From owner-freebsd-alpha@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Jul 30 13:48:56 2003 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-alpha@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C002237B401 for ; Wed, 30 Jul 2003 13:48:56 -0700 (PDT) Received: from mail.speakeasy.net (mail13.speakeasy.net [216.254.0.213]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7758643FD7 for ; Wed, 30 Jul 2003 13:48:54 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from jhb@FreeBSD.org) Received: (qmail 10272 invoked from network); 30 Jul 2003 20:48:52 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO server.baldwin.cx) ([216.27.160.63]) (envelope-sender )encrypted SMTP for ; 30 Jul 2003 20:48:52 -0000 Received: from laptop.baldwin.cx (gw1.twc.weather.com [216.133.140.1]) by server.baldwin.cx (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id h6UKmlGI068861; Wed, 30 Jul 2003 16:48:48 -0400 (EDT) (envelope-from jhb@FreeBSD.org) Message-ID: X-Mailer: XFMail 1.5.4 on FreeBSD X-Priority: 3 (Normal) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit MIME-Version: 1.0 In-Reply-To: <20030729174453.GA1201@dragon.nuxi.com> Date: Wed, 30 Jul 2003 16:49:07 -0400 (EDT) From: John Baldwin To: alpha@FreeBSD.ORG cc: Scott Long cc: Marcel Moolenaar cc: Ruslan Ermilov cc: Wilko Bulte Subject: Re: Floppies for ALPHA X-BeenThere: freebsd-alpha@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Porting FreeBSD to the Alpha List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 30 Jul 2003 20:48:57 -0000 On 29-Jul-2003 David O'Brien wrote: > [ Reply-to: set back to list ] > > On Tue, Jul 29, 2003 at 07:38:48PM +0200, Wilko Bulte wrote: >> On Tue, Jul 29, 2003 at 12:54:36PM +0300, Ruslan Ermilov wrote: >> > I've got that feeling that the consensus was to drop the floppy >> > support for Alpha, as supporting it becomes a nightmare. If so, >> >> Yes, that consensus seems to be there. Finally.. :) >> >> The question is if the way forward is a minimini.iso so a really >> minimal ISO image (<< in size that miniinst.iso) or some other mechanism >> like NetBSD or ancient SunOS 3.x used. Which, IIRC, was an image one dropped >> in to the swap area of a disk and booted from. > > Why do we have to choose one? We should offer multiple ways (as we do > today). The problem is not offering a small downloadable image to > install an Alpha from -- but that 1.44MB is a ridiculous size constraint > for that image. All we need is a truly miniiso. More of a boot-only iso. The same thing could be stuck in a UFS image if people wish. Basically a /R/cdrom/boot that contains just the /boot directory contents. People can then either make an ISO from that or they can make a UFS image and dd it to a disk. This would be orthogonal to floppies, btw. Probably we would always create the boot.iso area under /R and on archs that can use it, we can create a UFS disk image that contains that system. On the other hand, if dd'ing an actual ISO works fine, then we could just leave it at that. -- John Baldwin <>< http://www.FreeBSD.org/~jhb/ "Power Users Use the Power to Serve!" - http://www.FreeBSD.org/