Subject: Re: Switching i386/amd64 to native CD-based installation?
To: None <tech-install@NetBSD.org, port-i386@NetBSD.org,>
From: Alan Barrett <apb@cequrux.com>
List: tech-install
Date: 06/27/2005 17:22:15
On Mon, 27 Jun 2005, Bang Jun-Young wrote:
> Will anybody be unhappy if i386/amd64 distributions are switched to
> native CD-ROM based installation from the current floppy emulation based?

It's fine if CD-ROM boot/install media use the (new) native mode instead
of the (old) floppy emulation mode.

However, I would like to be able to install from floppy as a fallback.
If this fallback mechanism used ustarfs, then disk size is not an issue,
because a ustarfs can be spread over an arbitrary number of floppies.

It would also be nice to install from a USB flash drive.  Modern BIOSes
can often boot from them if they are treated like a hard drive with an
MBR.

--apb (Alan Barrett)