Re: Floppy Support

Peter Schultz wrote:
> Since we need to keep the floppies, why don't we create a number of
> custom kern.flp images?  This is a current issue of vital importance and
> must not be ingnored any longer.  Why, a simple rackmount system
> compatible kernel.gz could easily be less than 1MB in size.
> 
> Why insist kern.flp to be all things to all people?  That is what seems
> to be the root of the problem here.  Please forgive me if there are
> further binding issues holding the floppies in the position that they're
> currently in, but I don't see such a big problem in having some custom
> kernels defined for creating a set of kern.flps that people can choose
> from in order to match their set of requirements.  FreeBSD is already
> quite complex and to add a few more options in this area is not too much
> to ask of the installer's brain capacity.

We already support the concept of putting some drivers on
a seperate floppy; it's a matter of moving code not in the
floppy boot path off to a seperate floppy.  Mostly that
limits us to moving only certain drivers out of the kernel,
given PXE (net booting), CDROM booting, and floppy booting
all have to stay.

What that probably means is separate image distributions for
local media booting vs. remote media booting, to keep all
drivers in the boot path available.

So at this point, you need to take it up with the release
engineers.

-- Terry