From owner-freebsd-current Wed Nov 11 09:41:05 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id JAA12079 for freebsd-current-outgoing; Wed, 11 Nov 1998 09:41:05 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from dingo.cdrom.com (castles229.castles.com [208.214.165.229]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id JAA12068 for ; Wed, 11 Nov 1998 09:40:57 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from mike@dingo.cdrom.com) Received: from dingo.cdrom.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by dingo.cdrom.com (8.9.1/8.8.8) with ESMTP id JAA03898; Wed, 11 Nov 1998 09:39:01 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from mike@dingo.cdrom.com) Message-Id: <199811111739.JAA03898@dingo.cdrom.com> X-Mailer: exmh version 2.0.2 2/24/98 To: Chuck Robey cc: "Jordan K. Hubbard" , Julian Elischer , Peter Wemm , Mike Smith , current@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Is it soup yet? :-) In-reply-to: Your message of "Wed, 11 Nov 1998 09:02:11 EST." Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1998 09:39:00 -0800 From: Mike Smith Sender: owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG > On Wed, 11 Nov 1998, Jordan K. Hubbard wrote: > > > > the ability to run on old bootblocks is how shall I say... > > > "required". > > > > Well, you have and have always had just two options the minute we pull > > the elf kernel switch: You switch customers to the 3-stage boot by > > dropping a /boot.conf file into place which calls /boot/loader (which > > you also install along with the 3.0 upgrade) or you relabel them so > > they look just like freshly installed 3.0.x systems; it's your choice > > whether you want to go for minimal impact or minimal difference. > > Trouble is, with old bootblocks, that "drop boot.conf" trick doesn't > work, it just hangs. To get the elf kernel booted, you have to update > the bootblocks, *then* they can use both. Julian's request is dead as > it stands, you can't do that. To get the elf kernel, you need newer > bootblocks, which is why I suggested detecting the old ones, and maybe > refusing to install an elf kernel. This isn't entirely true, actually. *Some*sytems* don't like loading the loader with the old bootblocks. I'd really appreciate it if someone with one of these systems (yes, how about you Chuck?) actually sat down and worked out *why* attempting to read zero bytes from the disk spins forever. If all it takes to fix the problem is to pad the string table > 0, that's easy to deal with. -- \\ Sometimes you're ahead, \\ Mike Smith \\ sometimes you're behind. \\ mike@smith.net.au \\ The race is long, and in the \\ msmith@freebsd.org \\ end it's only with yourself. \\ msmith@cdrom.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message