From owner-freebsd-current Mon Mar 3 7:15:44 2003 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 AB84B37B401 for ; Mon, 3 Mar 2003 07:15:42 -0800 (PST) Received: from mail.speakeasy.net (mail17.speakeasy.net [216.254.0.217]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 27A7743F75 for ; Mon, 3 Mar 2003 07:15:41 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from jhb@FreeBSD.org) Received: (qmail 17483 invoked from network); 3 Mar 2003 15:15:43 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO server.baldwin.cx) ([216.27.160.63]) (envelope-sender ) by mail17.speakeasy.net (qmail-ldap-1.03) with DES-CBC3-SHA encrypted SMTP for ; 3 Mar 2003 15:15:43 -0000 Received: from laptop.baldwin.cx (gw1.twc.weather.com [216.133.140.1]) by server.baldwin.cx (8.12.6/8.12.6) with ESMTP id h23FDLhT041383; Mon, 3 Mar 2003 10:13:22 -0500 (EST) (envelope-from jhb@FreeBSD.org) Message-ID: X-Mailer: XFMail 1.5.2 on FreeBSD X-Priority: 3 (Normal) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit MIME-Version: 1.0 In-Reply-To: <3E5F8A11.81E4726B@mindspring.com> Date: Mon, 03 Mar 2003 10:15:52 -0500 (EST) From: John Baldwin To: Terry Lambert Subject: Re: Any ideas why we can't even boot a i386 ? Cc: David Schultz , Garance A Drosihn , current@FreeBSD.ORG, Geoffrey , Ruslan Ermilov Sender: owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG On 28-Feb-2003 Terry Lambert wrote: > John Baldwin wrote: >> Or you can use PXE at your provisioning center and have the >> BIOS setup to boot from the hard disk first, which will fail >> for the initial boot and fall back to PXE. Then once the box >> is installed you ship it to its destination. > > This is a possibility; however, there are a number of system > failure scenarios that make this undesirable. Specifically, > it's desirable to support the idea of a fallback boot (e.g. > "nextboot") for a partially functional system, to downgrade > it automatically, and make it at least something other than a > doorstop on which one has to pay international shipping. In > your scenario, there's no possible reupgrade method. We perform upgrades in the field using a different transport. In the case of major problems it is possible to ship a new drive out to a system. >> We just launched a closed-box appliance yesterday. Actually, >> it's going live to actual customers in about an hour and a >> half, but I digress. :) > > You should shout it to the world... at least post a press release > to -advocacy! The real press release is coming from my company's PR department. Not sure of an ETA though. -- John Baldwin <>< http://www.FreeBSD.org/~jhb/ "Power Users Use the Power to Serve!" - http://www.FreeBSD.org/ To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message