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Re: Bug#692309: installation-guide: 3.6.2. Boot Device Selection: Booting debian-installer from a USB stick



Le lundi, 10 décembre 2012 18.00:03, Holger Wansing a écrit :
> But we already mention Windows tools in the guide, which are also not
> part of Debian, for example for partitioning.
> I would vote for including plop too.

Which ones, specifically ? As far as I read chapter 3.5, we just advise users 
to "repartition", without saying how. The other Windows executables we advise 
to use are in Debian: loadlin and win32-loader.

Furthermore, I think "plop" is a widely different beast in that context: it's 
a bootloader, which runs on the bare metal and could do lots of things to 
anything it boots. Furthermore, I can't find any indication that it is free 
software nor links to the source, which is apparently assembler. Closer 
examination of the license [0] indicates that it is non-free as per "The 
programs may not be sold".

Earlier I was lightly against pointing to it for "not built by Debian" 
reasons: I was worried about us advising users to use free software that we 
would not be ensuring trust for. Now, given that I have realised that plop i 
non-released-source non-free software, I'm really firmly against pointing to 
it, for the risks inherently carried by installing a non-free assembler 
bootloader on bare metal.

Cheers,

OdyX

[0] http://www.plop.at/en/bootmanager/licence.html


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