Date: Thu, 8 Jan 2004 09:39:34 -0500 From: Leo Bicknell <bicknell@ufp.org> To: hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Discussion on the future of floppies in 5.x and 6.x Message-ID: <20040108143934.GA51446@ussenterprise.ufp.org> In-Reply-To: <20040107235737.I32227@pooker.samsco.home> References: <20040107235737.I32227@pooker.samsco.home>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
--W/nzBZO5zC0uMSeA Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable I'm going to propose a different solution that was brought up about two years ago (although I can't find it now). You start with something like the CD boot image mentioned, that is a 3-5 Meg iso image that basically contains what is now on the floppies (perhaps with a few more drivers/modules) and nothing more. Downloading and burning to CD would be the primary method of install. Then, to replace the current floppy process, a new floppy installer is created. It may or may not be based on FreeBSD, but what it needs to be able to do is boot, load a network driver, configure the network, and ftp the above mentioned iso into ram, and then jump into the kernel from the iso as if it had been loaded from a CD. Yes, I'm grossly oversimplifing the process, but it removes all of sysinstall from the floppy, all the need for crunchgen and all that, as it should be fairly easy (again, perhaps not with a full kernel) to support a number of network drivers and a basic FTP client on a single floppy. The only real direct freebsd issue is to make the kernel able to boot itself from memory, and then treat that memory as a ram disc on boot. It would require a whole new floppy booter setup, but I can see other OS projects using something like this as well, so perhaps some cross work with NetBSD or OpenBSD, or even the Linux camp could make an open source "load an image" floppy, that since it just loaded an ISO could load about anything. --=20 Leo Bicknell - bicknell@ufp.org - CCIE 3440 PGP keys at http://www.ufp.org/~bicknell/ Read TMBG List - tmbg-list-request@tmbg.org, www.tmbg.org --W/nzBZO5zC0uMSeA Content-Type: application/pgp-signature Content-Disposition: inline -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.1 (FreeBSD) iD8DBQE//WumNh6mMG5yMTYRAnOiAJ9auUonmzwqKT2/oADRLMhqPvhjogCfYsQi 7THSoJLpnDr0R/fDc4+ICVg= =WO51 -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --W/nzBZO5zC0uMSeA--
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?20040108143934.GA51446>