From owner-freebsd-arch@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Jan 28 19:14:41 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: arch@FreeBSD.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E5D7B1065670; Wed, 28 Jan 2009 19:14:41 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from gad@FreeBSD.org) Received: from smtp7.server.rpi.edu (smtp7.server.rpi.edu [128.113.2.227]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A0D678FC0A; Wed, 28 Jan 2009 19:14:41 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from gad@FreeBSD.org) Received: from [128.113.24.47] (gilead.netel.rpi.edu [128.113.24.47]) by smtp7.server.rpi.edu (8.13.1/8.13.1) with ESMTP id n0SI8Q6X003016; Wed, 28 Jan 2009 13:08:27 -0500 Mime-Version: 1.0 Message-Id: In-Reply-To: <20090127.233903.-432839944.imp@bsdimp.com> References: <200901260947.32870.jhb@freebsd.org> <20090127.233903.-432839944.imp@bsdimp.com> Date: Wed, 28 Jan 2009 13:08:26 -0500 To: "M. Warner Losh" , jhb@FreeBSD.org From: Garance A Drosehn Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed" X-Bayes-Prob: 0.0001 (Score 0) X-RPI-SA-Score: 1.30 (*) [Hold at 20.00] COMBINED_FROM, J_CHICKENPOX_65, J_CHICKENPOX_75 X-CanItPRO-Stream: outgoing X-Canit-Stats-ID: Bayes signature not available X-Scanned-By: CanIt (www . roaringpenguin . com) on 128.113.2.227 Cc: arch@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: Trimming the default /boot/device.hints X-BeenThere: freebsd-arch@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussion related to FreeBSD architecture List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 28 Jan 2009 19:14:42 -0000 At 11:39 PM -0700 1/27/09, M. Warner Losh wrote: >I don't like this change. However, you've hit on part of the reason I >don't like the change. I don't think it goes far enough, and at the >same time loses valuable history. > >To address the latter, I'd do a cp GENERIC.hints LEGACY.hints and add >comments to the top that this is for systems that don't have PNPBIOS >or ACPI or that there's problems with those. Admittedly I know almost nothing about the hints themselves, but I like this idea. We already supply multiple kernel files, even though everything is documented in NOTES. We do it because it's convenient and it costs us nothing. We could even install the LEGACY.hints file as /boot/legacy.hints, and then if someone has a problem we can say "go into the boot loader, and type 'include /boot/legacy.hints'. If that doesn't solve your problem, then your problem is not related to this big change to /boot/device.hints". And if it *does* solve their problem, they can just look at 'dmesg' after they boot up, and get a good idea of what lines they need to add to /boot/device.hints. I don't see how this would cost us much (compared to *not* having a legacy.hints file), and yet it might make things much easier if it turns out that too many hints had been removed. -- Garance Alistair Drosehn = drosehn@rpi.edu Senior Systems Programmer or gad@FreeBSD.org Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Troy, NY; USA