ideas

[Joerg Sonnenberger]

On Thu, Jul 22, 2004 at 07:50:18PM +0200, Ed wrote:
> 1) Please choose the complete and official project name: "DragonFly", 
> "DragonFly BSD" or "DragonFlyBSD" ?
> 
> Browsing the website I see all of them and also "uname" is not what I've 
> expected.

DragonFly BSD is the full name with DragonFly the version used in talking
and writing.

> 2) I think that it could be a good idea to include a package with (src tree + 
> cvsup + cvsup.conf) in the ISO, so that you install it during the 
> installation process and then you are ready to update the src tree with 
> cvsup.

The idea was to keep the ISO size as small as possible. cvsup and cvsup.conf
are already in the image, you just need a network connection. Having a
tarball for download was suggested, but noone has done it yet. It's only 
interesting if you don't have access to the net with a cvsup capacable
machine.

> ..................................................................
> 
> 4) If I'm not wrong DMA for CD drives is disabled by default. This means that 
> the installation from the CD takes more time than it could. I think that 
> setting somewhere in the installer sysctl hw.ata.atapi_dma="1" could improve 
> the CD drive throughput and reduce the time needed.

I don't like it because there are still a lot of drives and chipsets out
there which produce silent bit failures with ATAPI DMA enabled. But it might
be possible to add it as option in the boot menu.

> ..................................................................
> 
> 5) I've read that some developers are working on amd64 platform. If I'm not 
> wrong amd64 CPUs let you use the NX bit even in 32bit mode if they're used 
> via PAE. I think this could be a good way to introduce a memory protection 
> system, without waiting for a complete release for 64bit.

We don't want to support AMD64 for the NX bit, that's only a site-effect.
It's mostly the larger address space, increased number of registers and the
implications for the system resulting from both.

> ..................................................................
> 
> 6) I would strongly suggest to disable every network service by default.
> The better way is that the installer asks you what you want to enable (sshd, 
> sendmail, ...) and if you don't select anything because you don't know, your 
> box will be secure. Maybe.

By default, at most sshd should be enabled by default on the external
interfaces. sendmail is active by default, but only locally. But I haven't
installed a new DF for a long time to verify this :)

> ..................................................................
> 
> 7) Do you plan to use a different filesystem ID ?
> 165 for FreeBSD, NetBSD, 386BSD
> 166 for OpenBSD

Find one which is free :) The only difference between a DF and a FreeBSD
slice is the number of partition allowed. OpenBSD and NetBSD have a somewhat
different layout esp. wrt raw device and partitions outside the slice.

> ..................................................................
> 
> 8) Is there any plan to choose one packet filter as the official one ?
> PF, IPF or IPFW ?

Yes.

> ..................................................................
> 
> 
> Next time I'll write the rest ;-)

Yeah :)

Joerg

> 
> 
> 	Ed