Subject: Switching i386/amd64 to native CD-based installation?
To: None <tech-install@netbsd.org>
From: Bang Jun-Young <junyoung@netbsd.org>
List: tech-install
Date: 06/27/2005 22:49:39
[redirected to tech-install@ upon request from a developer]

Hi,

Will anybody be unhappy if i386/amd64 distributions are switched to
native CD-ROM based installation from the current floppy emulation based?
I'm strongly skeptical that there are users remaining who want to use
floppies rather than CD-ROMs for installation on those ports (most
i386/amd64 machines here in Korea are even shipped without floppy drives).
CD-ROM drives are very cheap these days (~$12 vs. ~$5 floppy drives) and
I can't find a machine without a CD-ROM drive anywhere.

If we switch, the biggest advantage is that we don't have to waste time to
fiddle with disk size limit on floppy install any more because the GENERIC
kernel will be used for installation as well. Also, the distribution media
can be used both for installation and the full-featured live file system.

Jun-Young