From owner-freebsd-sysinstall@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Jan 2 22:02:57 2011 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-sysinstall@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 055BE106564A; Sun, 2 Jan 2011 22:02:57 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from yanegomi@gmail.com) Received: from mail-ww0-f50.google.com (mail-ww0-f50.google.com [74.125.82.50]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 190FE8FC0C; Sun, 2 Jan 2011 22:02:55 +0000 (UTC) Received: by wwf26 with SMTP id 26so12730849wwf.31 for ; Sun, 02 Jan 2011 14:02:55 -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; bh=ZZWIIq+Kp2iQtNYSNJJqSiNaHmLR3IPCLkNJBKBuRFg=; b=C4N2t7uHxSAEZ2e2F09oOKmgslF+AV+guQ6pVBNCI2mMLWg3ich2mAdnTd8fwuuXYM BYtYTZ+gCRIpXSZ6jNE296HMwPoUFk3im/4VLkOAh1mzNu4gSbhnulceZ35Tz+xo0FvH C+cCH7TM4s1LpI7GM6qpfbe43kpASt8W4i4J4= 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; b=GMi02RMdWYpOp4/DPdiB3Nox7Zk2yr5G1W80G8BVWg5vePSBaag8dsfHTysMPP2Ps4 XHv9d8KKXRj5Lq9ujzAE2HuLi1OB1h1p2Qrxi6Qyg6NAgOPI5EQQtPOcBtz67g2IkV3r 0+etSBdYcco/BpkAfLo4hWEYhq3F8RRZeuj3g= MIME-Version: 1.0 Received: by 10.216.78.146 with SMTP id g18mr590783wee.1.1294005774969; Sun, 02 Jan 2011 14:02:54 -0800 (PST) Received: by 10.216.254.226 with HTTP; Sun, 2 Jan 2011 14:02:54 -0800 (PST) In-Reply-To: References: <4D20C8BF.701@freebsd.org> <29AA82C4-6301-4DCD-BC9D-423AD162998E@gmail.com> <4D20DDE4.8080306@freebsd.org> Date: Sun, 2 Jan 2011 14:02:54 -0800 Message-ID: From: Garrett Cooper To: John Hixson Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Cc: Bruce Cran , freebsd-sysinstall@freebsd.org, Nathan Whitehorn , matt@ixsystems.com, freebsd-arch@freebsd.org Subject: Re: BSDInstall: I want the bikeshed painted plaid X-BeenThere: freebsd-sysinstall@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Sysinstall Work List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 02 Jan 2011 22:02:57 -0000 On Sun, Jan 2, 2011 at 1:51 PM, John Hixson wrote: > > > 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 work >> 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 == MBR) else and if (scheme == GPT) else in the backend. Some of >> these 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 >> styles of boot code, that the same partitioning scheme may need to be set up >> different ways on different architectures, etc. txt-sysinstall also >> segfaults when 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 on > 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 all the > work that's gone into bsdinstall could be used in pc-sysinstall or vice > versa. I have a powerpc mac and I might be able to scrounge up another powerbook. Not sure if the powerbook is DoA or not as I don't have the adapter anymore... Thanks, -Garrett