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Date:      Fri, 16 Dec 2005 00:42:51 -0700
From:      Scott Long <scottl@samsco.org>
To:        hackers@freebsd.org
Subject:   My wish list for 6.1
Message-ID:  <43A26FFB.9080405@samsco.org>

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Guys,

With code freeze for 6.1 about 6 weeks away, I'd like to put out my 
'wish list' for it:

1.  working kbdmux.  We need this for the growing number of systems that
assume that USB is the primary keyboard.  Current status appears to be
that the kbdmux driver breaks very easily.  We need this working well
enough where it can be enabled by default, and all attached keyboards
Just Work.

2.  SMP kernels for install.  Right now we only install a UP kernel, for
performance reasons.  We should be able to package both a UP and SMP
kernel into the release bits, and have sysinstall install both.  It 
should also select the correct one for the target system and make that
the default on boot.  The easiest way to do this would be to have
sysinstall boot an SMP kernel and then look at the hw.ncpu sysctl.  The
only problem is being able to have sysinstall fall back to booting a UP
kernel for itself if the SMP one fails.  This can probably be 'faked' by
setting one of the SMP-disabling variables in the loader.  But in any
case, the point is to make the process Just Work for the user, without
the user needing to know arcane loader/sysctl knobs.  SMP laptops are
right around the corner, and we should be ready to support SMP
out-of-the-box.

3.  Full review and update of the install docs, handbook, FAQ, etc. 
There are sections that are embarrassingly out of date (one section of
the handbook apparently states that we only support a single brand of
wifi cards).  A co-worker of mine tried to install 6.0 using just the
handbook install guide, and discovered that it really doesn't match
reality anymore, in both big and small ways.  Contact me directly if
you would like his list of comments.

Thanks!

Scott



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