Re: [NEWS] status of boot-flopppies
> - [09/15/1999, aph] apt-get sources.list configurator
> debconf now includes this. We need to hook into the configurator
> from the post-installation tasks. Debconf has to get into base,
> also.
> STATUS: Joey Hess has a working debconf version of this. We are
> waiting for a new perl-base so debconf can go into base.
> Testers/hackers on this are probably requested -- contact joeyh
The apt sources.list configuration can be made optional if the installation
is done from the official cdroms or a copy of them. If we put a pre-cooked
sorces.list describing the official cdrom set it is easy to adapt it to the
actual location of the installation source (cdrom, http, nfs, etc.), assuming
it is a copy of the official cdroms. This can be checked by the installer
after it has found the base.tgz. Since we know where it comes from we can
also guess where find the rest of the cd and not bother the user if the the
files are found. Of course this must be arranged with the debian-cd people.
> - [10/30/1998, ezanard] Read more data from the boot prompt
> (keyboard language, source medium, network config, ... eventually
> everything may be provided from the boot prompt. That makes an
> unattended installation trivial, one just write the proper
> syslinux.cfg file and there it goes...)
> UPDATE: The boot command line is limited to 256 bytes. We'll have to
> use a config file instead.
Are we going to use a config file? Which variables can be configured in
that way and where is stored the file? On the boot floppy or on a separate
floppy containing only hosts configurations?.
Anyway the boot prompt should be used only for essential configuration
options (probably only keyboard and mouse). Consider that at this point you
have the keyboard always configured as us, no line editing and no mouse.
All the other options should probably go into a configuration file.
> - [04/27/1998, wichert] The search for the base system should be
> smarter. When using an NFS mounted directory, it takes several
> minutes to find it. It will even display base systems for m68k,
> powerpc, alpha etc. The goal is to a) use the <architecture> which
> is hardcoded and b) use a more specific search path if possible,
> e.g. after `/debian' `/dists/{stable,frozen,unstable}/main/disks-<arch>'
> and `/local'. (Bug#2177)
The search for the base system could be completely skipped if the debian-cd
people could store in a well-known location on the cd a small file containing
the paths of all the important files. If only relative paths are used they
are still valid if the cd is copied on the harddisk or mounted via nfs.
This is a trivial task for the debian-cd makers and also a trivial change
for the bootdisk installer. You need only to agree on the file format and
the well-known location.
I don't understand why insist on the hacker's way of searching things in the
cd when we can known in advance where they are stored. The search hack should
be used only as fallback when we can't know where are the files.
> - [11/18/1998, ezanard] Extract the config steps (kbdconfig, tzconfig,
> netconfig, pcmcia-config, ...) into stand-alone tools. Move them to
> the proper packages (kbdconfig -> kbd, tzconfig -> timezones, ...)
> or create new packages for them, so that they are available anytime,
> not only at installation time.
Also make them completely scriptable so that they can be run without user
interaction if needed.
> - [12/2/1998, ezanard] modconf is a shell script that uses sed in many
> places. If we rewrite it to remove that dependency, we may remove sed
> from the rootdisk, freeing 40KB. Update: sed is not on the rootdisk,
> but on the drivers floppy, inside modconf.tgz.
IMHO sed, awk and a real editor should be on every rootdisk. If we use a
1.44MB compressed rootdisk there should be plenty of space to store them.
I can't consider `rescue' a disk which doesn't include these very basic
utilities.
--
Massimo Dal Zotto
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