Subject: Kernel diet
To: None <port-i386@netbsd.org>
From: Andrew Steven Ball <kb9ylw@cyberspace.org>
List: port-i386
Date: 12/31/2000 01:31:12
Hello Richard!
RR> FWIW: The kernel that was installed on my 1.5 system,
> from Tracy di Marco White's ISO images, is 4749749
> bytes. After you subtract buffers and other overhead,
> you wouldn't have much space left to swim in. (^&
Hmm... I wonder how much of that I could leave out. I don't
know how big floating point emulation is, perhaps it's a
shame I don't have an 80387sx laying around. I won't need
PCI, PnP, USB, APM or VGA support and I could probably go
without SCSI if need be. I would welcome other suggestions
as to things I could loose in a kernel diet
RR> If you are willing to trust someone else to build a
> kernel for you, I'd offer up some of my spare CPU
> cycles. Send me a config file, and if it compiles,
> I'll send the (1.5) kernel back.
Thanks, there's a good chance I'll take you up on that. I'll
try to install using a generic kernel, see if I can figure
out how to produce a suitable config file and send it to
you. Probably won't be this week though.
RR> I'm not sure what you mean by ``disabling'' the
> parallel port. Unless there's some benefit to doing
> so, you might hold off on that. You never know what
> someone might add. Besides: The pc532-specific man-
> pages, section 4, contain a plip entry. They claim
> that ``The plip interface appeared in NetBSD 1.0.''
> The PLIP sources seem to be buried in the pc532-
> specific lpt driver; there's some inline assembly in
> there...
I'm not familiar with pc532, it's something I'll have to
look up. There is probably a jumper on the card to
electrically remove the parallel port from the machine. I
guess omitting parallel port drivers from the kernel might
save a few bytes too (no idea how many though).
RR> Alternatively to [temporarily] installing a floppy
> drive, he could use a CD-ROM drive...
This mainboard is old enough that I would be very surprised
if it would boot from a CD-ROM drive. I probably won't even
fit a CD-ROM drive because the machine only has one ATA
channel and I generally don't mix ATA and ATAPI devices on
the same bus.
Incidentally, I'm not a big fan of the PC, but giving it the
ability to boot from CD-ROM was a really sensible (albeit
recent) idea.
RR> How many other ways can you get NetBSD onto an i386
> w/o touching floppies, I wonder?
I'm guessing net-boot and 'disk transplant' as you've
described. Can't think of any other easy ones from the top
of my head (although some hideously complicated ones come to
mind ;o)
RR> I don't suppose that NetBSD lends itself to being
> burned onto an [E]PROM?
I think that's a very valid and interesting question. There
is a big movement at present towards unix in embedded
systems. I know of at least one version of Linux that is
'ROMable' and where the bulk of it's filesystem can be read-
only. I understand BSD is being used in some consumer
devices, perhaps running from a Flash disk.
Regards,
- Andy.