Date: Wed, 3 Nov 1999 09:09:21 +0100 (CET) From: Luigi Rizzo <luigi@info.iet.unipi.it> To: mike@smith.net.au (Mike Smith) Cc: current@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: GENERIC build broken Message-ID: <199911030809.JAA33688@info.iet.unipi.it> In-Reply-To: <199911030538.VAA02485@dingo.cdrom.com> from Mike Smith at "Nov 2, 1999 9:38:54 pm"
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Sorry for jumping into the thread but note that netboot is not functional with ELF kernels, and in any case it basically only supports one card type. Now you tell me that etherboot is so much better than netboot, but it still only supports a few cards and some of them do not even work for all models (e.g. "de" is notoriously broken). Here we have a few labs running FreeBSD diskless, and kernel bootp support is the only thing that lets us do the job without messing up too much with configurations. We boot kernels from a small fbsd partition (which isn't that bad after all, because in the end you need some place to stick netboot/etherboot onto, and this reduces a lot of traffic/server load when in the morning or at the beginning of a class everybody reboots at the same time), and then do the bootp config, nfs-mount root etc. The alternative would be, i believe, to have a small fs image that the boot loader brings up, containing whatever (DHCP client etc.) is needed to do an ifconfig, set an address and a route, and then proceed. Of course it can be done but this requires a bit of annoying tricks to replace /etc/rc at some point (which is the same trick picobsd does, and is a big source of confusion). cheers luigi > > :application-level snot like BOOTP at all. > > : > > :The same work was previously done by netboot; putting bootp into the > > :kernel was _always_ the wrong idea. ... > Er, hello? It's _already_been_done_, even. See above inre: netboot. ... > It's pointless duplicating it in the kernel when the code that's loaded > the kernel has already done it. Nuking it from the kernel has several > benefits: > > - the bootp code in the kernel has rotted, and is quite ugly. > - it removes one more confusing option. > - it's redundant. > The code for performing the actual NFS root mount is tiny compared to > the bootp and ifconfig code. > > -- > \\ Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. \\ Mike Smith > \\ Tell him he should learn how to fish himself, \\ msmith@freebsd.org > \\ and he'll hate you for a lifetime. \\ msmith@cdrom.com > > > > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message
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