Re: Dropping firewire support from boot loader

From: Mark Millard <marklmi_at_yahoo.com>
Date: Wed, 09 Nov 2022 22:51:48 UTC
On Nov 9, 2022, at 14:42, Mark Millard <marklmi@yahoo.com> wrote:

> Warner Losh <imp_at_bsdimp.com> wrote on
> Date: Wed, 09 Nov 2022 20:01:41 UTC :
> 
>> I'd like to drop firewire support from the boot loader. It's not been used
>> in quite some time, as far as I can tell. Nor have I (or anybody else)
>> tested it in forever.
>> 
>> Is anybody still using it? Does anybody know if it works? Any objections to
>> removing it from FreeBSD 14?
> 
> I would suggest that old PowerMac's might be the most
> likely usage context.
> 
> I no longer have a PowerPC context of any kind. I mostly
> booted from SATA SSD's back when I had access to working
> PowerMacs. I've not been able to remember if I'd tried
> FireWire based booting of FreeBSD or what the status was
> if/when I did.
> 
> I did use the cross machine FireWire means of looking
> into boot crashes, as it could report some console
> output even after the display quit updating for some
> problems I had. (I never had a serial console context
> on any of the old PowerMacs.) I do not remember much
> detail about this use.
> 
> I'm not sure if I can submit to freebsd-ppc any more but
> I'll try for this reply. If it does not show up, you may
> need to send your own message there if you want a message
> about the issue there.

FYI . . .
I'm no longer a member of freebsd-ppc and can not submit
to the list as long as that is the case: the message
bounced back from freebsd-ppc for this reason.

===
Mark Millard
marklmi at yahoo.com