Re: dzinstall 1.0.40
On Wed, Sep 15, 1999 at 03:21:46AM +0100, Martin Keegan wrote:
> On Sat, 11 Sep 1999, Massimo Dal Zotto wrote:
>
> > Good. I have no way to test it on other architectures. You can try to
> > download my floppies and build a powerpc version containing the same
> > programs. Unfortunately it is not a debian package.
>
> The powerpc boot floppies don't build nicely, and it's pretty fruitless
> trying to boot some PowerMacs off floppies anyway, due to hardware bugs
> and limitations. I think I'll stick to i386 and sparc. Almost by
> definition, you ought to be able to do a completely automated install on a
> sparc box, just by typing boot net at the firmware prompt. On PCs, you
> have a lot more trouble "detecting" hardware.
Interesting, considering that powerpc boot-floppies build right out of
CVS for PReP. We can install completely from tftp/NFS or from CD now. I
don't know what the big problem is for pmac since general support for that
subarch is a lot more mature than what I am working with.
> It seems (from my week-long attempt to get them to compile) that the
> boot-floppies are rather trashed ATM, and that adding this netautoinstall
> functionality is going to be counterproductive. Still, when I get the time
> to work on this and the boot-floppies are in a state to be developed on
> (rather than fixed, which is what we have to do now) then the things I'd
> be working on are: getting the installer to interact with the user only as
> a last resort (i.e., check the network for config info first), a parser
> for the fallthrough "which config file do I use" file, a parser for said
> config files, and a wrapper for fdisk which knows which disks to touch,
> and how to lay them out.
Who are the pmac developers out there? I'm wondering if I need to set up
the Starmax I have available at work and do the work (even though I've
hardly even touched a Mac before). I feel like nobody with Mac know-how
is interested in boot-floppies development.
--
Matt Porter
mmporter@home.com
This is Linux Country. On a quiet night, you can hear Windows reboot.
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