Op di 15-04-2003, om 12:35 schreef Alastair McKinstry:
> I think the single net floppy is dead, too, unfortunately.
>
> A single net floppy would have to either:
> (1) Contain all the modules necessary to set up networking, or
> (2) contain another retriever (eg floppy) to get any unusual ones.
>
> Both of these are killed by usb, pcmcia and floppy modules; we will need
> USB for either case, for USB networking devices or for USB floppy
> drives. It won't fit based on the current size issues.
>
> If we do succeed in slimming down code, then we still have the mess of
> different proceduces for i386 and {alpha, powerpc, etc}. archs, as they
> will be different in layout.
>
> Finally we have a problem with "keytimer". For USB keyboards, either the
> keyboard stops functioning when the USB Host Controller is loaded, or
> when the kernel booted (depending on BIOS). So for such systems we need
> a method of loading kernel + usb + input modules without keyboard usage.
> The boot-floppies method was a cmdline prompt "keytimer", which gave the
> user a prompt to change the floppy within n seconds, then loaded the
> second floppy. We need to do something similar.
>
> Because of all this, I recommend that we go to a kernel floppy + initrd
> floppy solution, with USB modules on the initrd floppy.
> This also should give us the space to have i18n in the net floppy case.
I do think, though, that it would be better to provide multiple flavors,
then. I'm thinking of one 'minimal' netinstall-system which fits on a
single floppy, which supports most (but maybe not all) hardware, and
which does not support i18n; and a 'full-blown' floppy-set which does
support all of the above, but which does not fit on a single disk.
As such, our users can choose what they like most; and if you remember
that e.g. RedHat's netinstall floppy does not support graphical
installations[1], I don't think that would be a drawback when you
compare our installer to theirs.
[1] At least not with 7.1 it didn't
--
wouter at grep dot be
"An expert can usually spot the difference between a fake charge and a
full one, but there are plenty of dead experts."
-- National Geographic Channel, in a documentary about large African beasts.
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