On Fri, Feb 23, 2001 at 11:05:38AM +0100, Michael Schmitz wrote: > > I don't think BenH should have used anything other than .sit, from a pure > user perspective. StuffIt is the de facto archiver on MacOS for all I > know. If BenH had released BootX as a bunch of .bin files (or a tarball of > those) people would have asked for it to be packaged as .sit. i don't think it really matters, i still have people downloading ybin.tar.gz, extracting it in macos, double clicking ybin and getting a simpletext window with a bunch of text in it, then they email me and say `it duhsn't werk!!!!!!!!!!!' anyway... there isn't any reason not to package bootx into a .bin or whatnot format in addtion to .sit. in fact if bootx were packaged as a couple .bin files in a .tar.gz it would be possible to install bootx onto an hfs partition from within gnu/linux using hfsutils. > The problem is only with incorporating BootX into the Debian install > files, and here we can indeed convert all files to MacBinary format once > and have mkhybrid properly install them on the HFS part of the install CD > if necessary. But I doubt that was the original question. mkhybrid is already used to build cd1 because its necessary to make it newworld bootable, adding a couple switchs would enable it to look for .bin files and extract them in the image as regular mac files. (from a quick glance at the mkhybrid man page) but since bootx is not distributed in .bin format debian can't do it. (unless somone manually finds a macos box to do the conversion) > The question was 'why can't you package all install files as .sit'. My > take on it: this would add an undue burden on the boot-floppies > maintainer. It's manual work, and requires a Mac with MacOS installed. besides that Debian GNU/Linux is well a GNU/Linux distribution NOT a MacOS application. if you want to treat Debian like a MacOS toy then you should not be using it. (because thats not what it is) > The politically correct answer: we cannot make boot-floppies depend on a > non-free tool like StuffIt for its operation. And the chance of ever more then politically correct, its the entire philosophy of debian. Debian is and is made with only Free Software. > getting a free (as in speech) StuffIt packager for Debian are practically > nil as you pointed out rather convincingly. it will happen either when: 1) hell freezes over. 2) redhat (or someone) buys aladdin and GPLs all thier code. > Sorry, but that's what we get for supporting Linux on closed hardware, for > which most commercial software is written by companies with a mathing > mindset. Petition Alladin to open their file format. stuffit has nothing to do with Apple hardware, it has to do with MacOS. the only reason MacOS even enters this equation is that we don't yet have a reliable enough bootloader for oldworld macs. (or rather we don't have sufficient fixes available to make oldworld OF work worth a damn). if you have a newworld mac you can install debian on the machine without a trace of macos in sight. you can do it on an oldworld too if your determined enough (getting OF to boot quik properly). -- Ethan Benson http://www.alaska.net/~erbenson/
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