From owner-freebsd-arch@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Jan 28 19:27:40 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 3A63910656F4; Wed, 28 Jan 2009 19:27:40 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from imp@bsdimp.com) Received: from harmony.bsdimp.com (bsdimp.com [199.45.160.85]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E12828FC13; Wed, 28 Jan 2009 19:27:39 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from imp@bsdimp.com) Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by harmony.bsdimp.com (8.14.2/8.14.1) with ESMTP id n0SJNo08011647; Wed, 28 Jan 2009 12:23:50 -0700 (MST) (envelope-from imp@bsdimp.com) Date: Wed, 28 Jan 2009 12:24:11 -0700 (MST) Message-Id: <20090128.122411.1626285557.imp@bsdimp.com> To: gad@FreeBSD.org From: "M. Warner Losh" In-Reply-To: References: <200901260947.32870.jhb@freebsd.org> <20090127.233903.-432839944.imp@bsdimp.com> X-Mailer: Mew version 5.2 on Emacs 21.3 / Mule 5.0 (SAKAKI) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: Text/Plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: arch@FreeBSD.org, jhb@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 19:27:41 -0000 In message: Garance A Drosehn writes: : 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. Actually, that's a very clever idea you've stumbled into. The boot loader already know if acpi is involved, and could trivially be augmented to know if there's PNP data. If neither of them are in place, it could automatically load legacy.hints... But the cheap 'get the file there' is a good idea. Warner