FreeBSD 12.1 i386 CD #1 image size not compatible with intended medium standard size

Per Hedeland per at hedeland.org
Tue Jun 16 14:34:11 UTC 2020


On 2020-06-16 15:16, Valeri Galtsev wrote:
>
>
> On 6/16/20 7:22 AM, Per Hedeland wrote:
>> On 2020-06-16 13:37, Polytropon wrote:
>>> On Tue, 16 Jun 2020 07:30:00 -0400, Jerry wrote:
>>>> On Tue, 16 Jun 2020 12:27:28 +0200, Polytropon commented:
>>>>> Due to a system where I can only boot from CD, I downloaded the
>>>>> FreeBSD 12.1 CD image (disc1.iso). It was not possible to record
>>>>> this in a standard way to a 700 MB (not 650 MB) blank CD medium
>>>>> (here: Platinum 700 MB / 80 min).
>>>>
>>>> Are you referring to:
>>>>
>>>> 1) FreeBSD-12.1-RELEASE-i386-disc1.iso
>>>> or
>>>> 2) FreeBSD-12.1-RELEASE-amd64-disc1.iso
>>>
>>> As mentioned at the end of the message (discussing image file size),
>>> the file I used was FreeBSD-12.1-RELEASE-i386-disc1.iso, because the
>>> system it is intended for is not 64 bit capable, so i386 is what I
>>> will have to use.
>>>
>>> I think the problem here is that 728 MB exceeds the standard that
>>> says 650 MB and allows 700 MB and, by use of nonstandard tools,
>>> does not guarantee for anything if you successfully burn 728 MB.
>>> "Is possible" doesn't imply "will work as expected". :-)
>>
>> Well, no help for you, but it might be worth noting that
>> FreeBSD-12.1-RELEASE-amd64-disc1.iso is actually 867(!) MB, and that
>> https://www.freebsd.org/releases/12.1R/announce.html says:
>>
>> disc1
>>
>>      This contains the base FreeBSD operating system. It also supports
>>      booting into a "livefs" based rescue mode. There are no pre-built
>>      packages.
>>
>>      Additionally, this can be written to an USB memory stick (flash
>>      drive) for the amd64 architecture and used to do an install on
>>      machines capable of booting off USB drives. It also supports
>>      booting into a "livefs" based rescue mode. There are no pre-built
>>      packages.
>>
>> I.e. a) it is only the base system, no packages that can be removed
>> (though there are sources and other stuff that *could* be) - and b)
>> there is *no* claim that it can actually be burnt to a CD!!!
>
> Disagree. The name plainly says "CD", nobody should re-define plain English words.

It's not really a matter of opinion. If you can find the letters "CD"
(or "cd") anywhere in the above, including in the name of the
installers, please point me to it. And of course you don't need to
take my word for it - follow the link above and search for "CD"/"cd"
anywhere in the page - it occurs only for the "bootonly" image, and in
the text "FreeBSD 12.1-RELEASE can also be purchased on CD-ROM or DVD
from several vendors."

> Even more: by continuity, this always was meant for burning CDs.

Yes, this was also what I thought, so I was quite surprised by my
findings above. Also that there was a "disc2" for the stuff that
didn't fit on "disc1", as mentioned earlier in the thread - no sign of
that on the above page, nor in the download directory.

I actually went back to the 12.0R announcement, and all the earlier .0
ones until https://www.freebsd.org/releases/8.0R/announce.html, where
I finally found the claim that "disc1" "contains the base FreeBSD
operating system and the documentation packages for CDROM-sized media"
(Still no mention of "disc2", but it (and "disc3") could be found on
https://www.freebsd.org/releases/7.0R/announce.html)

So, whether the change has been announced somewhere or not, it was
clearly a very long time since the release announcement claimed that
"disc1" could fit on a CD - I haven't checked whether some of those
old-but-later-than-8.0 images actually *could* fit (I can't even find
the images).

--Per

> The size of image exceeding standard restrictions is
> really annoying, and ideally should not be tolerated as "released" by self respected organization.
>
> This is just my opinion. I as person attempt to apply this to what I do.
>
> Valeri
>
>>
>> *Perhaps* you could mount the image via md(4), remove/truncate some of
>> the files in /usr/freebsd-dist, and burn a CD from the result.
>>
>> --Per
>>
>> PS From FreeBSD-12.1-RELEASE-amd64-memstick.img:
>>
>> $ ls -s /mnt/usr/freebsd-dist
>> total 548264
>>       4 MANIFEST          76640 kernel-dbg.txz    38592 ports.txz
>> 157568 base.txz          40800 kernel.txz       162400 src.txz
>>       4 doc.txz           60064 lib32.txz         12192 tests.txz


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