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	Sun, 11 Oct 1998 23:39:18 +0200 (CEST)
From: Markus Illenseer <markus@core.de>
Message-Id: <199810112139.XAA18932@beaver.core.de>
Subject: Re: Export NetBSD CDs
In-Reply-To: <Pine.GSO.4.05.9810111331380.17004-100000@cynic.anim.dreamworks.com> from David Brownlee at "Oct 11, 98 01:42:25 pm"
To: abs@anim.dreamworks.com (David Brownlee)
Date: Sun, 11 Oct 1998 23:39:17 +0200 (CEST)
Cc: netbsd-advocacy@netbsd.org
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> 	The OpenBSD CDroms are bootable on "i386, sparc, alpha, powerpc,
> 	and arc". I don't know if they do this by making each CD bootable
> 	on a subset of machines, but it would be nce if we could manage to
> 	make the NetBDS CDRom bootable on more platforms if possible.

 I know how they do for i386 and sparc. I fail to know about alpha and
powerpc _all_ on the _same_ CD. There is only one double header, as far
as I know, not a set for each platform. The later would be unaffordable.

> 	I wonder if we could add the source in a ustar format file (I
> 	noticed	the alpha bootloader has a ustarfs filesystem reader).

 You mean tar'ed but not compressed? 
(BTW, how would a _source_ help to boot?)

> 	Maybe have binary packages for a small number of 'popular'
> 	packages for all platforms (perl, apache, tcsh, top, pine would
> 	be some suggestions - we really need to include a simple editor
> 	in there), and as much source for everything else as possible.

 Yes, I have thought about that already. I.e. I wont distribute
Emacs :-) Emacs is too big, and there are even two Emacsen, both of
which claim to be different - just not in space.

 Well, you see the problem: What is a "popular" package? Is it better
to give several smaller packages a better chance against one large hog?

> 	We could put the binary packages on the first CD-Rom and have the
> 	install process optically install, and have the second CD with
> 	just pkgsrc and distfiles.

 pkgsrc is 1MB packed, about 4MB unpacked; Would be a good idea to
unpack the sources for a possible UNION-Mount. Distributing distfiles
would solve the dilemma to decide which binary package should be put
on the CD. But then again, the slower platforms (and the lazy guys)
would be happy to get binary distributions.

> 	Actually - has anyone looked at merging more of the various m68k,
> 	powerpc, and mips{eb,el} distribution files - comp.tgz etc? That
> 	could save us some more space.

 I believe there is an attempt to do so.

> 	If we keep a small amount of binaries for each arch, and fall back
> 	to source for the packages we have a much better chance.

 That was my thought as well. But it doesnt fit generally.

-- 
Markus Illenseer
NetBSD 1.3.2 CD-ROM "Gateway! Vol. 3" now shipping!  See:  http://core.de/