From owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Jan 8 14:11:27 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 71BB116A4CE for ; Thu, 8 Jan 2004 14:11:27 -0800 (PST) Received: from praetor.linc-it.com (adsl-068-157-070-217.sip.jan.bellsouth.net [68.157.70.217]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3251043D5A for ; Thu, 8 Jan 2004 14:10:41 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from fullermd@over-yonder.net) Received: from mortis.over-yonder.net (adsl-19-157-169.jan.bellsouth.net [68.19.157.169]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by praetor.linc-it.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7A5531522C; Thu, 8 Jan 2004 16:10:40 -0600 (CST) Received: by mortis.over-yonder.net (Postfix, from userid 100) id F3AD820F2A; Thu, 8 Jan 2004 16:10:38 -0600 (CST) Date: Thu, 8 Jan 2004 16:10:38 -0600 From: "Matthew D. Fuller" To: Avleen Vig Message-ID: <20040108221038.GN48603@over-yonder.net> References: <20040107235737.I32227@pooker.samsco.home> <20040108143934.GA51446@ussenterprise.ufp.org> <20040108153610.GW53429@silverwraith.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20040108153610.GW53429@silverwraith.com> User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.1i-fullermd.1 X-Editor: vi X-OS: FreeBSD cc: hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Discussion on the future of floppies in 5.x and 6.x X-BeenThere: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Technical Discussions relating to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 08 Jan 2004 22:11:27 -0000 On Thu, Jan 08, 2004 at 07:36:10AM -0800 I heard the voice of Avleen Vig, and lo! it spake thus: > > If I understand you right.. > A floppy boot, which loads the absolutely basic stuff (network drivers, > and some easy way to config the network) and then goes and grabs the > installer would otherwise be on the current floppies and "boots" it? Many (most?) Linux dists do this for floppy installs. I've come around to thinking it a better and better idea lately. It makes it easy to have much more bloa... er, "featureful" installers, particularly more graphical ones, since you're no longer limited by the size of a floppy. And even cheap DSL is faster than a floppy drive for loading it, to boot (no pun ;). And you can even provide for loading it off a local CD, if you have a CD drive you can't boot from. The downside is that writing such a beast is a lot more work... -- Matthew Fuller (MF4839) | fullermd@over-yonder.net Systems/Network Administrator | http://www.over-yonder.net/~fullermd/ "The only reason I'm burning my candle at both ends, is because I haven't figured out how to light the middle yet"