Date: Wed, 6 Mar 1996 09:49:34 GMT From: Paul Richards <p.richards@elsevier.co.uk> To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org, joerg_wunsch@uriah.heep.sax.de Subject: Re: Fixit floppy (Was: Please Read This) Message-ID: <199603060949.JAA04751@tees>
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> As Paul Richards wrote: > > > To make matters worse, there isn't a very usefull fixit disk anywhere to > > grab. The fixit image on the cdrom doesn't have a kernel on it! The kernel > > on the install floppy is a bit weird :-) > > The suggested way of using the fixit floppy is to boot the install > floppy, and select the fixit option. DON'T DO IT WITH A 2.2 INSTALL > FLOPPY! The gzip execution code is currently *WAY* broken, you > usually end up with a machine silently resetting. :-(( I couldn't get this to work, it's what I tried. The install floppy always goes into sysinstall and I didn't see a fixit option, which probably means I have an old install floppy. > Should you need a tweaked kernel in order to use the fixit floppy (but > then again, NOT from 2.2-current!), simply newfs a floppy, stick the > kernel there, boot it, and swap this floppy for the fixit one while > the boot is proceeding. The fixit floppy should contain enough stuff > to get you going... Aaaaie, sheesh, somebody removed /sbin/init from > there. :-(( > A missing /sbin/init is I think part of the problem I had :-) You might want to explain to me how I newfs a floppy to recover from when all I had was DOS and the cdrom :-) The fixit recovery method is currently not much use when you're *completely* spammed. I was basically missing a kernel to boot and the image on the install floppy has lots of weird things going on, like gzip and inline root filesystems and things that make it a bit hard to make sense of when you're dead in the water. A simple single user boot to sh with some basic tools is much more important in such a spammed situation and we don't have that available anymore. As a recovery tool I'd be happy with *2* floppies if we're short of space, one I can boot a kernel off and one with recovery tools as a filesystem image. We don't need to be so user-friendly in such situations since it's going to take an experienced user to recover from such a situation anyway, we just need to provide the images on the cdrom so you can recover yourself when you only have DOS left. If you don't have DOS on your box then you're going to need to create these floppies off the cdrom when you install initially a'la Win NT etc.
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