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Date:      Sat, 27 Jul 2002 17:15:07 -0400 (EDT)
From:      John Baldwin <jhb@FreeBSD.org>
To:        Terry Lambert <tlambert2@mindspring.com>
Cc:        current@FreeBSD.ORG, ru@FreeBSD.ORG, matusita@jp.FreeBSD.org, doconnor@gsoft.com.au, "M. Warner Losh" <imp@bsdimp.com>
Subject:   Re: cvs commit: src/release/i386 drivers.conf
Message-ID:  <XFMail.20020727171507.jhb@FreeBSD.org>
In-Reply-To: <3D3F7F1D.DB9576B2@mindspring.com>

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On 25-Jul-2002 Terry Lambert wrote:
> "M. Warner Losh" wrote:
>> : Think "CDROM install".
>> 
>> Dude, what crack are you smoking?  How many times to we have to tell
>> you.  We have a boot loader that knows how to read the kernel from the
>> cdrom or scsi or whatever.  IT is a tiny increment to also load
>> additional modules at that time that support those devices.  What's
>> the real issue?
> 
> So, given that the install from a CDROM boots from a floppy
> image that's faked up by the CDROM drive BIOS, and the image
> doesn't include the full boot loader, how exactly is it that
> the partial boot loader code acts like the full bootloader
> code for accessing the CDROM to load the modules necessary
> to access the CDROM?

Actually, we do use the full bootloader for floppies.  For
CD-ROM it would be a bit tricky to load drivers off another
floppy due to i386 BIOS, but we have that problem on other
arch's anyways (e.g. alpha SRM).  However, you can always do
that later once the MFS root is up and running.

CD-ROM's are completely different from floppies anyways.  On
all of our arch's we now boot a loader directly off the CD
that has access to the entire CD's contents.  (On i386 we use
cdboot to do this via the El Torito no emulation mode.)  The
only place this isn't currently true is that 4.x releases
don't use cdboot on i386. (IMO we should have starting with
4.6.)  Alpha has since at least 4.5 IIRC.  Thus, the only
people who even need modules in the mfsroot or on a driver
floppy are those doing an install booting from floppies
(such as FTP installs).

-- 

John Baldwin <jhb@FreeBSD.org>  <><  http://www.FreeBSD.org/~jhb/
"Power Users Use the Power to Serve!"  -  http://www.FreeBSD.org/

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