Subject: Re: i386 floppy no longer fits
To: None <perry@piermont.com>
From: John Nemeth <jnemeth@cue.bc.ca>
List: tech-install
Date: 01/06/1999 16:13:10
On Jan 6,  4:23pm, "Perry E. Metzger" wrote:
} John Nemeth <jnemeth@cue.bc.ca> writes:
} >      I think the best approach is to see if the boot floppy can be
} > trimmed so that it fits on one floppy again.  I really like the single
} > boot disk.
} 
} That won't work as a long term solution. The disk is going to continue 
} to grow and there is no reasonable way to trim it. I say this as the

     This begs the question of why it is getting bigger.  I realise
that a significant part of it is due to better install tools.  But, it
still needs to be carefully examined.  I don't want to see the
situation where you need to have 128MB of RAM and have to feed the
machine 10 floppies just to get to the first install screen.  Anything
that can keep the count of boot floppies down, without sacrificing
ease of installation and the tools needed to do emergency recovery
would be a good thing (TM).

} At best, we can probably by a couple of years by moving to a
} boot/kernel disk and a disk that kernel loads its compressed ramdisk
} image from.

     Hmm.  This doesn't sound good.  Two floppies isn't too bad, and
is what we started with.  However, any more then two is pushing it.

}-- End of excerpt from "Perry E. Metzger"