[geeks] How low can you go...

[der Mouse]

>> 9600 baud SLIP is about 960 bytes/sec.  A back-of-the-envelope
>> calculation says that at that rate an install of recent NetBSD would
>> finish overnight.
> Modulo time to set up SLIP / PPP.  I thought of it, but don't have
> any SLIP / PPP expertise.

Well, yes, there's that.

The setup time for SLIP is usually pretty close to zero; SLIP is mostly
to too simple to break.  (PPP is quite another story.  It's great for
things like ISP dialup where client and server are clearly
differentiated and you need the additional features it brings, but for
dedicated wires between two machiens on fthe same bench it's a mess.  I
once tried to set up a dedicated hardwired line between two machines
running PPP, and despite struggling with it all afternoon, never did
get a setup that would recover unattented from all sequences of
reboots.  SLIP, though, Just Worked - though I had to hack on it a bit
for the purpose, since it needed to carry IPv6.)

There's also the problem of getting enough of a grappling hook on the
machine to run SLIP in the first place....

> And, most important: I did get around booting from floppies.  Every
> time I have to boot from flopies it ends in a nightmare.  I think I
> haven't seen an error free 3.5" floppy for nearly a decade.

Yeah, I know the feeling.  I can't recall the last time I tried to do
something with a floppy and had it Just Work.

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