Date: Wed, 11 Oct 1995 00:37:55 -0700 From: "Jordan K. Hubbard" <jkh@time.cdrom.com> To: hackers@freefall.FreeBSD.org Subject: ATAPI (IDE) CDROM support will NOT be in FreeBSD 2.1! Message-ID: <10694.813397075@time.cdrom.com>
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Sorry folks, but after considerable time and trouble invested in producing the extra IDE CDROM boot floppy as a test, I've received far too few success reports with it to consider it for 2.1. Yes, I would have really liked this for 2.1 and I had high hopes that we'd be able to pull it off, but there's also a time for admiting the painful truth and cutting ones' losses, and I think that this time has come for the IDE CDROM support code. Since we're going over bad news, it also looks like the 4MB fixes we tried don't really work. They work for *some* systems, but not enough to be able to say hand-on-heart that FreeBSD is installable on a 4MB system. I will be therefore writing it into the release notes that FreeBSD only really installs on systems with 5MB or more. I've pared the 2.1 kernel to the bone and I don't really see anything else that I can cut, nor would any significant course-corrections on the number of boot floppies or the basic methodology we use be advisable at this late stage of the game. Likewise, the IDE CDROM stuff is a real wart on the installation and basically a waste of an extra kernel in the bindist for everyone. In the name of simplicity, I will be removing the hacks I put into release/Makefile and release/sysinstall to support it. Being this painfully honest is generally appreciated by most of the FreeBSD community, and I would be remiss if I gave no warning of the problems we're having, but at the same time I would prefer not to have a repetition of the "WHAT?!?" messages I got last time. I am far too busy now to enter into a second debate on the evils of a >4MB installation or why I should keep the IDE CDROM driver boot floppy even though it doesn't appear to work for anyone. I will therefore file ALL feedback on this issue straight to /dev/null if it's not also accompanied by working and reasonably well-tested patches to address either problem. I think that my willingness to work with Gary and Peter in their previous attempts to fix the 4MB problem show that I'm a reasonable man where actual attempts to fix the problem are concerned, but simple protestations or attempts to convince me what a horrible thing this is will fall on utterly deaf ears. Save your fingers and the wear on my `d' key, please! Sorry if this sounds harsh, but some people seem to feel that they have the right to demand of others what they are unwilling to do themselves, and that sucks. Too many Generals, not enough Grunts! Jordan
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