Re: 24MB bootable CD install image
Anne,
Thanks for your response. I have a few comments.
On Tue, Feb 29, 2000 at 03:39:23PM +0100, J.A. Bezemer wrote:
>However, for things to be "adopted" by debian-cd, experience shows that you've
>got to do a little bit more. It would be very nice if there was a simple shell
>script that would just do everything without intervention. Should be called
>for example:
>
> make-netinstcd /path/to/debian potato /tmp/workdir /tmp/netinstcd.iso
I will be happy to do this. It should not be too hard.
However, what I was suggesting for adoption was that the results of the
'make-netinstcd' be an ISO image that is downloadable. I don't think
people who are window shopping for a distribution will be interested in
downloading data, then running a script to produce an ISO. They just
want to download an ISO.
What I've done can be done in two different sizes, 10MB or 24MB,
depending on whether or not the base2_2.tgz file is available on the
CD or needs to be downloaded at install time. To me, these are both
reasonable sizes to put up an ISO.
My goal is to resolve what I perceive to be a need in for Debian:
a downloadable ISO for people who are window shopping for a distro.
If the window shoppers have to download a script, then download the boot
floppies, then run the script, then burn the image, that's not achieving
my goal. It's just replacing one complicated mechanism of getting
an install CD (i.e. rsync) with a different complicated mechansim.
I don't think the window shopping community wants that. I think they
want ISO images.
Whatever Debian decides to do with my script, I will still produce it. I
just hope that it can be used to create ISO's to download, not another
complicated procedure.
>It would be very wise to also use `mkhybrid' as the rest of the debiancd
>package does.
Ok. I've never used mkhybrid, but I'll look into it and incorporate it
into the make-netinstcd. Can you give me some idea of what mkhybrid does
differently than mkisofs? In other words, why has "the rest of debiancd"
decided to use it over mkisofs? Just curious.
>Also, instead of creating only an .iso image, you could also think of using
>mkdosfs (?) to put the thing on a (bootable) ZIP disk or LS120 floppy.
>Either let the script create both (simplest) or make two scripts (other e.g.
>make-netinstzip).
I'm not sure that I'm qualified to tackle that project. Primarily because
I'm no expert in DOS device drivers, and in order to do this, I'd need
to be able to manage a device driver for a ZIP disk, LS120 and/or a CDROM.
Additionally, it strikes me as particularly odd to depend on DOS to
install Linux. Politically, it rubs me the wrong way. Kinda like asking
the devil to give you a ride to church. Even though the end goal is good,
you're probably better off walking.
>And if you already happen to have such an .iso downloadable somewhere, I'd
>really like to take a look at it. If you have a slink version, we can put it
>up on cdimage.debian.org.
I will be happy to temporarily give you access to a downloadable copy
in a private email. But I don't have enough bandwidth to publish this
to the list, and have everyone download it.
I don't have a slink version, but I'll make one. That one is going to
depend on the base2_1.tgz file remaining on the CD so it will probably
have to be in the 25MB size range.
One final question. The official 2.1 CD has a number of README files and
other sundry documentation in the root of the CD. Is there any set of
files that I need to keep in the root of the CD in order to properly
represent this as a Debian CD?
Cheers,
- Mark
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