8.x grudges

[Mikhail T.]

09.07.2010 05:49, Peter Jeremy ???????(??):
> I doubt I'm personally in a position to debug this and don't personally
> use splash screens.  Can you reproduce it using an image that you can
> re-distribute?
>    
Ok, the splash-screen problem went away after I put back the original 
video-card. The one I tried with (a high-end, but old) worked fine in 
text mode, but, apparently, had issues in the graphical mode... Retracted...
>>>>     3. Likewise, having "device ugen" breaks config(8) -- another
>>>>        undocumented incompatibility.
>>>>          
>> It was a valid device for FreeBSD-7. The UPDATING-file enumerates a
>> number of things, that need to be changed, when updating to 8, but the
>> removal of "ugen" is not mentioned there.
>>      
> Well, the definitive list is sys/conf/NOTES and sys/$(uname -m)/conf/NOTES
>    
The "NOTES" files are code, not documentation... If the "UPDATING" file 
did not exist, I'd be looking elsewhere for the changes. But it does 
exist and so should be complete (perhaps, it should be auto-generated 
based on the commit-history of the NOTES and GENERIC kernel-configs?)
> but I agree that the ugen(4) man page is incorrect and a case could be
> made for having better details of USB2 in UPDATING.
I did not even realize, the ugen(4) still exists in 8.1 (and would've 
thought, it was a remnant from 7.x), if I saw it. My "grudge" was that 
the "UPDATING" file did not tell me about neither it, nor about the sio 
being broken.
> How would you like to write up patches and submit a PR?
>    
I have some -- much more involved -- patches sitting in the PR database 
for years, so, pardon me for not accepting your invitation to file more 
at this time... The ones most ripe for committing are:

    * handle SIGINFO in sleep(1)
      <http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=bin/139345> -- recent
    * pkg_add(1) pkg-routines ignore the recorded md5 checksums
      <http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=bin/34628> -- 8 years old
    * bikeshed entry of Handbook is wrong
      <http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=docs/86342> -- a
      doc-one, 5 years old now, still valid...

Search the PR-db for others, where a dialog/discussion might be 
necessary -- the above ones are only those completely ready...
> That's why I asked for the output up to the hang - which might show
> where the problem is.  If you don't have a serial console, take a
> photo and put it up on the web.
>    
Ok, here is the screen-shot 
<http://aldan.algebra.com/%7Emi/tmp/hung-1394-shot.png> (firewire 
enabled in BIOS). Hanging while probing USB-devices...

> BTW, in all writing you've done, you've never mentioned what FreeBSD
> version you are running beyond a vague "8.1 prerelease", what motherboard
> you have (despite my request for this) and only indirectly given the
> architecture (via the config file you posted).
>    
Well, the version was also implied -- 8.1/prerelease as of 
(approximately) the date of the posting. The motherboard version -- I'm 
not sure still. Something like nVidia nForce2 -- does that identify it 
enough? The verbose dmesg.boots are:

    * 7.3-PRERELEASE Feb 5
      <http://aldan.algebra.com/%7Emi/tmp/quokka.dmesg.7.3.txt>
      (firewire enabled -- no hang. This is one extracted from
      /var/log/messages and is a little garbled.)
    * 8.1-PRERELEASE July 5
      <http://aldan.algebra.com/%7Emi/tmp/quokka.dmesg.Jul-05.txt>
      (firewire disabled -- otherwise hangs)
    * 8.1-PRERELEASE July 14
      <http://aldan.algebra.com/%7Emi/tmp/quokka.dmesg.Jul-14.txt>
      (firewire disabled. Interestingly, the July 14th version reports
      slightly different memory "base")

Yours,

    -mi