Re: [RFR] Proposal for installs without network connection
On Wed, Apr 05, 2006 at 01:33:39AM +0200, Frans Pop wrote:
> Thanks for your comments.
Below my contribution to this discussion.
Executive summary:
Debian-Installer is mature, be carefull with adding features
> On Wednesday 05 April 2006 00:06, Joey Hess wrote:
> > > 1) Add a boolean preseedable option debian-installer/no_net
> > [...]
>
> > For netcfg, what is the advantage of skipping the short dhcp test? A
> > static config would also not be very useful if there is really no
> > NIC.
>
> Yes, but it can be useful if there is a NIC that is just not connected
> during the install but will be later. I think this matches the old
> behavior.
The default behaviour is first offering, actual doing, DHCP
and then falling back to a static address for a (not connected) NIC.
Explaining and/or documenting that, is allready Doing The Rigth Thing.
I personally consider educating a small group
about d-i/no_net a useless excerise.
> > It would seem better to skip netcfg entirely, if anything. As for
> > preseeding, it's already possible to preseed netcfg/use_dhcp=false.
>
> Sure, but that means setting two variables. I was also thinking of using
> d-i/no_net as an easy boot parameter from the boot prompt, not just for
> preseeding using a file.
Setting a "extra" variable for "something extra" is a good thing.
Introducing a new variable to override an old one, is not.
> > For choose-mirror, skipping it would be nice if there is no NIC of
> > course. But for the rest, you've already provided a way to skip
> > choose-mirror in preseeding: just preseed the mirror to "don't use a
> > network mirror". Providing a second way to do the same thing via
> > debian-installer/no_net is redundant.
>
> Again, that works well when preseeding from a file, but not really from
> the boot prompt.
But will those who need it, find out that this boot option exists?
[ unsetting mirror/http/hostname (and ftp) is cleaner ]
> > > 2) The template debian-installer/no_net will be used internally too:
> > > [...]
<snip/>
> The no_net option is not intended for this use case, but only for the use
> case where the system is unconnected to the net. So the user will still
> configure the network normally.
That is allready available.
> > -- but it detected it was a full CD and just asked the user to
> > make sure they didn't want to use a mirror too. Your proposal only
> > approaches that behavior if a user chooses not to configure the
> > network, which most users will not do. Anyone who configures the
> > network will still have to go through choose-mirror.
>
> But now has the added option to select "don't use", which does approach
> the old behavior. Whether or not to default to that option for full CD
> installs is open for discussion.
> Effectively this implements the old "do you want a mirror too" question.
Yes. It reduces the number of questions.
Those who want a mirror select one, those who don't select "don't use".
> > > [1] A tested patch for this is attached.
<snip/>
> > Counterproposal:
<snip/>
> > * Give cdrom-detect some way to determine if a CD is a full CD or a
> > netinst. If it's a full CD, it can set choose-mirror to default to
> > "don't use a network mirror" (being careful about preseeding of
> > course).
> > - base-config used the heuristic of > 200 or whatever packages
> > being on the CD meant it was a full CD, and we could test that in
> > choose-mirror.
> > - Maybe a better way to go would be to add a .disk/self_contained
> > flag file that is set for full CDs and other CDs that don't need
> > network to be generally useful, and have choose-mirror test for
> > that. Especially since apt-setup could also test for it and avoid
> > adding semi-useless sources.list lines for netinst CDs.
>
> I like the second option. A flag like that will be useful anyway. Maybe we
> should also have a flag that tells is the default tasksel tasks are fully
> present (to catch the powerpc CD case where these are partly on CD 2)?
>
> I'm still not convinced that we should default to "don't use" though.
It obsoletes the "do you want a mirror too" question.
Cheers
Geert Stappers
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