From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: "Jason Gurtz" To: <9fans@cse.psu.edu> Subject: RE: [9fans] new bootstrap structure Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable In-Reply-To: <20011113234030.E5B8319A4A@mail.cse.psu.edu> Date: Wed, 14 Nov 2001 11:33:55 -0500 Topicbox-Message-UUID: 22a99346-eaca-11e9-9e20-41e7f4b1d025 > what to do for people without CD drives is a > seperate question. I'm not sure how many people around here have played much with the = grub bootloader. It supports quite a few "standardish" Ethernet = adapters as well as built in support for reading FAT and other file = systems. This comes in handy as grub features a built in (very) mini = shell not entirely unlike what the PROM offers in a RISC box. The = hapless admin can hand boot an OS from any of the recognized file = systems. The version I've built for booting GNU/Linux weighs in <115K. = It might be a bit more than Plan 9 needs but it could be a good source = of ideas. Find it here: http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/=20 I few days ago I did an ftp install of FreeBSD 4.4-RELEASE. It's = pretty smooth; one downloads 2 1.44 Meg floppy images, dd them to disks = (gah, 5 out of 7 were ready for the bin) and boot. The rest of it was = fairly intuitive to me save for that it's not immediately clear when you = are done. There was no wording to suggest that indeed all tasks were = complete and I should reboot now. Other than that I had my cake and ate = it too :) I would consider it close to a model install process. P.S. Don't be afraid of the GNU people calling it alpha software. It = has yet to fail me in several situations. But maybe better programmers = like yourselves would have a clearer view of whether to be afraid or not = ;) Cheers, ~Jason --=20