Re: debian-installer on arm status
+++ Peter Naulls [04-02-23 13:07 +0000]:
> In message <[🔎] 20040223104910.GA15886@azure.humbug.org.au>
> Anthony Towns <aj@azure.humbug.org.au> wrote:
>
> > It's time to get debian-installer ported to arm; all the major porting
> > work should already have been done getting it to work on other arches,
> > so what's left should be fairly straightforward.
> >
> > If you can't get this working, arm's status as a supported arch will
> > have to be reviewed: there's no point releasing a distribution that
> > can't be installed. (It'd be possible to release arm with a different
> > installation toolset than d-i, but I can't imagine that'd be any easier
> > or much more useful than getting d-i ported)
You're right of course, and as you observe it really is getting to 'make it
work or have arse kicked' time. Part of the problem is of course that arm
installation has always been somewhat 'distributed' - there is a special
version of bootfloppies for most 'supported' machines because the default
one doesn't actaully work, and an awful lot of people using debian-derived
stuff don't use either b-f or d-i to get things installed - they use some
random bootloader for the board in question.
So in fact debian-arm remains useful to a lot of people even without a
working debian-installer.
That's not really an adequate excuse for not making it work on at least the
suitable machines, and hopefully it will be better suited to weird hardware
than b-f was. We'll see.
> However, before I resubscribe to debian-boot, and part of the reason
> I've avoided this issue somewhat, is that I'm far from familiar with D-I
> (although know b-f quite well). Can someone list the various issues
> that need to be resolved, and point out if anyone is working on
> anything for ARM d-i currently? Vince?
ditto.
I've got as far as downloading d-i from CVS a few times, but now it's moved
so I need to change my config to get the new version. I haven't managed to
spend any useful time actually working on it yet, but am uncomfortably aware
that _someone_ needs to.
Poor old vince has found he can't do the kernel _and_ D-I - there aren't
enough hours in the day.
I'm mostly doing Emdebian things at the moment, and have some stuff pending
on that from FOSDEM, but I'll try and at least have a look at what's what
this week.
Wookey
--
Aleph One Ltd, Bottisham, CAMBRIDGE, CB5 9BA, UK Tel +44 (0) 1223 811679
work: http://www.aleph1.co.uk/ play: http://www.chaos.org.uk/~wookey/
Reply to: