From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Sun May 4 16:10:10 2003 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E578937B401 for ; Sun, 4 May 2003 16:10:10 -0700 (PDT) Received: from kientzle.com (h-66-166-149-50.SNVACAID.covad.net [66.166.149.50]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 34B3743FB1 for ; Sun, 4 May 2003 16:10:10 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from kientzle@acm.org) Received: from acm.org (ugly.x.kientzle.com [66.166.149.51]) by kientzle.com (8.11.3/8.11.3) with ESMTP id h44NA9v87118 for ; Sun, 4 May 2003 16:10:09 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from kientzle@acm.org) Message-ID: <3EB59E24.1040904@acm.org> Date: Sun, 04 May 2003 16:11:32 -0700 From: Tim Kientzle User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; FreeBSD i386; en-US; rv:0.9.6) Gecko/20011206 X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org References: <20030504020700.B3CCA37B401@hub.freebsd.org> <20030504040804.GA19654@wjv.com> <20030504044927.GA13584@pit.databus.com> <3EB55F29.9080706@acm.org> <3EB57436.CB158B14@mindspring.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Subject: Re: Floppy Support X-BeenThere: freebsd-current@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list Reply-To: kientzle@acm.org List-Id: Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-current List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 04 May 2003 23:10:11 -0000 Terry Lambert wrote: > Tim Kientzle wrote: >>I suppose it's time to modify the boot loader to >>load a single kernel image from multiple floppies. > > It can load drivers from a seperate location ...as long as the > separate location has a driver that allows you to access it. Yes, but.... a) This requires user expertise; they have to know what driver to load. b) That still leaves a lengthy list of items that must be in the single kernel image; how long will it be before even the most minimal kernel no longer fits on a floppy? Most users will find it simpler to just follow the prompts: "Insert Floppy #4 and press [ENTER]" >>That, at least, would end the continual release >>breakage: the release builder could just create >>as many floppy images as necessary. > > You can't do this and do the non-El Torito floppy-on-CDROM > boot hack, since the BIOS will only fake up a single floppy. This is true, although I thought BTX could read BIOS-supported CD-ROMs. That might provide a way out. If BTX could read and concatenate several sources into a single kernel image in memory, then the floppy-emulated CD boot could pull the remaining pieces from CD; the floppy installer could pull the remaining pieces from subsequent floppies. Tim