Re: Debian's new installer
Luciano Baretta Mandryk wrote:
>
> Hi all!
>
> I recently subscribed to this list, so let me introduce myself: I'm Luciano
> Baretta Mandryk, lead developer of MI (Conectiva's Modular Installer). I think
> some of you have already heard about Conectiva Inc. :-)
>
> I've seen you guys are developing a new installer (I got some material from your
> list archives and took a look at some docs in your CVS). Have you seen
> Conectiva's installer? I think it's quite close to everything you want. It was
> fully developed by us with 3 things in mind: automated installations, modularity
> and ease-of-use. Believe it or not, one of its requisites was: "it should be
> able to install both Conectiva and Debian distros". Of course it currently does
> not, because none of us got enough free time to do that. I think you can adapt
> it to Debian without pain. :-)
>
> More on that: We are planning to rewrite it almost from scratch, improving the
> good concepts and changing our mistakes. Its final objective remains the
> same: be an installer that can be used by any distro. Based on that, I'd like to
> suggest a joint effort from Conectiva and Debian people toward it.
>
> What do you guys think about that?
>
Hi, nice work with apt-get, Andrew Clausen mentioned to me you were
doing such a thing, i didnt even think it would be possible with RPM's
(he speaks highly of your ability)
Its an admirable goal to write an installer that can be used by any
distro. I think the installer more than any other piece fo free software
is something that has always had a fragmented development process (based
around the distribution). If we could co-operated and produce a generic
installer im sure it would save us all a lot of work, and be good for
end users.
You have probably picked up from the list that cdebconf and udeb
packages are basically the heart of the new debian installer. cdebconf
provides the user interface and installer modules are handled like
regular packages that are fetchable on demand.
The installer could be almost considered a mini-distribution.
I havent checked out your installer, so its hard to comment on how
similar the design of your modular installer is, i will endevour to give
it a try.
Im sure we could find at least some common ground.
Glenn
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