Date: Tue, 02 Jan 1996 23:02:46 -0600 From: Jon Loeliger <jdl@jdl.com> To: "Jordan K. Hubbard" <jkh@time.cdrom.com> Cc: obrien@cs.ucdavis.edu (David E. O'Brien), freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org (FreeBSD Hacker's list) Subject: Re: X for install Message-ID: <199601030503.XAA02277@chrome.jdl.com> In-Reply-To: Your message of "Tue, 02 Jan 1996 17:42:54 PST." <1164.820633374@time.cdrom.com>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
Apparently, "Jordan K. Hubbard" scribbled: > It found > my NIC and popped a configuration screen for it in my face, then it > found my NCR and the CDROM attached, finished its basic installation > then detected my Matrox and offered me a screen setup dialog. System > [...] > That's how it *should* work, and as far as I can see, much of the > "magic" comes from a little utility named `NTDETECT' - It apparently > figures out who's where and reports this information back to higher > level code which can say "Aha! A Forchknacker EMT5023 NIC! > I've often stated my willingness to do the "GUI" grot that would be > required to make all those nifty auto-configuration screens come up, > but the `NTDETECT' side of things is not really in my area of > expertise. Knowing how to stomp around in the PC memory & I/O address > spaces and deal (hopefully) robustly with errors and cards going wiggy > when probed is a black art. Any black magicians out there interested > in starting a `FreeBSD Detect 1.0' project? :-) This sounds to me like the same general goal as the separation of the hardware detection process during boot -- part of the detect, semi-probe, negotiate, allocate, attach process that we've often discussed. Can the same core be used for both the normal UNIX boot process and for the initial system config/install process? Or am I totally in the weeds here? jdl
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?199601030503.XAA02277>