-----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Kwon Sent: Friday, July 20, 2007 2:10 AM To: leaf-user@lists.sourceforge.net Subject: Re: [leaf-user] The old floppy question
> My current LEAF box would not fit into a floppy - it is 3.1MB. Just want to be clear, my current Leaf box won't fit into a floppy neither. What I do is: 1. Download the leaf.iso image and burn to a CD 2. Create leaf.cfg into a floppy and boot from the CD 3. Save configuration (configdb.lrp) and backup modules (moddb.lrp) to floppy This way I don't have to recreate my own CD. One other reason why we experience many floppy failure is the fact that we are using /dev/fd0u1680 and not the standard /dev/fd0u1440. Can anyone has more experience comment on this? Nowadays, my floppy only has three files I can go back to the 1.44mb floppy format of which I have not experience any problem. I use(d) the CD boot, 1.44 meg floppy save combo in several installations. Some LEAF boxes are in climate controlled machine rooms, some are on a table in a back room. The main failure I see is that the PC is unable to read the floppy on a reboot. Usually this is due to dust in the floppy drive. In most cases the floppy disk will read in another drive. Sometimes blowing the dust out of the old drive will make it work. This is a minor inconvenience if the PC is in the next room. It does mean that there is more down time that the users like. However if the PC is in a branch office in a small town far away with a minimum 2 day courier delivery and poor or no local PC repair support it can be a major problem. The floppy vs. non floppy question for me gets down to time. Yes, it is nice to reuse an old box that in our disposable society would otherwise end up as landfill and yes it is nice that that box is "free" but this for me must be balanced against the time you have to spend phaffing around getting the system running and also keeping it running. My time is worth money and it is the one resource that I can't stretch any further. Older systems take more time to maintain, fans dies, floppies die etc. Those PCs are designed for a disposable society. I am currently working on the next generation of branch office routers for our organization. The platform is a VIA EPIA motherboard with CF boot in a 1U case with no fans and an external power supply. It is not a cheap way to go and it takes time to set up but it does give me the flexibility to do things that an off the shelf router won't and I'm hoping that it will be very reliable. For a simple firewall/VPN solution for home users we use a Linksys firewall router. $50 and a 5 minute config and you are out the door and very few problems. If I did not need other capabilities in the branch offices I would use the same routers there. At work for me LEAF fits into a mid range niche both for expense and for time spent. It allows me to do things that a cheap off the shelf box does not as long as I put in some extra time and buy reliable hardware for it to run on. To get the same reliability as an appliance it needs to be built on a reliable platform. This gives me what I want: a configurable appliance that I can install and forget about. If LEAF packages are not available to do what I want and would be a hassle to adapt then I move up to a Linux server. For a LEAF system to make sense for me it has to be less work than maintaining a server would in terms of time spent on maintenance and in reliability. At home I use LEAF on an old PC with CD boot and a 1.44 floppy to save my config. A different balance here. I have accepted the less reliable system but it was cheap and I was usually available to fix any issues. I will be moving to a CF boot system here as well though using CF card that is too small for a camera and a $25 CF to IDE adapter. Dave ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by: Microsoft Defy all challenges. Microsoft(R) Visual Studio 2005. http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/vse0120000070mrt/direct/01/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ leaf-user mailing list: leaf-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/leaf-user Support Request -- http://leaf-project.org/
