Date: Mon, 21 Sep 1998 03:28:17 +0800 From: Peter Wemm <peter@netplex.com.au> To: "Jordan K. Hubbard" <jkh@time.cdrom.com> Cc: Timo Geusch <freebsd@timog.prestel.co.uk>, current@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: DEVFS & SLICE? Message-ID: <199809201928.DAA02596@spinner.netplex.com.au> In-Reply-To: Your message of "Sun, 20 Sep 1998 07:48:22 MST." <17770.906302902@time.cdrom.com>
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"Jordan K. Hubbard" wrote: > > I for one am rather pissed off about the removal of SLICE. > > > > In particular, it's crippled a critical part of devfs at mountroot time, > > although I'd argue that the parts that I'm most annoyed about the loss of > > should have really been part of the DEVFS option than part of "SLICE". > > The really sad part is that the existing geometry system isn't really up > > to the task of booting without a real /dev. (ie: can't access /dev/da0s1a > > via devfs to mount root unless an access to /dev/da0s1 happens first) > > Would it be possible to enhance DEVFS before release time to get back > just those elements of the-code-formerly-known-as-SLICE necessary to > make DEVFS itself useful again? I personally don't use DEVFS nor > would I recommend it to the casual user (it's way too easy to crash > your system with it), but for those who really want to, it seems > worthwhile to try and make it at least minimally functional. I think Julian's Big Mistake (TM) was bundling the SLICE option with the nifty root and /dev bootstrap system. They don't really seem to be related and they seem to get easily mixed up.. Julian first described his design for 'slice' to me over 2 years ago, and I thought back then that it was ambitious and was going to be an uphill battle. I'll take a shot at salvaging the DEVFS bootstrap parts.. But without the slice boot-time "active probe" as such, there's a real chicken/egg problem of getting the 'a' etc partitions to appear in the first place. I'm not sure if it's going to be possible. Under devfs with (say) a wd0 drive with freebsd partitions in wd0s1, the /dev/wd0s1a node doesn't "appear" until the disk is opened and the partitions probed. With slice, it would automatically appear, in the same way that the scsi devices are probed at the end of the bootstrap. The PicoBSD folks have bailed out already by the look of it. > Of course, the real problem here (IMO) is that DEVFS has neither an > architect nor an owner. It is another one of our orphaned children, > abandoned on FreeBSD's doorstep, and in order for it (or something > different calling itself by the same name) to really succeed in > FreeBSD, that's what really has to change first. Any takers? Hey, > where'd everybody go? :-) Yes, but I'm not so sure that it's just a DEVFS problem.. I'm sure we'd all love to have a 48 hour day so that we could spend an extra 24 hours per day on FreeBSD away from other real world problems etc. I like Soren's signature: "Even more code to hack -- will it ever end?" > - Jordan Cheers, -Peter To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message
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