE DRAFT === > > > > > - The new bootblocks default to /boot/loader, but there are some problems > > > for some people still. This needs to be fixed, and either the new > > > bootblocks need fixing or the old bootblocks need a cutdown and > > > modified to fire up /boot/loader by default. > > > > Since early November (and up to and including an issue reported on > > -current yesterday), all apparent show-stopping problems with the > > new bootblocks have turned out to be due to configuration and/or > > pilot errors: where it has been possible to get further details. > > > > So if anyone still can't use the new bootblocks, there's almost > > certainly some simple and painless solution which doesn't require > > code fixes to sort out; and anyone who needs help is more than > > welcome to contact me. > > Ok, here's my question: how do you replace functionality of kzip (which > doesn't work for ELF kernels) without loosing 120kB of disk space for > /boot/loader? In case of normal installations it doesn't matter, but in > case of a floppy... Thus far I was able to use kzip with a.out kernels to > save space on the floppy. Since we're going ELF with kernel, and kzip > doesn't work there, I'm now forced to use gzip and /boot/loader, which > takes about 100kB more than simply boot2 and kzipped (a.out) kernel. We can't fit gunzip code into boot2 because we have a 7K limit (8K - boot1 - label). So you need either a self-extracting kernel, or a stripped-down /boot/loader, or a /boot/loader replacement. Having looked at the kzip and kzipboot code, I don't think all that much revision would be needed to handle an ELF kernel. Though I'd probably be inclined to write a standalone BTX application (around 16K) which would just function as a non-interactive gzipped ELF loader, if I had to do this myself. This seems one of those cases where the aims of PicoBSD and FreeBSD itself diverge to the extent that optimum results require some custom development. -- Robert Nordier To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message