From owner-freebsd-arch@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Jan 2 22:19:08 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 667A2106564A; Sun, 2 Jan 2011 22:19:08 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from jhixson@gmail.com) Received: from mail-iy0-f182.google.com (mail-iy0-f182.google.com [209.85.210.182]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 01DEF8FC18; Sun, 2 Jan 2011 22:19:07 +0000 (UTC) Received: by iyb26 with SMTP id 26so12156451iyb.13 for ; Sun, 02 Jan 2011 14:19:07 -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=QamlmbxhNZdiVnRbzgulB310zKDb1+Z4pOXiICWSnqE=; b=c2kMP8AZEyABxUvpRT63MouIszIYKbMyhBMbKgvMSn3d6jDGgdIxUVuHNzIaM5hhc0 onrzTNYE/SYakgVSdGb8Sfs7491aNyWMhWWTp/YY6FdgvXjIG1eM6z2w5Gg1M5EnYCVZ /nTvjtniXm59rYhwicEqXNMr352/qNw5xbPhw= 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=R1s1+WEnP1yIbj+oJaylK3aTcMYfFakDYgUEM3Rwsr7fAp7K6D+td3PNmlAdDo24Vx USMDXYO9va76zyFx/6icPH8JKJKS8aJhnkjQq7M/FHDgHxmXPdD1+r8IVMMwvfnsYhet B1CN1XKGtU62344+HyhVZhpd0mIyYFZboSyc8= MIME-Version: 1.0 Received: by 10.42.167.131 with SMTP id s3mr20338648icy.288.1294005105684; Sun, 02 Jan 2011 13:51:45 -0800 (PST) Received: by 10.42.58.72 with HTTP; Sun, 2 Jan 2011 13:51:45 -0800 (PST) In-Reply-To: <4D20DDE4.8080306@freebsd.org> References: <4D20C8BF.701@freebsd.org> <29AA82C4-6301-4DCD-BC9D-423AD162998E@gmail.com> <4D20DDE4.8080306@freebsd.org> Date: Sun, 2 Jan 2011 13:51:45 -0800 Message-ID: From: John Hixson To: Nathan Whitehorn Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 X-Content-Filtered-By: Mailman/MimeDel 2.1.5 Cc: Garrett Cooper , matt@ixsystems.com, Bruce Cran , freebsd-sysinstall@freebsd.org, freebsd-arch@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: Sun, 02 Jan 2011 22:19:08 -0000 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. - John