Re: [woody,debinst] Interim filesystem
On Tue, 20 Jun 2000, bug1 wrote:
> Bruce Sass wrote:
> > > Bruce Sass wrote:
> > > > On Sun, 18 Jun 2000, bug1 wrote:
> > > > > How and Interim filesystem might work (as i see it)
> > > >
> > > > Why have an interim fs?
> > >
> > > 1) To get around any space limitations presented by the boot medium, or
> > > ramdisk.
> > > It is delaying the partitioning process till later on after we have
> > > lots on space available to us.
> > > There are lots of different things we can consider doing if space isnt
> > > the primary limitation.
> >
> > What is the advantage to delaying partitioning, get it out of the way
> > fast and you have the whole harddrive to play with.
> >
> If you get it out the way first, then you limit how powerfull it can be.
<...>
> If we have lots of space we can use full libraries
>
> Having LVM, RAID and Resizing tools available when doing the
> partitioning would mean there are no limits to how you choose to
> partition your system, and you could most likely install without having
> to first backup the contents of a partition prior to the install which
> destroys it.
You could do that now, and it is just as good an idea with the existing
system as it is with the one you have in mind. :)
> Where im coming from is that i consider partitioning to be (probably)
> the most important part of the installation, its much harder to
> repartition after the install than it do any other configuration.
No argument here.
I think you are forgetting about something...
how is partitioning going to be accomplished without user interaction.
I'm not aware of any tools that can take a description of a filesystem
then partition and setup a harddrive(s) accordingly, that seems to be a
task necessary for unattended (auto-pilot mode) installations. If you
have such a program then it doesn't make much sense to use the manual
tools in the archive, give the user a more flexible and natural UI
instead. May as well aim for the target instead of below it, if you
fall short and need to resort to the manual tools then so be it, they
can always be an option loaded off of a floppy, the HD, a CD, or a
network. You already have at least a read-only filesystem available,
that is all you really need for providing extra tools required before
the target system has storage space available.
I'm not saying, `forget about an interim fs', just that it is an extra
hassle to setup, has overhead, and it should not be necessary, try to
avoid it... a primitive RAM disk used as a scratchpad, yes, a full blown
fs, no.
> Thats my experience anyway.
Mine also
> > I was thinking of a monolithic installer core, modularized like the
> > kernel is for `maybe needed' functions... very small footprint, maybe
> > even totally in memory.
> >
> If we can have LVM, RAID and Filesystem resizing tools available for
> partitioning using this methods i would be just as happy.
I don't really see what you can do with an installation before the
harddrive(s) are partitioned, this functionality will need to be
available near the start of the process.
later,
Bruce
Reply to: