Re: [9fans] Re: Réf. : [9fans] Booting from HD in the absence of floppy?

Re: [9fans] Re: Réf. : [9fans] Booting from HD in the absence of floppy?

[presotto]

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Wow, what a subject line.

I changed the fatal's in /sys/src/9/boot/key.c to warnings.  It wouldn't
have been a problem if the kflag wasn't set but what the hey, if someone
wants blank authentication info badly enough, who am I to tell them they're
wrong, especially since in this case they aren't.

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From: splite@purdue.edu
To: 9fans@cse.psu.edu
Subject: [9fans] Re: Réf. : [9fans] Booting from HD in the absence of floppy?
Date: Fri, 21 Jul 2000 08:33:51 -0500
Message-ID: <20000721083351.A1095@sigint.cs.purdue.edu>

On Fri, Jul 21, 2000 at 11:13:02AM +0200, boyd.roberts@ca-indosuez.com wrote:
> 
> i got one too.  the problem is that you can do that, but it
> looks for the nvram on the floppy and then it dies.  i think
> i have a code fragment to get it to look on c:  i just haven't had
> time to make up a new floppy.  i got a bit a work on at the mo.
> why it just doesn't look on the bootdev (c:) is beyond me.
> maybe a 'lack of foresight' --  philw :)

Not a "lack of foresight", but a conscious design decision, it seems.
This is the comment from finddosfile() in src/9/boot/key.c:

/*
 *  return offset of first file block
 *
 *  This is a very simplistic dos file system.  It only
 *  works on floppies, only looks in the root, and only
 *  returns a pointer to the first block of a file.
 *
 *  This exists for cpu servers that have no hard disk
 *  or nvram to store the key on.
 *
 *  Please don't make this any smarter: it stays resident
 *  and I'ld prefer not to waste the space on something that
 *  runs only at boottime -- presotto.
 */

As the key isn't needed to do an initial install, it would be nice if key()
would just notify the user and press on if it can't find a key anywhere.

If I can ever get my computer stuff unpacked and set up (moving sucks), I'll
have a go at fixing that.

[9fans] Re: Réf. : [9fans] Booting from HD in the absence of floppy?

[splite]

On Fri, Jul 21, 2000 at 11:13:02AM +0200, boyd.roberts@ca-indosuez.com wrote:
> 
> i got one too.  the problem is that you can do that, but it
> looks for the nvram on the floppy and then it dies.  i think
> i have a code fragment to get it to look on c:  i just haven't had
> time to make up a new floppy.  i got a bit a work on at the mo.
> why it just doesn't look on the bootdev (c:) is beyond me.
> maybe a 'lack of foresight' --  philw :)

Not a "lack of foresight", but a conscious design decision, it seems.
This is the comment from finddosfile() in src/9/boot/key.c:

/*
 *  return offset of first file block
 *
 *  This is a very simplistic dos file system.  It only
 *  works on floppies, only looks in the root, and only
 *  returns a pointer to the first block of a file.
 *
 *  This exists for cpu servers that have no hard disk
 *  or nvram to store the key on.
 *
 *  Please don't make this any smarter: it stays resident
 *  and I'ld prefer not to waste the space on something that
 *  runs only at boottime -- presotto.
 */

As the key isn't needed to do an initial install, it would be nice if key()
would just notify the user and press on if it can't find a key anywhere.

If I can ever get my computer stuff unpacked and set up (moving sucks), I'll
have a go at fixing that.