Re: Mass install / Autoinstall (Was: Re: Debian vs Red Hat??? I need info.)
Massimo Dal Zotto <dz@cs.unitn.it> writes:
> If you want to support automatic installation for woody I would
> recommend that you consider the following issues:
>
> fully automatic installation once the program is started
>
> transparent installation from any media (cd, http, etc.)
>
> automatic guessing of source locations once medium is specified
>
> standard package selections (server, workstation, etc.) and
> support for user-supplied package profiles
>
> support for user-supplied config files instead of configuration
>
> run automatically user-supplied post-installation scripts
>
> interactive standalone configuration program which can be used
> to build configuration profiles stored on a floppy
>
> support for different config profiles based on cluster name and
> hostname
>
> don't require graphic GUI like other distributions do
>
> use scripts instead of compiled programs whenever possible, for
> ease of development, debugging and maintenance
>
> automatic hardware detection and configuration, possibly using
> user-provided information previously stored in config files
>
> Regarding the last point I would suggest that the major distribution's
> developers join and develop a common hardware detection tool maintained
> centrally, like the kernel, and used by all distributions. Having many
> incomplete and duplicated detection tools is only a waste of resources.
Here here! Enough of distribution-specific hardware detection and
partitioning tools! We should be working for the community. We should
try hard to minimize Debian-specific components. I only wish debconf
wasn't debian-specific.
I agree with every point you make. I also recommend that those
wanting to help with automated installation for woody should learn
debconf, seek out every pkg which doesn't already use debconf and asks
questions in postinst or other non-sense, and submit patches to the
bug tracking system to "port" their maintainer scripts to debconf.
--
.....Adam Di Carlo....adam@onShore.com.....<URL:http://www.onShore.com/>
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