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Re: Extracting documentation from Debian installer



On 05/12/2021 08:37 AM, Andrew M.A. Cater wrote:
On Wed, May 12, 2021 at 07:53:24AM -0500, Richard Owlett wrote:
On 05/10/2021 11:02 AM, Andrew M.A. Cater wrote:
On Mon, May 10, 2021 at 10:00:01AM -0500, Richard Owlett wrote:
On 05/10/2021 09:32 AM, Andrew M.A. Cater wrote:
On Mon, May 10, 2021 at 08:18:06AM -0500, Richard Owlett wrote:
Debian's goal might be described as providing "the most power to a maximally
diverse audience". My underlying problem is that it does that *TOO* well.

I need two types of information that I doubt are documented anywhere except
in the source code.

I.  Text of error/cautionary messages.
       Specifically, what is the _exact_ text of the message given when the
       operator chooses to install neither Grub nor LILO.
II. Content of menus presented to the operator.
       Early in the installation a list of optional auxiliary programs is
       presented. I don't recognize any of the names, but if I looked them
       up I might find something very useful.

Which image?

Which machine architecture?

Which intended boot method - Legacy/MBR or UEFI?

The nature of the message will be "bootloader not found" but it depends
very much on WHICH boot loader you don't install.

What sort of things in terms of optional auxiliary programs at which stage?
Bearing in mind that you can take screenshots from an installer in-a VM
have you tried this?


"If you like more flexibility or just want to know what's going on ..."
        Section 4.3.3  of "Debian GNU/Linux Installation Guide"

TIA



Andy C - seeking info from you, as ever :)

I've only used i386 and AMD64 installers.
I asked to be directed to *SOURCE* code.


debian-installer/packages/grub-installer/debian is your starting point

Using the MATE search tool I don't find such a directory.
Is that a portion of a URL under debian.org?


The templates file inside there gives you your questions and answers

grub-installer.templates is the file you need, I think.

What I'm looking for  would more likely be more toward the main program
level.

Someone suggested running the installer under a VM to be able to grab an
image of menus/messages of interest. I've never used a VM. Is there one
recommended for a first time user? I have a machine dedicated to experiments
so no valuable data is threatened.


[snip]

That's from a git clone of debian-installer source code and a dig through.

The primary goal is self-education. My first contact with computers was as an engineering student in the early 60's and spend my retirement exploring things that I didn't in my past.

Can you point me to the code on the web?


It does depend what you want to do in a VM: you probably need a fair
amount of memory.

My machine for experiments is a Lenovo T510 with (IIRC) 4GB ram with >20 GB free on disk running 64bit Debian 10.7 with MATE DE and legacy BIOS. I have all dvd's on flash.


I quite like using virt-manager under a graphical
environment - it's relatively easy to navigate. If you also have ovmf
installed, then you get UEFI.

I could potentially do this for you, if you really wanted.

I appreciate any guidance. But for my goals I need to do the majority of the work.


All best,

Andy C.






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