Re: Contributing to the Developement of Debian Installation Program
There was a thread a few weeks ago about the future direction of boot
floppies.
In case you missed it, it starts here, worth a read
http://www.debian.org/Lists-Archives/debian-boot-0002/msg00362.html
One of the things brought up is that it would be good to become more
modular. So if you wanted to work on one particular aspect of the
install say, an X based install, or only wanting to install from CD,
then you can use only the modules you want. Or only work on the area you
want.
I think the biggest a kernel can get is aprox. 1MB
A good base filesystem for floppies is romfs, the 2.3.x kernels appear
to support compressed romfs also.
Python, seems like a pretty cool language, ive been playing around with
it trying to rewrite genromfs, damn i wish i was a better programmer
though, theres always a hurdle to get over.
There has been some talk previously (6 months ago?) about a debian live
filesysytem, dunno what happened though. A working loop filesystem would
also be a good way for newbies to try a new distro from the comfort of
there native OS (windows).
I think it is important to try and all work together. Even if some of us
have some different goals we can all still share our common goals, as
ESR says in The cathedral and the bazzar, "A rising tide lifts all
boats".
To save yourself work, you would be best trying to isolate exactly what
your needs are that differ from others and concentrate on that area.
Have fun
Glenn McGrath
"Thomas W." wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> > Few days ago I discussed in news with a Debian developer about
> > contributing to the development of the installation program.
> >
> > I've used Debian since 1.2 and I've always feeled that it's a great
> > operating system. IMHO the weakest point is installation: it's too
> > much work even for an experienced user and it can be very hard for a
> > person who doesn't know much about PC hardware. Personally I have
> > never feeled that this is a big problem but many people seem to disagree
> > with me. So I'd like to help.
>
> This is also my opinion. Currently, I am writing a completely new Install
> process. I think, one of the main reasons, why RedHat, Suse et al
> are getting more "seats" is, that they have an install process, which
> is more convenient to the novice, impatient user. Although *I* do
> like dbootstrap & deselect, I think it is rather an obstacle for a
> person getting involved the first time. My first time with Debian was
> 2.1, so as you can see, I am *very* new to Debian. Luckily, I am
> *not* new to Linux and Unix in general.
> Currently, I am poking around the 'boot-floppies" package, to see
> what is done there. It is a bit confusing, so I am having a fairly
> "fun" time with it :-) Here is what I intend to do:
> 1. I assume a CDROM in the target system, which can be
> detected at boot-time.
> 2. I want to create a boot-floppy ( single disk ) loading the
> kernel and a small initial ramdisk. The ramdisk contains
> *only* the tools necessary to mount a iso9660 filesystem
> into the ramdisk-root tree, along with the obvious stuff for
> the boot-process itself. The CDROM will contain the same
> for direct CDROM boots. I want to create as much space
> as possible on the boot-disk for the upcoming Linux
> kernels, which I assume to be larger than the current
> kernels to some extend.
> 3. The CDROM-based ( live ) filesystem will contain the libs
> and tools for the installer itself, along with stuff to start
> networking and things like that.
> 4. The installer will ( at first ) be only text-based initially, for
> two reasons. First, it will allow a working installer earlier :-)
> Second, for an X-based install, I intend to wait for Xfree 4.0,
> since it makes handling of the various graphics cards easier -
> only one server, loading driver-modules etc...
> In order to *avoid* dselect in the install process initially, some
> dpkg-profiles will be created, allowing things like
> 'devel-system', 'X-workstation' or 'gnome-workstation etc.
> Similar to the current install process.
>
> I will do this for x86 initially, along with Alpha being the second
> and SPARC (4m/c) being third ( I have these archs at hand ).
>
> Currently, I am at the very beginning, but I am just starting working
> full-time on this ( yes, there is a commercial motivation, but all
> my code will be GPL - I can give details on demand ).
> I have the CeBit-show coming up ( I am German ), so I will be
> interrupted for about the next two weeks, but after that, I
> should be able to come up with code.
>
> Currently, I am not involved in any way with the Debian project,
> but if there is interest in this, I will happily change that :-)
> It is my attitude to come up with code first, before I apply for
> some 'developer' status within Debian.
> I didn't even intended to do this 'pre-pre-announcement', but
> maybe this helps in case someone finds my approach
> interesting enough to help. I would sure appreciate help.
>
> > The developer asked me to post to this list and ask what there's to do
> > and told me that at least there's testing.
>
> Great. In case you are interested, I would appreciate comments and
> testing.
>
> Sincerely,
> Thomas Weyergraf
>
> --
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Thomas Weyergraf kirk@colinet.de
>
> --
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