On Sun, Sep 27, 1998 at 10:42:29AM -0700, Jonathan Stone wrote:
> 
> I guess I'd sooner see one tool and one UI for configuring /etc/*
> files rather than two, which is the path you seem to be following.
> (OTOH, glomming a kernel-config tool into a bootfloppy thats short
> for space doesnt seem like a good choice.)

  Two ideas on the boot-floppy lack-of-space issue:
  1.  What about having a stripped-down minimal Son of Sysinst
    tool on the boot floppy, and a nice set of tools (Mother of
    Sysinst, vi, tcsh(?), lynx (text-based web browser/ftp program for
    unexpected downloads/FAQ/net searches)) on another _optional_
    floppy for those that would prefer a simpler, friendlier
    interface?  I'd be willing to swap floppies once (a la
    NetBSD-1.0?) if it made the install even slightly smoother.

  2.  So far, I've had success in packing around 1.9M on 1.44M
    floppies under NetBSD using a slightly modified fd driver,
    with the various tricks done in FreeBSD and Linux.  That
    extra .5M would give us some space for those whose drives
    support it (presumably every 1.44M IBM-PC-like drive
    manufactured since 1990 or so???).

    (If the boot or loader code on various machines can't deal with
    non-512-byte sectors or funny gaps, then the first cylinder or
    two would have to be ordinary, and the bootblocks would have
    to contain code that was capable of reading the rest of the
    cylinders.  This is one of many areas where I do not have the
    necessary skills to do the job myself.)

  Brian