re: fs level 0

[leo_tck]

pe...@bsdly.net wrote:
> You probably read too much (or too little) into this part:
>
> 04.3BSD format file system.  This option is
>  primarily used to build root file systems that can
>  be understood by older boot ROMs.

Yes. Although my dislike of fanciness for (especially) the root file
system plays just as a big a part.

Turns out things can get *too* unfancy =)

> Checking CVSweb, it looks like this part was in the newfs man page at
> initial import in 1995. So for the option to be useful, you would need
> to look for hardware and ROMs that were considered old in 1995 or even
> earlier. It's possible that modern OpenBSD still supports some hardware
> that actually matches the description, but others will know for sure.

Yeah. That's how I understood it.

> Anyway, your R40 is likely to be no older than 2003 or so, and to me at
> least it sounds like the most useful thing to do would be to simply
> reinstall with as little deviation from the defaults as possible.

That's asking a lot from a deviate ;)

Seriously though, I already re-did my work, w/ the root fs at level 1. I
take it as a lesson learned.

> I didn't get hold of a ThinkPad that I was allowed to install OpenBSD on
> until about 2006, but by then the install and use experience was
> straightforward.

I don't seem to be running into any ThinkPad-specific problems either.

Except of course some hardware problems attributable to old age, but I
can hardly blame OpenBSD for that .

> - P

 --schaafuit.

Re: fs level 0

[Peter N. M. Hansteen]

On 09/23/17 21:45, leo_...@volny.cz wrote:
> While installing OpenBSD 6.1, out of sheer, raging paranoia, I created
> the root file system with -O 0. This worked fine, until I had extracted
> everything, and the kernel crashed with some uvm error (the automagic
> reboot came too soon for me to jot it down -- is it such a good idea
> for bsd.rd to reboot so soon after a panic?), teaching me a lesson.
> 
> The obligatory fsck afterwards failed, as the level 0 fses are
> apparently considered to be too old. Fair enough, but is it such a good
> idea to continue support for them in newfs, and the kernel?
> 
> I propose that we don't leave it half-supported like this, and that the
> relevant code be removed.
> 
> Or is there some use for it, that I'm overlooking?

You probably read too much (or too little) into this part:

04.3BSD format file system.  This option is
 primarily used to build root file systems that can
 be understood by older boot ROMs.

Checking CVSweb, it looks like this part was in the newfs man page at
initial import in 1995. So for the option to be useful, you would need
to look for hardware and ROMs that were considered old in 1995 or even
earlier. It's possible that modern OpenBSD still supports some hardware
that actually matches the description, but others will know for sure.

Anyway, your R40 is likely to be no older than 2003 or so, and to me at
least it sounds like the most useful thing to do would be to simply
reinstall with as little deviation from the defaults as possible.

I didn't get hold of a ThinkPad that I was allowed to install OpenBSD on
until about 2006, but by then the install and use experience was
straightforward.

- P

-- 
Peter N. M. Hansteen, member of the first RFC 1149 implementation team
http://bsdly.blogspot.com/ http://www.bsdly.net/ http://www.nuug.no/
"Remember to set the evil bit on all malicious network traffic"
delilah spamd[29949]: 85.152.224.147: disconnected after 42673 seconds.