Date: Tue, 6 Jun 1995 23:37:22 +0930 (CST) From: Michael Smith <msmith@atrad.adelaide.edu.au> To: hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Ok, *now* it's End-Of-ALPHA Release Candidate time! Message-ID: <199506061407.XAA11808@genesis.atrad.adelaide.edu.au> In-Reply-To: <17750.802441698@freefall.cdrom.com> from "Jordan K. Hubbard" at Jun 6, 95 05:28:18 am
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Jordan K. Hubbard stands accused of saying: > The First trick is "kzip", or the compressed (gzip'd) kernel image. > Those familiar with Linux already know all about compressing kernels > to save space on boot floppies, and we're doing it now too. A kzip'd > kernel has a small bootstrap which loads it at 3MB and expands it. > This is why 4MB machines briefly stopped working a few days back; we'd > allowed the kernel to get larger than 1MB, and naturally there wasn't > much room left up there! :-) Needless to say, this trick is only good > for medium sized kernels.. > > The second trick is "kernmfs", which is a kernel that contains a large > pre-allocated array inside and into which a second utility has copied > a small root filesystem. This means that the kernel is now > essentially carrying its own root filesystem around with it and is > entirely self-contained, given some memory to run in. At some (later) stage, I'm going to want to talk about these two, EPROMs and embedded systems, but I think now is not a good time for that 8) > I just need to know right now how well it works on *your* machine! :-) Very well so far. I haven't prodded it _too_ much yet though. Hopefully you've fixed the /usr permissions booby. Note also that the XF86_SVGA server you're including has problems with Cirrus chipsets. I'm not sure whether you've applied the README.late patches to the tree before rolling it. (I noticed that it's different to the distribution in /pub/XFree86/ on wcarchive.) 2.0 compatability seems spot on - I haven't had any of my extensive collection of prebuilt applications barf on me, and stability seems good even under moderate load (4 or 5 consecutive compiles, Xboing, etc) > Do please also try to read through all the documentation before filing > a bug report. The documentation files are now available both inside > and outside the boot floppy and are easily accessible from your local > FTP mirror site. Most installation problems generally fall into a few > known categories which, believe it or not, are documented in the > Hardware guide and the Disk selection screen this time. Don't be > afraid to type "F1" and read everything you see! :-) The docco is pretty good. A little rushed (big surprise 8), but it seems to cover most of the known bogeys. IIRC, you even mention 3C509's in there somewhere 8) Are you planning on expanding the << XXX Hints... line in the hardware.hlp file, or is geometry magic a bad idea right now? > I REALLY WANT TO HEAR YOUR FEEDBACK! If it works, let me know! If it > doesn't work, also let me know! I need some feeling for our success > rate on installations and this is the only way to get it. I'll be throwing this at a couple of commercial people tomorrow - hopefully I'll get some feedback more or less straight away. They're particularly keen to see something that supports the NCR controllers, and this looks like it fits the bill. > Jordan You amaze me - if you can write like that while you're zonked, I can only assume you have a background involving advertising copy 8) (btw. Is it too late to put in an order for a low-numbered limited-edition 2.0.5 jordan-wilted-over-the-keyboard picture disk? If Peter Norton can do the unwashed pink shirt, I'm sure we can do you in shorts and sandals 8) -- ]] Mike Smith, Software Engineer msmith@atrad.adelaide.edu.au [[ ]] Genesis Software genesis@atrad.adelaide.edu.au [[ ]] High-speed data acquisition and [[ ]] realtime instrument control (ph/fax) +61-8-267-3039 [[ ]] My car has "demand start" - Terry Lambert [[
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