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Date:      Thu, 31 Dec 1998 16:09:28 +0200 (SAT)
From:      Robert Nordier <rnordier@nordier.com>
To:        abial@nask.pl (Andrzej Bialecki)
Cc:        rnordier@nordier.com, peter@netplex.com.au, current@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: HEADS UP: FLAG DAY COMING (was Re: New aout-to-elf build failures.)
Message-ID:  <199812311409.QAA18260@ceia.nordier.com>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.4.02A.9812311346290.5582-100000@korin.warman.org.pl> from Andrzej Bialecki at "Dec 31, 98 01:52:13 pm"

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Andrzej Bialecki wrote:
> On Thu, 31 Dec 1998, Robert Nordier wrote:
> 
> > Peter Wemm wrote: 
> > 
> > > === INCOMPLETE DRAFT ===
> > 
> > > - The new bootblocks default to /boot/loader, but there are some problems
> > >   for some people still.  This needs to be fixed, and either the new
> > >   bootblocks need fixing or the old bootblocks need a cutdown and
> > >   modified to fire up /boot/loader by default.
> > 
> > Since early November (and up to and including an issue reported on
> > -current yesterday), all apparent show-stopping problems with the
> > new bootblocks have turned out to be due to configuration and/or
> > pilot errors: where it has been possible to get further details.
> > 
> > So if anyone still can't use the new bootblocks, there's almost
> > certainly some simple and painless solution which doesn't require
> > code fixes to sort out; and anyone who needs help is more than
> > welcome to contact me.
> 
> Ok, here's my question: how do you replace functionality of kzip (which
> doesn't work for ELF kernels) without loosing 120kB of disk space for
> /boot/loader? In case of normal installations it doesn't matter, but in
> case of a floppy... Thus far I was able to use kzip with a.out kernels to
> save space on the floppy. Since we're going ELF with kernel, and kzip
> doesn't work there, I'm now forced to use gzip and /boot/loader, which
> takes about 100kB more than simply boot2 and kzipped (a.out) kernel.

We can't fit gunzip code into boot2 because we have a 7K limit (8K
- boot1 - label).  So you need either a self-extracting kernel,
or a stripped-down /boot/loader, or a /boot/loader replacement.

Having looked at the kzip and kzipboot code, I don't think all that
much revision would be needed to handle an ELF kernel.

Though I'd probably be inclined to write a standalone BTX application
(around 16K) which would just function as a non-interactive gzipped
ELF loader, if I had to do this myself.

This seems one of those cases where the aims of PicoBSD and FreeBSD
itself diverge to the extent that optimum results require some
custom development.

--
Robert Nordier

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