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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