From owner-freebsd-arch@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Jan 5 21:46:11 2011 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-arch@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 75C911065765; Wed, 5 Jan 2011 21:46:10 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from yanegomi@gmail.com) Received: from mail-wy0-f182.google.com (mail-wy0-f182.google.com [74.125.82.182]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 922318FC1B; Wed, 5 Jan 2011 21:46:09 +0000 (UTC) Received: by wyf19 with SMTP id 19so15937045wyf.13 for ; Wed, 05 Jan 2011 13:46:08 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:mime-version:received:received:in-reply-to :references:date:message-id:subject:from:to:cc:content-type :content-transfer-encoding; bh=D8b06ZwAHszKe7obp+yO8G3wSYlpfh/Zwr2QnzTtqFo=; b=jF46Gs0IO32v2U8tgqAOxVtqCcOVkOWjDm4lzX79zgp7aCqaal9Sa97P4Ft7wQf7Gx VH/TYDNVhsnp1CrIVguiRz8E16VyqRarmhFuBvbdmSnTRIiW6O7c8LsDhycbu1hlq8I4 yr4IvWzPHBli3ODMdkqMARkb29GuiQ6hqQxAE= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=mime-version:in-reply-to:references:date:message-id:subject:from:to :cc:content-type:content-transfer-encoding; b=deDdO3ON+LEnKm2qZZBtPfA7GlMfZa11u2JFX3cbpUW1JR++V6zneYqlIY9Q+8ymXL vtv5aqh+eruxN0mziXngec3ce1MB5/M/pidBhYHX67VOztxkrle8hIdpAkPvQNwvL4qW CekbQQpSLIuPbBwO1074s+D+YUMBdcoKVKADY= MIME-Version: 1.0 Received: by 10.216.185.142 with SMTP id u14mr553wem.31.1294263968594; Wed, 05 Jan 2011 13:46:08 -0800 (PST) Received: by 10.216.254.226 with HTTP; Wed, 5 Jan 2011 13:46:08 -0800 (PST) In-Reply-To: References: <4D20C8BF.701@freebsd.org> <29AA82C4-6301-4DCD-BC9D-423AD162998E@gmail.com> <4D20DDE4.8080306@freebsd.org> <4D22D30A.2050606@executive-computing.de> Date: Wed, 5 Jan 2011 13:46:08 -0800 Message-ID: From: Garrett Cooper To: John Hixson Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Cc: Bruce Cran , john@ixsystems.com, Nathan Whitehorn , freebsd-arch@freebsd.org, Marco Steinbach , matt@ixsystems.com, freebsd-sysinstall@freebsd.org Subject: Re: BSDInstall: I want the bikeshed painted plaid 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, 05 Jan 2011 21:46:11 -0000 On Tue, Jan 4, 2011 at 1:25 PM, John Hixson wrote: > > > On Mon, Jan 3, 2011 at 11:58 PM, Marco Steinbach > wrote: >> >> John Hixson wrote on 02.01.2011 22:51: >>> >>> On Sun, Jan 2, 2011 at 12:19 PM, Nathan Whitehorn >>> wrote: >>> >>>> I spent a bunch of time looking at pc-sysinstall before starting to wo= rk >>>> on >>>> this. The major problem for non-x86 systems is that it heavily assumes >>>> that >>>> your disks are either MBR+bsdlabel or GPT. If you have anything >>>> different >>>> (APM, VTOC8, or even a raw bsdlabel or MBR installation on x86), it >>>> breaks >>>> in strange and fascinating ways due to a random mixture of if (scheme = =3D=3D >>>> MBR) else and if (scheme =3D=3D GPT) else in the backend. Some of thes= e are >>>> easily fixed, but it looked quite difficult to root out all of the >>>> places >>>> this assumption is made, not to mention teaching it about various styl= es >>>> of >>>> boot code, that the same partitioning scheme may need to be set up >>>> different >>>> ways on different architectures, etc. txt-sysinstall also segfaults wh= en >>>> you >>>> try to run it on powerpc at the moment, though that is likely a simple >>>> bug >>>> and I didn't look into it in detail. >>>> >>>> What I intended with bsdinstall is to have something simple, flexible, >>>> and >>>> easily maintained that works immediately on all platforms and will be >>>> ready >>>> for 9.0 for sure. If pc-sysinstall materializes before then, or after >>>> then, >>>> and people like it better, I'm more than happy to get out of the way; >>>> this >>>> is the reason the wiki page is titled "Stopgap Installer". In the >>>> interim, I >>>> hoped to at least start laying out the hammer and nails next to >>>> sysinstall's >>>> coffin. >>>> -Nathan >>>> >>>> >>> I would be more than happy to help out with making pc-sysinstall work o= n >>> non-x86 systems, however I don't have access to any. Do any of you have >>> hardware that could possibly be used by interested parties? I'm sure al= l >>> the >>> work that's gone into bsdinstall could be used in pc-sysinstall or vice >>> versa. >> >> I have PowerMacs (G3/G4) and Netras/Ultras (T1 105, U10, U5) at my >> discretion. =A0I've never installed FreeBSD on any of them, but would be >> willing to give it a shot. >> >> I can provide serial console access to the Sparcs, but the PowerMacs >> supposedly need "hands on", which I can also provide. >> >> If there's interest, I humbly suggest discussing further details on the >> course of action at sysinstall@, to which I just subscribed. >> > > I just subscribed to sysinstall@. I'd be happy to help starting out on th= e > sparcs. I have no experience whatsoever on powermac, but it sounds fun ;-= ). PowerPC macs aren't that hard because the `newer' ones run openfirmware like sparcs. Some of the hardware is different and more `interesting', but that shouldn't deter anyone from making progress on a Mac with netboot images (it's one-time setup in openfirmware if done properly and pretty trivial at that). Lemme know if you need help with this offline and I'll see what I can do. Cheers, -Garrett