FreeBSD 9

Devin Teske devin.teske at fisglobal.com
Thu Jan 19 17:03:28 UTC 2012


On Jan 19, 2012, at 8:46 AM, Chad Perrin wrote:

> On Thu, Jan 19, 2012 at 10:41:37AM +0000, inquiz wrote:
>> Eduardo Morras <nec556 <at> retena.com> writes:
>> 
>>> ... 
>>> I think that a full/complete update of the old installer to add it 
>>> support GEOM, ZFS, scripting and more newer features will consume 
>>> more manpower and resources than create a new one from scratch, where 
>>> the devs aren't chained by old code, backwards compatibility, old 
>>> restrictions and old point of views. This way, is easier correct 
>>> bugs, new features, simplify the installation and even automate it to 
>>> this new installer than try to add them to the old one.
>>> 
>>> As always, i suppose that any ideas and help are welcome.
>>> ...
>> 
>> If devs decided that there are good technical and other reasons to retire
>> the old installer, then that's fair enough.
>> But then the new installer has to be at least equal in features, functionality,
>> and overall quality.
> 
> . . . or provide the ability to select the old installer at boot time,
> perhaps.  Let's not turn this into a false dilemma; I don't see why we
> can't have our cake and eat it too for a while.
> 

Before sysinstall is simply "made available" as an option, it first needs to be taught how to handle a monolithic txz file because the structure of the system has changed.

Also... sysinstall expects to boot into a RW filesystem, and I don't know yet whether the architecture has changed in this respect. If bsdinstall doesn't boot into an MFS, then having the boot loader set vfs.root.mountfrom.options to "rw" is of little effect (for example, if you're booting directly into an ISO 9660 filesystem which can't be made writable -- unionfs aside).

So, whatever prompt the user is given to choose between sysinstall and bsdinstall... said prompt best be pretty early in the game (if we're going to fork to two different operating environments: MFS versus ISO 9660).
-- 
Devin

_____________
The information contained in this message is proprietary and/or confidential. If you are not the intended recipient, please: (i) delete the message and all copies; (ii) do not disclose, distribute or use the message in any manner; and (iii) notify the sender immediately. In addition, please be aware that any message addressed to our domain is subject to archiving and review by persons other than the intended recipient. Thank you.


More information about the freebsd-questions mailing list