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Date:      Thu, 27 Feb 2003 15:14:48 -0500
From:      Garance A Drosihn <drosih@rpi.edu>
To:        Ruslan Ermilov <ru@FreeBSD.ORG>, Geoffrey <geoffrey@reptiles.org>
Cc:        current@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: Any ideas why we can't even boot a i386 ?
Message-ID:  <p05200f25ba841e941541@[128.113.24.47]>
In-Reply-To: <20030227112755.GC39346@sunbay.com>
References:  <20030227042706.A67762@FreeBSD.org> <20030227052926.G28626-100000@iguana.reptiles.org> <20030227112755.GC39346@sunbay.com>

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At 1:27 PM +0200 2/27/03, Ruslan Ermilov wrote:
>: RCS file: /home/ncvs/src/sys/i386/conf/GENERIC,v
>: Working file: GENERIC
>: description:
>: ----------------------------
>: revision 1.296
>: date: 2001/01/14 10:11:10;  author: jhb;  state: Exp;  lines: +2 -2
>:
>: Remove I386_CPU from GENERIC.  Support for the 386 seriously
>: pessimizes performance on other x86 processors.  Custom kernels
>: can still be built that will run on the 386.

While there was good reason for removing i386 from GENERIC, that
does mean that someone "just wanting to try freebsd" on a i386
may very well give up before realizing that it does (hopefully!)
work.

For official release CDs, should we also provide a GENERIC_I386
kernel, so the person can get up-and-running without having to
first build a new kernel?  Or will they just run into other
problems once they get past the kernel, due to everything else
in the system being compiled for i486 & newer?

I think we (developers) get a little too used to having multiple
machines around, and assume that everyone who might want to test
freebsd will have some hardware that works for the GENERIC kernel,
and which they can use to first do a buildkernel for the hardware
they really want to test freebsd on.

I'm thinking maybe the 5.x release CD's should include:
     GENERIC
     GENERIC +SMP
     GENERIC +VMWARE-friendly settings
     GENERIC for i386

Would that add too much extra work for a 5.x release?

-- 
Garance Alistair Drosehn            =   gad@gilead.netel.rpi.edu
Senior Systems Programmer           or  gad@freebsd.org
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute    or  drosih@rpi.edu

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