After several iterations, XFS-enabled d-i netinst images are now
available for download.
http://people.debian.org/~vorlon/d-i/xfs/sarge-i386-xfs-netinst.iso{,md5sum}
Download, burn to a CD, boot, type 'xfs' at the boot prompt, and away
you go!
The immediately preceding iteration worked quite well with the exception
that it installed a non-XFS kernel image into the target, making
things quite hairy after reboot. The current image has not been tested
as such, but includes a hack on rootskel which should give the correct
kernel-image package installed.
Testing of this (unsanctioned, unofficial) image is welcomed, including
testing by anyone not specifically interested in using XFS: the default
image on this disk (typing 'linux' at the boot prompt instead of 'xfs')
should in all ways behave like the regular daily images. If it doesn't,
that's a bug, and I'd like to fix it.
One oddity I did notice was that apt configuration seemed to be stuck in
an infinite loop: I would choose my mirror, the Packages files were
downloaded, and then it would return me to the 'choose a method' screen.
Hitting cancel took me back to the main menu and I was able to continue
from there, but that seems suboptimal. If anyone can reproduce this
problem, or confirm that it's a known issue not specific to the XFS
build, please let me know.
rootskel:
---------
Currently, rootskel and kernel-installer both have a hardcoded idea of
what kernel-image packages should be installed. This may not be a big
deal for the XFS variant, whose days are thankfully numbered by the
inclusion of XFS support in 2.4.24; but it seems likely to me that in
the not-so-distant future, there will be demand for concurrent 2.4/2.6
kernel install flavors (like bf2.4 in woody), and anyone going out of
their way to boot a 2.6 kernel probably doesn't want to find a 2.4
kernel installed after rebooting. For now I've just kludged the copy of
rootskel in the XFS initrd to hardcode a *different* package name, but
I'm interested to hear if anyone has ideas of how to better autoselect a
kernel-image package for installation.
Happy hacking,
--
Steve Langasek
postmodern programmer
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