Re: redesigning the debian installer
>
>
> On Thu, 14 Sep 2000, Massimo Dal Zotto wrote:
>
> > Ideally the auto-installation should be completely non-interactive but it
> > may ask the installation profile name and some vital information not
> > supplied in the profile.
>
> Completely non-interactive is an point.
>
> > 2) on each target machine:
> >
> > boot the installer
> > select the auto-installation option
>
> But please: Also some possibility, that you do not have to enter something
> there at all. (I do not have something against an option there, that you
> can switch von non-automated to automated, but please do not forget an
> fully automated)
>
> I want to be a able to sit on my server, ssh to an client, say:
> bootp (or whatver) this image of the base-installer you get from server A
> (perhaps even install.debian.org :-) using the database on server B,
> whithout needing to leave my seat and walk to the client!
>
> > A second option would be starting it from the boot prompt:
> > boot: auto-install PROFILE=workstation HOSTNAME=debian01
> >
> > and in this case the initial menu should be skipped.
>
> Yes, like this way. But without the need of an bootprompt
> (But I think the env-variables could also be entered
> with some remote-booting tool, perhaps an remote-loadlin would be cool)
>
I have not explained clearly. I have nothing against the fully automatic
approach you are suggesting. I like it. What I'm saying is only that the
auto-installation should also be one of the choices of the initial menu.
But any other way of starting it is ok. The boot-prompt option given as
example could be easily made the default boot in a syslinux config, so
you have only to insert the disk and start the boot.
But if you want for example to install many similar machine from a cdrom
how can you specify which machine (hostname, ip, etc.) you are installing
without any prompting? Either you create N different bootfloppies or you
must be prompted for a profile or machine name before starting the auto-
installation. In my opinion this the one of the most common usage of the
auto-intallation feature. The network boot you are suggesting is ok but
not always applicable, so we must have also a manual startup of the auto-
installation.
--
Massimo Dal Zotto
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