Date: Wed, 25 Nov 1998 16:13:27 +0200 (SAT) From: Robert Nordier <rnordier@nordier.com> To: jkh@zippy.cdrom.com (Jordan K. Hubbard) Cc: freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: /boot/loader what to set rootdev to? Message-ID: <199811251413.QAA17263@ceia.nordier.com> In-Reply-To: <50832.911999217@zippy.cdrom.com> from "Jordan K. Hubbard" at "Nov 25, 98 05:06:57 am"
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Jordan K. Hubbard wrote: > > The umsdos solution was generalized to a file system layer approach > > which could accommodate a FreeBSD slice on any (not necessarily > > MS-DOS) file system which supports 255 character filenames. > > > > As with most things, the issues aren't really technical: the people > > doing the boot work just don't want this stuff badly enough to > > spend time making it happen (eg. I don't even have MS-DOS or Windows > > installed these days.) > > Well, the only residual interest I have in the problem is for FreeBSD > demo systems, where you want to hand someone an 80MB zip file (ala > Slackware's "zipslack") which they unpack into C:\FREEBSD and then run > something which creates a suitable boot disk for it (unless the > boot-from-Windows issues can be fully worked out) and lets them try it > out without sacrificing more space. If they can mount /usr/X11R6 from > CD or something after that, all the better for your typical kiosk > demo. > > Yes, it would be sort of useful. Useful enough to pay for, I > think. :-) Well, it may be worth discussing that. I particularly like the generalized approach as it adds a fundamental capability that could equally apply to any other file system (NT, SYSV, ... ) that we might acquire code for at some stage. I think a cold boot from within Windows could be fairly painless. The cold boot is needed if we're going to expect the kernel vm86 stuff to be reliable. It's reasonably easy to even boot straight out of Windows, but it completely destroys the BIOS interrupt chain when the page tables change and the Windows interrupt handlers are vaporized. -- Robert Nordier To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message
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