Re: [PLUG] debian-netbsd

[gabriel rosenkoetter <gr@eclipsed.net>]

On Tue, Jan 22, 2002 at 11:08:39AM -0500, Chris Beggy  wrote:
> I don't really care about installers. I was surprised that NetBSD
> couldn't load a root file system/rescue file system into ramdisk
> when booting over the network.

Uh... that's exactly what NetBSD install media *does* do. Once in
sysinst, hit ^C (or select "exit install system" or whatever it's
called) and you're in sh on a working (although minimal) system. Is
this not what you meant?

You can use Luke Mewborn's new tool, makefs (part of the base system
in -current, should be part of 1.5.3 when it's out, but don't quote
me on that), to create any kind of file system in a file, and you
can initialize any size memory disk (see md(4), mdconfig(8), and
mdsetimage(8)) from a custom-built kernel the same way that the
INSTALL kernel does, provided you've got enough RAM for it, of
course.

Some ports (maybe excluding sparc64) provide a rescue floppy or boot
image... but making one yourself is trivial. (Trivial and peripheral
things that don't directly impact the OS are often left undone in
NetBSD... not that no one's done them, just that none of us have
seen as it was necessary to put them on the ftp server. Cf, lack
of user friendliness. ;^>)

> In contrast, the debian sparc64 kernel image includes a
> root/rescue file system in the image that gets fetched in a
> network boot.

Bully for them. :^>

> From my perspective, it's more of a rescue and repair issue, but
> I know what you mean.

Sure, but many in the NetBSD community (including me) see setting
that kind of thing up as the system administrator's responsibility,
not the distribution's.

Asking on the appropriate NetBSD mailing lists would get you several
people's kernel config files and sets of instructions for doing
something like this.

The feeling is that if enough people need this, one of them will
eventually decide to commit it (if they're a developer) or send-pr
it (if they're not) and it'll get added to the base system.

I'm not defending this (I know exactly how irritating it can be as a
newcomer, even an experience newcomer), just explaining it. :^>

-- 
gabriel rosenkoetter
gr@eclipsed.net

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