Re: redesigning the debian installer

[Mircea Luca <mluca@canada.com>]

 I followed this discution from the very beginning and I have one
simple problem.In case one would do a mass_install of the same
configuration on same hardware,then why go through all the hassle
of configuring the databases and profiles and hostnames and IP's,
unpack ,configure a.s.o.(in case I messed a step).
 IMHO would be more easier for this specific case to just install the 
desired configuration,then have a small program(set of shellscripts,
whatever) that will

1.tar the system in place making multiple archives
2.install and configure a dhcp and an ftp server
3.create
  a)bootflopies if flopies are chosen to be used on the target machines
  b)the actual install program in case the target machines already have
an ext2 filesystem and a script which will modify the runlevel,and run
the install script in the defined runlevel,setting up a ramdisk for the
installer since we'll gonna format the target hdd.reboot ,the system
starts the installer,done.or soething simple can be worked if no reboot
is desired.
  c)same installer archived as a rootfs.gz in case the target machines
are running windows/dos and then use loadlin.The needed autoexec.bat and
config.sys are standard for all so they have to be copied over the
existing ones.
3.The installer should start,get an IP from the dhcp server,format the
target partitions,copy (using ftp) the archives,unpack them,run lilo
,modify /etc/network/interfaces to static IP using existing network
information. 
4.Run whatever other post-configuration is necessary -mail,generate keys
for ssh..whatever,depends on the specific configuration.

5.reboot

Does this seems viable and easy to implement or it's just
"overcomplicated" ?

-- 
The best way to escape from a problem is to solve it. 
     Alan Saporta 
My waste of cyberspace=
http://deepblue.dyndns.org :-)