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Date:      Wed, 1 Nov 95 21:23 WET
From:      uhclem%nemesis@fw.ast.com (Frank Durda IV)
To:        hackers@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: More nits 
Message-ID:  <m0tAqFE-000IxgC@nemesis.lonestar.org>

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[1]This is a known bug, and it would appear that nobody is particularly
[1]keen to change it.  I beat my chest about it several times and
[1]everybody involved just sort of waffled on it until the subject died
[1]down again.  Until then, I may just take the automount of the CDROM
[1]out of /etc/fstab and have people do it by hand.  I hate this, but I
[1]lack the time to go fix whatever stupidity it is in our system that
[1]prevents the system from coming up whenever a CDROM isn't in the
[1]drive.  Unless we fix it, /cdrom is coming out of the default fstab
[1]in 2.1.  Better a system that comes up without a CDROM rather than
[1]one that doesn't!

I assume it is the same code that refuses to let the system start
if one of the hard drives can't be mounted for whatever reason (like it
won't spin up!).  That has been in BSD since way back.  I remember finding
it when one of our 11-780 spindles croaked. 

I doubt the code is able to distinguish between hardware that might not be
ready "and that's ok" (ala CDROM), and hardware that might not be ready
"and that's bad" (ala hard disk).   Perhaps a new "keep going" field should
be added to fstab to list mount points you can "live without" and still go
multi-user.  

You might also have to provide an "alternate mount point" field for nested
mount points in case the mount point isn't there because "we kept going"
when some media wasn't ready.  This gets messy.

I reported the current action of mounting the CD as a bug in the installation
process sometime back as I don't think the install should insert mount
entries for the media that was used for the install for several reasons.
What if I installed from floppies, should the floppy be remounted on reboot?
Or if I used NFS to do the install, should the NFS mount reappear?  No, of
course not.  But it demonstrates an inconsistent treatment of transient
media.

Transient media (like the installation media) should not be added to fstab,
at least as things stand now.  


Frank Durda IV <uhclem@nemesis.lonestar.org>|"The Knights who say "LETNi"
or uhclem%nemesis@fw.ast.com (Fastest Route)| demand...  A SEGMENT REGISTER!!!"
...letni!rwsys!nemesis!uhclem               |"A what?"
...decvax!fw.ast.com!nemesis!uhclem         |"LETNi! LETNi! LETNi!"  - 1983




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