Re: 12.4 disc 1 iso is really large

On 10 December 2022 5:22:43 pm AEDT, Polytropon <freebsd@edvax.de> wrote:

 > On Fri, 9 Dec 2022 23:48:30 -0500, Kevin P. Neal wrote:

 > > On Fri, Dec 09, 2022 at 05:04:52AM +0000, Steve O'Hara-Smith wrote:

 > > > On Thu, 8 Dec 2022 22:58:01 -0600
 > > > "Dan Mahoney (Ports)" <freebsd@gushi.org> wrote:

 > > > > All,
 > > > > 
 > > > > I’m just noticing that the standard FreeBSD iso is some 959
 > megs:
 > > > >
 > http://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/releases/ISO-IMAGES/12.4/FreeBSD-12.4-RELEASE-amd64-disc1.iso
 > > > > 
 > > > > Is there something in the release notes that basically implies
 > we no
 > > > > longer expect people to burn things to actual discs?

 > > > 	You need a DVD - it's been some time since it fitted on a CD
 > <sigh>
 > > > I still remember doing installs from floppies.

 > > So... what's the point of the "disc1" image that today requires a
 > DVD if
 > > there's also a "dvd" image made to be burned to a DVD?

 > I've been asking this ("complaining about it") in the past.
 > As it seems, the regular 650 MB / 700 MG size of a CD can
 > no longer hold a FreeBSD installation... which is strange,
 > because if it would be possible to reduce the amount of
 > packages (!) on the disc, it would be suitable for use

Sorry, but there are no packages at all on disc1, or the equivalently sized memstick.  Only the dvd1 image has any packages, 932 in ~2.2GB 

 > with CD media again, as it was in the past: The classic
 > "4 CDs approach" of older FreeBSD versions contained:
 > 
 > 	CD #1 with system installation and _some_ packages
 > 
 > 	CD #2 with a live system
 > 
 > 	CDs #3 and #4 with all other packages
 > 
 > So CD #1 could always be used to install a working OS, and
 > you could also install some packages (like X, Midnigh Commander,
 > joe, vim, and other useful stuff). For the ultimate selection
 > of packages, discs #3 and #4 would be used (if needed), ot
 > the installation could continue via Internet. However, a
 > complete offline installation was possible.

Indeed.  Trev Roydhouse used to mail me his hand-me-down 4 CD Walnut Creek sets; we had 2.0.5 (?), 2.2.6 which enabled the nimnet.asn.au server in '98, later 3.something, 4.5 ...

OTOH that was an AMD 586 140MHz box with 2GB RAM and a 4GB hdd, later 20GB, with CDR later CD-RW, with 1 dialout and 3 dialup modems.

Nostalgia ain't what it used to be.

I've been working on retrieving the offline install possibility for months, and managed with some tricks and patches to get 'bsdconfig packages' working on the 12.3 dvd1 image to install X, KDE and some utilities, all offline - but it's considered a weird thing to want to do these days ... what "third world connectivity"?

 > Strange thing: The "bootonly" and "minimal install" images
 > intended for use with USB media _could_ fit on a CD.

Still can, bootonly.iso is ~355MB, mini-memstick is ~360MB.

But full installers, even without any packages, really can't; everything has swollen that much.  Here are sizes >1MiB on (amd64) disc1:

2      /bin
2      /etc
3      /var
8      /sbin
13    /lib
156  /boot
812  /usr
993  /

3     /usr/libexec
19   /usr/sbin
20   /usr/lib
40   /usr/bin
127 /usr/share
605 /usr/freebsd-dist
812 /usr

/usr/freebsd-dist has, all as .txz:
 tests            13
 kernel         44
 ports           45
 lib32           62
 kernel-dbg 83
 src             171
 base          191
total 605MB

dvd1 has in addition to the 2.2GB in packages, lib32-dbg & base-dbg.txz  for anither 244MB, that's it.

All of KDE seems to be there.

Unfortunately for gnome fanciers, due to src/release/pkg-stage.sh not having been informed of the name change from x11/gnome3 to x11/gnome, there's no gnome among the dvd1 packages.  Same for 13.1, but did anyone notice?

Similarly, no drm-fbsd12.0-kmod which many people will need; I had no suspend / resume till finding it amongst highly scattered docs.

 > Naming convention: "img" for USB images, "dvd" for DVD images,
 > "disc" for CD images - but probably since FreeBSD 10 or 11,
 > they no longer work with CDs...
 > 
 > Solution: Use USB and Internet. Optical media is no longer
 > in mainstream use, so its support will surely be dropped
 > altogether in the future. "Everyone has fast Internet!"

Indeed.  Many of us will remember when people took pride in helping people in resource-poor situations into the FreeBSD community, whether short of cash, information or access to bandwidth.

 > And now GET OFF MY LAWN!!! ;-)

Careful, Elon can kill your sat feed...

cheers, Ian