cvs commit: src/release/alpha dokern.sh drivers.conf

[Daniel C. Sobral]

Scott Long wrote:
> 
> The second step is to make it easy to package, deliver, and load driver
> update disks.  Defining a standard floppy format can be debated of
> course, and doesn't matter a whole lot as long as it conveys enough
> information for the user and installer to intelligently use it.
> However, I do assert that this is much easier to do from the installer
> than from the loader.  With the kernel completely stripped down, it
> should be pretty straight-forward for the installer to load and unload
> modules at the users' request.  Doing the same from the loader is also
> possible, but let's face it: there are few people on the planet that
> want to program in ficl.  Let's leave that realm to tweaking hints and

Alas, the floppy disk loader doesn't come with ficl at all. :-)

There are many other reasons why doing it from loader isn't such a good 
idea. We want a system that is flexible at _run_ time, not at boot time. 
  Bringing the complexity implied by such a system to loader is 
duplicating efforts, at best.

> tunables that can't be changed once the kernel is running (Of course,
> I've now opened the door for a meta-discussion on the merits of ficl in
> the loader vs. ${your_favorite_interpreter}).

At one point, very early in my involvement with loader(8), I told jkh 
and msmith that I didn't think using ficl was a good idea. I still think 
so, because Forth is not a scripting language, which, IMO, is what we 
really want. Jordan pointed me to ficl's size and told me that he would 
happyly switch to anything that came anywhere near that size.

Now... even leaving the fact that jkh and msmith are not with us at this 
point, that basically means that ficl doesn't have any backers on it's 
merits as a language. At least, where loader(8) is concerned.

> The third step is to make the installer actually install the
> user-supplied drivers.  Right now sysinstall has an option for loading
> KLD's from floppy, but that is all that it does.  It doesn't help much
> when the driver you are loading is the storage driver for your
> installtion, and once you reboot the driver is not loaded automatically.

This is what loader(8) is intended for. You tell it what has to be in 
memory at the time control is passed to kernel, and what kernel must be 
told about it's environment that it can't find out correctly by itself 
with the methods it has available at that point, and loader(8) goes and 
does that for you.

One reason why loader.conf(5) makes me proud. :-)

-- 
Daniel C. Sobral                   (8-DCS)
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