boot image sizes for 9.x
T <[email protected]> Thu, 10 Jun 2021 01:18:49 -0600
| Newsgroups | gmane.os.netbsd.ports.prep |
|---|---|
| Message-ID | <[email protected]> |
The install boot image (sysinst.fs) is, as of 9.0, too large to boot on the 43p 7248. This has also carried over to NetBSD 9.2, which causes the ISO to no longer boot, since that image is used in building the bootable section of the ISO. As mentioned in some prior posts here, there seems to be a 2MiB limitation on the boot image size. I can confirm sysinst.fs does not work (boots to black screen, with blinking white cursor in the top-left) and also that sysinst_small.fs does work. I tested these images through the firmware net boot feature. The boot images may need to be reworked if the 2MiB limit is indeed a hard limitation of the firmware or hardware. The generic.fs image is not really useful at this point in time, since it cannot be booted and the GENERIC kernel configuration is ideal for the fully featured, secondary kernel, and thus should not be trimmed down. Originally, there were only two kernels for port-prep, a GENERIC and an INSTALL, but with the release of NetBSD 4.0. a second INSTALL_SMALL kernel was added, since the original INSTALL kernel (and generated image file) became too large to fit on a 1.44MiB floppy. The INSTALL_SMALL image is currently too big to be used on a floppy, but still works for net booting or as the image used to create the bootable part of the ISO. I don't know how many folks are still interested in using floppies, since net booting is an option, but it should still be possible to make a usable image, although with reduced functionality. I have experimented with a modified INSTALL_SMALL kernel config and successfully trimmed it down to produce a 1.1MiB SMALL kernel for use with the PReP partition. An alternate method to get a bootable PReP partition is to dd the sysinst.fs image (when it's <2MiB) into it. From my experience, this will load the bootloader and try to load from disk, or eventually fail and then try in(), booting into the RAM disk installer. Sysinst does not currently produce a working PReP partition, because it uses the GENERIC kernel, which is too large. It should either use the INSTALL kernel (although even that is too large at the moment, so INSTALL_SMALL instead) or a new trimmed-down "SMALL" kernel that is <2MiB. The following directory indexes should provide some perspective of how the image files were originally sized (they all were able to fit on a floppy disk). On a side note, generic.fs looks to last have been <2MiB with the NetBSD 5.2 release. Index of pub/NetBSD-archive/NetBSD-2.0/prep/installation/floppy/ Name Last modified Size Parent Directory 06-Dec-2004 00:27 1kB BSDSUM 06-Dec-2004 00:29 1kB CKSUM 06-Dec-2004 00:29 1kB MD5 06-Dec-2004 00:29 1kB SYSVSUM 06-Dec-2004 00:29 1kB generic.fs 06-Dec-2004 00:29 1424kB generic.fs.gz 06-Dec-2004 00:29 1394kB generic_com0.fs 06-Dec-2004 00:29 1413kB generic_com0.fs.gz 06-Dec-2004 00:29 1388kB sysinst.fs 06-Dec-2004 00:29 1441kB sysinst.fs.gz 06-Dec-2004 00:29 1409kB sysinst_com0.fs 06-Dec-2004 00:29 1430kB sysinst_com0.fs.gz 06-Dec-2004 00:29 1404kB Index of pub/NetBSD-archive/NetBSD-4.0/prep/installation/floppy/ Name Last modified Size Parent Directory 16-Dec-2007 08:54 1kB BSDSUM 16-Dec-2007 08:55 1kB CKSUM 16-Dec-2007 08:55 1kB MD5 16-Dec-2007 08:55 1kB SHA512 16-Dec-2007 08:55 1kB SYSVSUM 16-Dec-2007 08:55 1kB generic.fs 16-Dec-2007 08:55 1863kB generic_com0.fs 16-Dec-2007 08:55 1854kB sysinst.fs 16-Dec-2007 08:55 1545kB sysinst_com0.fs 16-Dec-2007 08:55 1535kB sysinst_small.fs 16-Dec-2007 08:55 1413kB sysinst_small_com0.fs 16-Dec-2007 08:55 1403kB Index of pub/NetBSD/NetBSD-8.2/prep/installation/floppy/ Name Last modified Size Parent Directory 31-Mar-2020 11:16 1kB MD5 31-Mar-2020 11:17 1kB SHA512 31-Mar-2020 11:17 1kB generic.fs 31-Mar-2020 11:17 2610kB generic_com0.fs 31-Mar-2020 11:17 2601kB sysinst.fs 31-Mar-2020 11:17 2028kB sysinst_com0.fs 31-Mar-2020 11:17 2018kB sysinst_small.fs 31-Mar-2020 11:17 1876kB sysinst_small_com0.fs 31-Mar-2020 11:17 1867kB Index of pub/NetBSD/NetBSD-9.2/prep/installation/floppy/ Name Last modified Size Parent Directory 12-May-2021 23:02 1kB MD5 12-May-2021 23:04 1kB SHA512 12-May-2021 23:04 1kB generic.fs 12-May-2021 23:04 2717kB generic_com0.fs 12-May-2021 23:04 2708kB sysinst.fs 12-May-2021 23:04 2137kB sysinst_com0.fs 12-May-2021 23:04 2128kB sysinst_small.fs 12-May-2021 23:04 1957kB sysinst_small_com0.fs 12-May-2021 23:04 1948kB