Floppies for i386
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I haven't heard in a while about kernel 2.6 floppies for i386, and I
know there aren't any, so I have a proposal (which I would implement)
I'm thinking that the first (syslinux + main kernel) floppy could be
configured with an almost completely modular kernel (except the floppy,
keyboard, console, and similar essentials, which I would figure out),
and even then no modules not used by d-i shouldn't be compiled either,
and an initrd that contained only dash, whiptail and other essentials to
provide a menu that looks like the rest of the installer, but whose
sole function is to allow the friendly (compared to the loading of the
ramdisk from a floppy that the kernel does) loading of the real
installer root, and essential floppies.
The reason for my suggestion is that 2.6 is big enough that keeping the
initrd/initramfs small enough to fit on the same floppy is very
difficult, and loading the actual d-i environment is too big. The way
I envision it, this suggestion could make the cd intrd or netboot initrd
and the floppy 'real initrd' (that is the rootfs loaded by the
initramfs on the boot floppy) the same, or almost the same.
It's hard to get a minimal busybox small enough, at least compiled
statically with glibc, so I'm thinking of the absolute minimum of
executables that would allow for reasonably friendly loading of the
rest of the install system.
This option could also apply to powerpc miboot, with the addition of
eject to allow a floppy installation without a bent paperclip to eject
disks.
- --
GnuPG Key Fingerprint 86 F5 81 A5 D4 2E 1F 1C
And that's my crabbing done for the day. Got it out of the way early,
now I have the rest of the afternoon to sniff fragrant tea-roses or
strangle cute bunnies or something. -- Michael Devore
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