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Re: release in 2.2?



> So, anyone else interested in seeing if we can include debian-arm in the 2.2
> release?  
> 
> I've kind of lost track of where we are relative to being releasable.  I was
> working on X until real life intruded.  I don't think anyone has done any real
> work on an installation process for "disks-arm".  A bunch of compiles need to
> happen.  Other than that, what's standing in the way?

I was bulk-compiling my way through the alphabet until real life
intruded on me.  The important open issues I have encountered and not
resolved (mostly because I don't use the particular library or tool)
are...

 - There are a small number of problems in gtk that need fixing.
   (listboxes lay out wrong, tabbed panels segfault when touched)
 - gnome is seriously unhappy, may be a problem in orbit.
 - perl wanders off into infinity in sgml-tools.  This ruins a bunch of
   builds that would otherwise work.

I've got a bit more time to devote to Debian porting again and would
take on the initial install problem if no one else wants it.  After 
having clean installed dozens of netwinders over 3 generations of
our product I would suggest we make a kernel+ramdisk image that can
be downloaded in a single tftp transfer.  This minisystem would then
handle partitioning, fs creation, fetching and installing the base
image.  Nice points...
  - don't need dhcp or nfs servers
  - don't need to flash anything (I've zapped two boxes now doing that*)
  - relatively easy on the user, the user interaction should be something
    like...
       power on, hold shift to get nettrom
       setenv kernconfig tftp
       setenv kerntftpserver 1.2.3.4
       setenv kerntftpfile debian.install
       setenv rootdev /dev/ram0
       boot
    ... and they will be into the install program where we can dump
    them into cfdisk then ask where to http or ftp the image.

(Footnote on my flash failures: one failed for unknown reasons, it was
just dead after the reboot.  The other I knew failed to write (flashwrite 
will report this once in a while), when I went to recall the flash command
I bumped the power cord and knocked it out, instant paperweight.)

-- 
                                     Jim Studt, President
                                     The Federated Software Group, Inc.


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