From owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Jan 8 18:26:32 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 AF75F16A4CE for ; Thu, 8 Jan 2004 18:26:32 -0800 (PST) Received: from out005.verizon.net (out005pub.verizon.net [206.46.170.143]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2BD4C43D41 for ; Thu, 8 Jan 2004 18:26:31 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from babkin@bellatlantic.net) Received: from bellatlantic.net ([138.89.158.204]) by out005.verizon.net (InterMail vM.5.01.06.06 201-253-122-130-106-20030910) with ESMTP id <20040109022629.UKSB3381.out005.verizon.net@bellatlantic.net>; Thu, 8 Jan 2004 20:26:29 -0600 Sender: root@FreeBSD.ORG Message-ID: <3FFE1153.89B22D10@bellatlantic.net> Date: Thu, 08 Jan 2004 21:26:27 -0500 From: Sergey Babkin X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.7 [en] (X11; U; FreeBSD 4.7-RELEASE i386) X-Accept-Language: en, ru MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Leo Bicknell References: <20040107235737.I32227@pooker.samsco.home> <20040108143934.GA51446@ussenterprise.ufp.org> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Authentication-Info: Submitted using SMTP AUTH at out005.verizon.net from [138.89.158.204] at Thu, 8 Jan 2004 20:26:28 -0600 X-Mailman-Approved-At: Fri, 09 Jan 2004 05:39:25 -0800 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: Fri, 09 Jan 2004 02:26:32 -0000 Leo Bicknell wrote: > > I'm going to propose a different solution that was brought up about > two years ago (although I can't find it now). > > You start with something like the CD boot image mentioned, that is > a 3-5 Meg iso image that basically contains what is now on the > floppies (perhaps with a few more drivers/modules) and nothing more. > Downloading and burning to CD would be the primary method of install. > > Then, to replace the current floppy process, a new floppy installer > is created. It may or may not be based on FreeBSD, but what it I guess a simple variation would be to split the CD boot filesystem into multiple floppies. Then remove the current contents from the MFSROOT floppy and put there a small program (plus possibly the first part of the split CD filesystem image) that would load the boot filesystem from the bunch of floppies into memory, load the extra kernel modules, and then start the installer from memory just as it would go when booted from CD. That should really be a no-brainer as long as the base kernel still fits onto one floppy. The only inconvenience is that we get something like 6 install floppies instead of 2, but it's not _such_ a big deal. -SB