Date: Wed, 29 Apr 1998 14:52:42 +0800 From: Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com> To: dwilde1@ibm.net, "Jordan K. Hubbard" <jkh@time.cdrom.com> Cc: freebsd-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Demo CDs (was: blessing) Message-ID: <19980429145242.02565@papillon.lemis.com> In-Reply-To: <3541F04D.474FE994@ibm.net>; from Don Wilde on Sat, Apr 25, 1998 at 07:16:45AM -0700 References: <17537.893491629@time.cdrom.com> <3541F04D.474FE994@ibm.net>
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On Sat, 25 April 1998 at 7:16:45 -0700, Don Wilde wrote:
> Jordan K. Hubbard wrote:
>>
>> [Sorry for delay]
>>
>> > Okay, the first thing I'd like to do is to return this discussion to
>> > -advocacy. I need enthusiastic people and they need leadership.
>>
>> Agreed. Listen to General Wilde, folks. :-)
>
> Second, the easy-demo-version disk is a real winner, especially a
> you-*can't*-break-anything version that runs completely off the CD
> and DRAM. _Please_ keep working on these, because I'm gonna be way
> too busy to do more than kibitz.(Greg and Eivind?).
Is this me you're talking about? I thought my role was to stand in
the wings and encourage people.
OK, so what do we need? My thought is for two or three preinstalled
versions:
1. A CD-ROM-based version which will boot from CD-ROM, Microsoft or
floppy, create an MFS file system for things that really need to
write to "disk", and other than that run from CD-ROM. Create the
/ file system on the mfs and symlinks to just about everything
except /tmp, /var/tmp and /home to the CD-ROM. With any luck, we
should be able to get away with 4 MB MFS.
2. PicoBSD for those who want it. Copy to floppy and execute.
3. In the background, for those who are hooked, the regular
installable version of FreeBSD.
Versions (1) and (2) would effectively be canned versions which
couldn't easily be modified. Run with "standard" peripherals,
including Enternet and SVGA to 1024x768, but with a base resolution of
640x480 so that X will come up on just about any currently available
board. Include a functional fvwm95 window mangler so that what comes
up looks pretty much like what Microsoft users are used to (can
somebody come up with a daemon logo to fit where Microsoft puts its
windows logo?). Also a PPP configuration that could easily be
modified to suit just about anything that the standard Windows 95% can
do.
This thing needs more flesh. Any ideas? What problems do you see?
About the biggest one I see so far is how to find the mouse. It would
be nice to modify startx to check for the mouse if no valid pointer
section is found in the XF86Config file ("no mouse found: please move
your mouse around until I say \"stop\""). Anybody know how to
recognize a mouse?
Greg
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