Date: Sat, 30 Sep 1995 13:07:11 -0400
From: Thomas David Rivers <ponds!rivers@dg-rtp.dg.com>
Message-Id: <199509301707.NAA12691@lakes>
To: time.cdrom.com!jkh@dg-rtp.dg.com, hackers@freefall.FreeBSD.org
Subject: Re: FreeBSD 2.1 will require a minimum of 8MB for installation.
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Sender: owner-hackers@FreeBSD.org
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> 
> Well folks, we've hit that wall we all knew was there and heading for
> us at 120Mph..  The GENERIC kernel has simply gotten too big to fit
> within 4MB now and no amount of paring back will deny a basic fact of
> life:
> 
> 	To fit in all the drivers we need to cover a reasonable set
> 	of devices required at installation-time, we need more than
> 	4MB and if we didn't need it today, we'd need it tomorrow.
> 
> Now some of you will immediately go "ARGH!  What about my custom
> router!  What about my 4MB laptop!" and I know how you feel, so please
> don't write me 5 page impassioned letters in defense of the last of
> the 4MB users.  If it were easy for us to continue to support 4MB
> installs you may rest assured that we *would*, and we have in fact
> worked very hard up to now to continue doing so for as long as it was
> humanly possible.  But we all also knew that we couldn't keep doing it
> forever and that *someday* we'd face this decision.  It looks like
> someday just got here! :-(
> 
> It's not like there isn't precedent.  Even Windows '95, so pointedly
> an OS for the masses, apparently will no longer even run in less than
> 8MB.  We, at least, aren't saying *that*.  It's still perfectly
> possible to generate a custom, stripped-down kernel that'll run on a
> 4MB box (though not very fast), you'll just have to lay your hands on
> an extra 4MB to get it through the installation.
> 
> I'm sorry about this, and if I could have forstalled this event even
> longer without crippling or excessively complicating the installation
> for others (and myself) you may rest assured that I'd have done so.
> I'm no masochist, and I certainly was never looking forward to the
> prospect of having groups of 4MB users throw tomatoes at me for this
> kind of decision.  Sometimes that's just life.
> 
> Just FYI..  You can at least say I warned you.. :(
> 
> 					Jordan
> 

 Well - there is another fact of life that I have to deal with.

 I still have to install FreeBSD 2.1 on a 4 meg machine.

 Now, since we know the GENERIC kernel won't do that, can we at least
have instructions on how to build the installation system so we
can put a customer kernel (without all the drivers needed for
the GENERIC case) on some installation floppies?

 And, yes, I know I can use the makefiles, etc... and build the floppies;
etc...  but a more novice user would probably appreciate explicit instructions.

 Now, once we have that set of instructions in-hand, can we take one
more step and actually build these for the poor 4meg user, with some
cut-down, but common configurations.  

 For instance, typically, the 4meg user is working on ancient
hardware, and thus is likely to only need support for the wd drivers,
we could lose all the SCSI code.  Also, we could eliminate X11 support
(that wouldn't gain much), etc...  We probably don't need the sound
drivers (to install, anyway), and only the "common" ethernet drivers
(if we could define what those were.)

 So, what I'm suggesting is that we identify a cut-down configuration
that would let most 4meg people install.

	- Dave Rivers -