Date: Mon, 06 Mar 2000 22:13:57 -0500 (EST) From: John Baldwin <jhb@FreeBSD.org> To: John Daniels <jmd526@hotmail.com> Cc: freebsd-qa@FreeBSD.org, freebsd-current@FreeBSD.org Subject: RE: FINAL: installation floppies and USB Message-ID: <200003070313.WAA02926@server.baldwin.cx> In-Reply-To: <20000307000212.53223.qmail@hotmail.com>
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On 07-Mar-00 John Daniels wrote: > Hi: > My installation problem has been solved. For those of you who have not been > following "Installation floppies and USB," I have written a short synopsis > after my description of the resolution and conclusion. Good, glad you got your system working. > 4- Although I was disappointed that FreeBSD did not support USB > “out-of-the-box,” I did not expect a lot of support (like I had as a paying > customer of RedHat’s). NetBSD’s installation floppy did work and that was > my backup but I was encouraged to continue looking into my USB problem > because I found that FreeBSD developers were willing to be helpful. This is > especially true of John Barton, who first volunteered to help, but also of > John Reynolds who elevated my problem to -current and Nick Hibma who > responded quickly and cogently. This does need to be rectified. I still want to build a USB-enabled release and try to get it tested, or at least some custom boot floppies. If I get these built, I might ask to have you test them for me if you could. The thing is, while you may have been fortunate to find some PS/2 ports, a lot of new motherboads are USB only. I know because I have been looking at getting an Athlon, and most of the Athlon motherboards are USB only. Part of the problem is that apparently USB cannot be compiled directly into the kernel. Instead, doing so results in an unstable kernel. Instead, USB needs to be loaded via kld's, which complicates the boot disks somewhat. > 5- Perhaps I am naïve, but stating that an OS “supports” a device is > confusing when that “support” has to be compiled in. There should be a > sharper distinction between support out-of-the-box (in GENERIC) and > otherwise. Part of the confusion stems from the fact that USB seems so > basic. For example, almost any PC will “support” a hard disk and a printer > but most people would expect a hard disk to come with the machine. > In fact, hardware.txt states: > “The FreeBSD kernel on the install floppy contains drivers for every > piece of hardware that could conceivably be used to install the rest > of the system with. As mentioned above, this is a definite concern that needs to be addressed. -- John Baldwin <jhb@FreeBSD.org> -- http://www.FreeBSD.org/~jhb/ PGP Key: http://www.cslab.vt.edu/~jobaldwi/pgpkey.asc "Power Users Use the Power to Serve!" - http://www.FreeBSD.org/ To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message
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