From owner-freebsd-chat Fri Mar 7 11:50:11 2003 Delivered-To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D930237B405; Fri, 7 Mar 2003 11:50:09 -0800 (PST) Received: from heron.mail.pas.earthlink.net (heron.mail.pas.earthlink.net [207.217.120.189]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 531C243FBF; Fri, 7 Mar 2003 11:50:09 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from tlambert2@mindspring.com) Received: from dialup-209.244.106.70.dial1.sanjose1.level3.net ([209.244.106.70] helo=mindspring.com) by heron.mail.pas.earthlink.net with asmtp (SSLv3:RC4-MD5:128) (Exim 3.33 #1) id 18rNr6-0004yU-00; Fri, 07 Mar 2003 11:50:09 -0800 Message-ID: <3E68F79D.817B46E6@mindspring.com> Date: Fri, 07 Mar 2003 11:48:45 -0800 From: Terry Lambert X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.79 [en] (Win98; U) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: John Baldwin Cc: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org, Damien Tougas Subject: Re: A question about kernel modules References: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-ELNK-Trace: b1a02af9316fbb217a47c185c03b154d40683398e744b8a4135c92432a688bd870ee3910824fc3d12601a10902912494350badd9bab72f9c350badd9bab72f9c Sender: owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.org John Baldwin wrote: > > The GENERIC kernel is loaded from a CDROM controller BIOS faked-up > > floppy drive, which is how CDROMs are able to boot. Even if all > > other issues were resolved, this floppy image would be unable to > > contain all the necessary modules. For the modules to be read off > > the CDROM or other boot media, all the code in the module loading > > path would have to be statically present (ISO9660 FS, ATA and SCSI > > drivers, CDROM driver, etc., etc.). By including all the drivers > > in the GENERIC kernel, it makes it much more likely that you will > > b able to actually install FreeBSD in the first place. > > FreeBSD hasn't used the floppy-emulation mode of CD booting since > 4.6. See /usr/src/sys/boot/i386/cdboot/cdboot.s and an El Torito > standard for more details. Oops; I was looking at a 4.5 box, which is what I mostly use to do scratch work. The main point was that we get to load only one file, and have no CDROM access after that, except through drivers which must be present in the kernel. I think that's still valid to say. -- Terry To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message