d-i support for other ports

[Alastair McKinstry <mckinstry@computer.org>]

As mentioned in the d-i CDs thread, I think the d-i CDs can support 
multiple ports, not just the Linux one but also the others under 
development:

        Debian GNU/Hurd
        Debian GNU/FreeBSD
        Debian GNU/NetBSD

Now while these will probably not be ready in time for sarge, I believe
the ports teams accept in principle that they will use d-i in the
future. (I think that Hurd already uses a hacked-up d-i for part of its
install). So, we should consider what we need to do to d-i to support
this. The following is an incomplete list of issues.

- First ask which one to install, as debian-installer/target-system
	(default Linux, priority=low).

To start with, debian-installer will run a Linux kernel. Leave it up to
the ports teams to "port" d-i to use a freebsd kernel, etc. later.

- Partitioning: Some partitioning support needs to be added for BSDs.
	(I believe some work on this has started; eg Joel Baker has done some)

- Don't present LILO, etc. as an option when $TARGET != linux
-  (Only do grub, at present; fix grub for netbsd)

- Ensure update-grub (run by grub-installer) works correctly when
installing $TARGET, but running in a !$TARGET chroot. (grub-installer
runs choot /target grub-install) 

- Some hacks to anna/dpkg needed:
        - To unpack hurd-i386 pkgs, when $TARGET=hurd and $ARCH=i386,
for example.
        - Full discussion on "tags" or "arch" labelling needed; See
Marcus Brinkmanns notes on this. Discuss at debconf3, maybe.

- hack to choose-mirror for *BSD needed:
        debian-bsd.lightbearer.com the only archive for *BSD for the
moment.

- programs that set prebaseconfig may need adaptation; 
        eg. rename keymaps to BSD style ones for wscons, etc.

- kernel configuration ?
        - Leave until post-boot for the moment. Install a generic BSD
kernel, etc; Need to run a BSD kernel to do kernel configuration for
BSD.

- Don't offer running base-config in a chroot, when $TARGET != $ARCH 




It should be possible to build a Boot CD for Debian that will run and
install a working system for any of the 4 OS's, using just one CD.
(Not suggesting that we do this for sarge, though).

Any ideas or comments?

Regards,
Alastair