[ On Thu, October 8, 1998 at 15:58:20 (-0700), Todd Whitesel wrote: ]
> Subject: Re: Another changer, another changer problem
>
> I think there are many technically weak 24/7 shops where even the hired
> sysadmins don't trust the notion of rebuilding kernels in the field.

And some technically strong shops refuse to allow kernels to be built on
the target machine, especially if that machine is "in the field" (i.e.
remote from the "home" office where the admins are).  Kernel source
(or even object trees) should *not* be in the field.

> I could transition slowly from kernel config files to symlink nests, by
> teaching config to leave "wd0" alone, so I could symlink /dev/wd0 to the
> above path. (Note: I am ignoring wd0[a-h] names for simplicity.)

Slow transition is the way of nightmares....

> BUGS
> 
> We can only be as stable as the underlying bus address assignments are.
> SCAM or isapnp would still cause problems, but only for those devices.

Indeed.

> Moving the address of a boot disk that had been "wired down" would
> require boot-time recovery and/or procedures to change the wiring.

you mean "root disk", no?

> An option to the boot prompt to pass a /devfs path to the kernel would
> be sufficient. Install floppies could also be used to re-wire boot disks
> in the event that the /devfs information was not written down anywhere.

Yup.

-- 
							Greg A. Woods

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