From owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Jan 9 14:02:49 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 D4AD616A4CE; Fri, 9 Jan 2004 14:02:49 -0800 (PST) Received: from rwcrmhc11.comcast.net (rwcrmhc11.comcast.net [204.127.198.35]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id AB39B43D31; Fri, 9 Jan 2004 14:02:47 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from julian@elischer.org) Received: from interjet.elischer.org ([24.7.73.28]) by comcast.net (rwcrmhc11) with ESMTP id <20040109220243013005fb6ke>; Fri, 9 Jan 2004 22:02:47 +0000 Received: from localhost (localhost.elischer.org [127.0.0.1]) by InterJet.elischer.org (8.9.1a/8.9.1) with ESMTP id OAA49348; Fri, 9 Jan 2004 14:02:41 -0800 (PST) Date: Fri, 9 Jan 2004 14:02:40 -0800 (PST) From: Julian Elischer To: Scott Long In-Reply-To: <3FFF1D42.90408@freebsd.org> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII cc: hackers@freebsd.org cc: "Matthew D. Fuller" 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 22:02:50 -0000 On Fri, 9 Jan 2004, Scott Long wrote: > Julian Elischer wrote: > > > > > > > > > > Here at Vicor, we have over a thousand machines spread over about > > 20 sites. About 10 of those machines have cdrom drives. Our plans call > > for moving from 4.x to 5.x, probably at the end of 2004, maybe early > > 2005. Most of the machien swill not have been replaced by then so > > we'll still have very few cdroms. > > Luckily this would probably not be an issue for the upgrade, but > > the Custommer Engineers (CEs) need to be able to rebuild machine quickly > > in the case of disk failures or other problems. They use floppies at the > > moment for this. > > > > I could immagine that a floppy that did a net-boot might > > be a possibility, but retraining them to do things differently is > > always a problem. > > > > > > Can these machines netboot/PXEboot? In any case, there looks to be some > prospects for someone stepping forward to help with floppies. If Vicor > wants to help out too, that would be wonderful. I have grave doubts as to all 1000 machines being able to net/PXE boot.. They have come from varying sources at different times.. Of course we may be able to produce our own boot floppies with unneeded options removed.. A net-booting floppy may be enough, and I'll add it to my list of things that I'll keep my eye on.. If we get close and no-one has worked on it I'll see what I need to do to get it to work for us :-) (At that point I'd get payed to do whatever it took :-) > > Scott > >