Re: Suggestion for elf upgrade
On Sun, Feb 14, 1999, Stephen Montgomery-Smith put this into my mailbox: Yesterday I did an upgrade from 3.0-Release to 3.1-beta. I did make world, then I made the kernel. At the end of the make kernel, I got a message about the kernel being elf!!! Bad timing to find out about this - I was told to look at http://www.freebsd.org/~peter/elfday.html and by this time, the code mismatch between the binary executables and the kernel made netscape unusable. Good thing I wasn't upgrading from 2.2.x, maybe then I could not have even installed lynx or Mosaic to get the info I needed. Odd. Netscape runs for me. I have an ELF kernel and the new bootblocks, and obviously a new ELF world. [ch...@holly ~] $ uname -srm FreeBSD 3.1-RELEASE i386 Well, I did get it figured out. But I have one suggestion for the web page http://www.freebsd.org/~peter/elfday.html It told me that I needed new bootblocks. I think a paragraph explanation of what bootblocks is would have helped a very great deal. As it was it was like telling me to wear a nuffle on my head when it is cold. Like, what is a nuffle? So what is a bootblock? I did figure out enough to get it to work (I am guessing that a bootblock is some code at the beginning of each slice that is loaded by booteasy). I believe the boot blocks contain the software required to access the disk and boot the kernel. Obviously you'd need new boot blocks if you'll be trying to run a kernel that the 2.2 blocks don't understand. -- SIGBUS Bus error (passengers dumped) To Unsubscribe: send mail to majord...@freebsd.org with unsubscribe freebsd-current in the body of the message
Re: Suggestion for elf upgrade
I think that you misunderstood my message. The problems I was having were not with the final state of the machine, but with the intermediate stages. Chris Costello wrote: On Sun, Feb 14, 1999, Stephen Montgomery-Smith put this into my mailbox: ... and by this time, the code mismatch between the binary executables and the kernel made netscape unusable. Odd. Netscape runs for me. I have an ELF kernel and the new bootblocks, and obviously a new ELF world. The problem was I was stuck with 3.1 code, but an old 3.0 kernel. I needed netscape or some other browser to get to the web site to figure out how to get the new 3.1 kernel going, and the mismatch meant that I could not use netscape. My point was that if I had known about this web site BEFORE I started the make world, then it would have been much easier to extract the needed info. Now I finally got the 3.1 kernel going, netscape works fine. It told me that I needed new bootblocks. I think a paragraph explanation of what bootblocks is would have helped a very great deal. As it was it was like telling me to wear a nuffle on my head when it is cold. Like, what is a nuffle? So what is a bootblock? I did figure out enough to get it to work (I am guessing that a bootblock is some code at the beginning of each slice that is loaded by booteasy). I believe the boot blocks contain the software required to access the disk and boot the kernel. Obviously you'd need new boot blocks if you'll be trying to run a kernel that the 2.2 blocks don't understand. Yes, I did figure out that much. But without understanding bootblocks in context, I was unsure what exactly I was looking for. I think that the web page http://www.freebsd.org/~peter/elfday.html would have been better if the link to http://www.freebsd.org/~rnordier/boot.txt had been somewhere prominent at the top of http://www.freebsd.org/~peter/elfday.html , and a small paragraph explaining what bootblocks is would have helped put the whole thing in context. My issue is not with the final product, which is fantastic. Rather I am making some suggested changes to the way the information is being put out. Really, they are only suggestions. I think that the FreeBSD team do a very good job. I just wanted to offer my feedback on the technical writing aspect. -- Stephen Montgomery-Smith step...@math.missouri.edu 307 Math Science Building step...@showme.missouri.edu Department of Mathematics step...@missouri.edu University of Missouri-Columbia Columbia, MO 65211 USA Phone (573) 882 4540 Fax (573) 882 1869 http://math.missouri.edu/~stephen To Unsubscribe: send mail to majord...@freebsd.org with unsubscribe freebsd-current in the body of the message
Re: Suggestion for elf upgrade
On Tue, Feb 16, 1999, Stephen Montgomery-Smith put this into my mailbox: My issue is not with the final product, which is fantastic. Rather I am making some suggested changes to the way the information is being put out. Really, they are only suggestions. I think that the FreeBSD team do a very good job. I just wanted to offer my feedback on the technical writing aspect. Oh. Sorry. Yeah, it had me kinda confused and lost for a while, until I really read each and every word about 3 million times. Perhaps, sometime soon, it should be edited and put in the handbook. Just my $19.99 ($15.99 if you order by mail). -Chris To Unsubscribe: send mail to majord...@freebsd.org with unsubscribe freebsd-current in the body of the message
Suggestion for elf upgrade
Yesterday I did an upgrade from 3.0-Release to 3.1-beta. I did make world, then I made the kernel. At the end of the make kernel, I got a message about the kernel being elf!!! Bad timing to find out about this - I was told to look at http://www.freebsd.org/~peter/elfday.html and by this time, the code mismatch between the binary executables and the kernel made netscape unusable. Good thing I wasn't upgrading from 2.2.x, maybe then I could not have even installed lynx or Mosaic to get the info I needed. Well, I did get it figured out. But I have one suggestion for the web page http://www.freebsd.org/~peter/elfday.html It told me that I needed new bootblocks. I think a paragraph explanation of what bootblocks is would have helped a very great deal. As it was it was like telling me to wear a nuffle on my head when it is cold. Like, what is a nuffle? So what is a bootblock? I did figure out enough to get it to work (I am guessing that a bootblock is some code at the beginning of each slice that is loaded by booteasy). Second, instead of putting the warning message after making the kernel, how about putting the message at the beginning of both make world and making the kernel (and make installworld etc), so for example, to make world one has to type: make -DYES_I_REALLY_DO_KNOW_ABOUT_BOOTBLOCKS_AND_SUCH_LIKE world Maybe after a couple of years, one can get rid of this requirement. Yes, I do realise that I was out of touch not knowing about elf kernels. But there will be lots like me, and we should make it as painless as possible, since everybody who upgrades has to face this issue. Finally, I did get it all to work, and I am really pleased with what I have. It was my first experience at making FreeBSD from the source. I learned a lot. -- Stephen Montgomery-Smith step...@math.missouri.edu 307 Math Science Building step...@showme.missouri.edu Department of Mathematics step...@missouri.edu University of Missouri-Columbia Columbia, MO 65211 USA Phone (573) 882 4540 Fax (573) 882 1869 http://math.missouri.edu/~stephen To Unsubscribe: send mail to majord...@freebsd.org with unsubscribe freebsd-current in the body of the message
