A design draft for a debconf based PPP/PPPoE configurator
OK, so here's another one of my famous proposals again. Note that I'm
currently just slinging design ideas in the hopes of getting people revved
up about this feature regression from Woody. Here is a step by step,
Choose Your Own Adventure type method as to how this package should work...
Firstly, I am not sure whether this should run before or after netcfg.
(Perhaps netcfg, in its current state of only detecting the interface used
to install, should not run at all if PPP is being used. Suggestions please..)
pppconfig should load stuff like serial_cs and the PPP modules when it
starts. If they're not available, prompt for them, maybe, or forego
usage entirely?
1. Would you like to use a DSL or dial-up connection to install
Debian?
If not, go on to the base system installer.
Random thought: We need to have choose-mirror bug out at the user if he or
she has not configured an Internet connected interface at the time that it
is run, and send the user back to netcfg/pppconfig/iso-scan. Is this
possible with main-menu?
2. DSL (PPPoE/PPPoA) or dial-up?
I'm unsure what kind of configuration PPPoA needs. Also, is this question
extraneous? Should question #1 be a select of "Yes, DSL", "Yes, dialup",
"No, something else/CD"?
If DSL, go to 3a.
3. Probe for modem device
Steal this wholesale from wvdial/pppconfig...
3a. Probe for DSL connection.
Steal this wholesale from pppoeconf.
4. Set up the access number for dialup
We'll probably want to do isdigit() on each character in the number.
(Cooler yet: convert ABC -> 2, DEF -> 3... :))
This will write to the appropriate place in /etc/ppp/peers (? I forget the
path.)
4. Set up chap-secrets
Prompt for username and password. Does cdebconf have a 'password'
question type?
5. Other esoteric options?
Not sure...
6. Payload!
Run pppd. Failure, start over at 3 or 3a, this time allow manual selection
of device.
We might set up pppd to try to restart itself if the connection peters out
sometime during the install, and add error correction measures to
debootstrap (super wishlist bug that nobody bothers for, cf. ln:
/target/bin/awk: File exists)
As I mentioned this is a really rough brainstorm draft. I would like to go
to the boondocks this summer and install Debian off of a 28.8kbps analog
link (just kidding. This is a pretty important feature...) :)
--
Joshua Kwan
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