Subject: Re: sun-lamp CVS commits
To: Ken Hornstein <kenh@cmf.nrl.navy.mil>
From: Jason Thorpe <thorpej@nas.nasa.gov>
List: current-users
Date: 10/04/1995 01:34:15
On Wed, 04 Oct 1995 01:22:23 -0400
Ken Hornstein <kenh@cmf.nrl.navy.mil> wrote:
> >Log Message:
> >First-cut of hp300 miniroot-based installation tools. Currently understands
> >installing from FTP or NFS server, tape, or CD-ROM, although tape and
> >CD-ROM are currently untested. Hooks for placing disklabels on additional
> >disks are there, but meat is yet to be implemented.
>
> I'm just curious .... will this new installation procedure you're working on
> be in any way applicable to other ports? I know that of all things,
> the installation process is probably one of the most machine-specific around,
> but if other ports could leverage this work, it would be most cool.
It could be easily adapted to other ports, yes. I made an effort to keep
machine-dependent goo to a minimum. Probably the most machine-dependent
part in the installation script is the regexp's applied to dmesg output
to determine which devices are there (not much else you can do in a shell
script :-).
I personally like the miniroot approach, and don't see any reason why it
couldn't be used on the i386, even. The hp300's 5mb miniroot might take
a while to dump to disk over the network (there's a standalone program,
SYS_INST, that labels the boot disk, copies miniroot from NFS server,
boots miniroot), but it has lots of regular tools that make getting the
installation task done a lot easier (like vi(1), for example).
You might find it interesting to just take a look at that stuff ...
adaptability was in mind when I wrote it, and I know of at least one
person who is considering using it for another port...I'll let him speak
up if he wants...
I must say, out of all of the above installation options, FTP is by far
my favorite ... For people who have access to a network, all you need is
to d/l the miniroot media, and connect to ftp.NetBSD.ORG or a mirror for
the actual distribution :-) (Ok, well I haven't tested _that_ part yet,
but it's sure nifty on my little network at home! :-)
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