FreeBSD 7 installs where FreeBSD 8 wont due to CD

[Jeremy Chadwick]

On Wed, Dec 08, 2010 at 09:17:27AM +0000, Bruce Cran wrote:
> On Wed, 08 Dec 2010 01:00:34 -0800
> perryh at pluto.rain.com wrote:
> 
> > Go into Fixit# and examine /dev and/or the dmesg.
> 
> The problem is there's no "ls" in FixIt mode so you need to use
> "echo *" to see what files are present.

"Sort of".  Fixit offers these choices:

2 CDROM/DVD  Use the live filesystem CDROM/DVD
3 USB        Use the live filesystem from a USB drive
4 Floppy     Use a floppy generated from the fixit image
5 Shell      Start an Emergency Holographic Shell

Options 2,3 and presumably 4 will all offer "ls capability" in addition
to many other useful utilities (pciconf, dmesg, less, vi, etc.).

It's option 5 (Emergency Holographic Shell) which offers generally
nothing useful (requiring echo *, etc.).

I imagine the segregation of these two is due to capacity concerns
dating back to the days of floppy disks.  We really should re-think that
model.

I think most people who are in an emergency or "bare bones" situation
really do want the ability to boot disc1.iso and get a shell with the
majority of common utilities that make up the base system.  And let's
not forget those of us who PXEboot in emergencies -- we're mostly
screwed.  :-)  A "one-stop shop" makes the most sense, IMHO.

It's for this reason that I regularly advocate use of USB flash drives
and the memstick image if physically at the console.  (Most of our
servers have CD drives, not DVD, while all of them have USB ports)

-- 
| Jeremy Chadwick                                   jdc at parodius.com |
| Parodius Networking                       http://www.parodius.com/ |
| UNIX Systems Administrator                  Mountain View, CA, USA |
| Making life hard for others since 1977.              PGP: 4BD6C0CB |