[custom] Some issues for custom debian distributions

[Petter Reinholdtsen <pere@hungry.com>]

As discussed during debcamp in Oslo, all the groups/projects making
debian based custom distributions should join together to find common
solutions to the common problems.  This is a start, with a few of the
issues that Skolelinux had and solved.

 - Automatic installation

     Using the new debian-installer and a few hooks to get the
     partitioning we want and the packages we want installed into the
     hard drive.  I'm fairly satisfied with this solution.

 - Installing the list of package we want

     Using meta-packages (ie packages consisting only of dependencies)
     to install the packages we want.  Used hooks in base-config to
     get them installed during first time installation.  Not too happy
     about the meta-package approach, as it is fragile and break
     easily if some dependency is unavailable.

 - Preconfigure the packages we install

     Using two different approaches: (1) Load answers into the debconf
     database before the packages are installed using some home-make
     scripts, and (2) rewrite/replace configuration files using
     cfengine at the end of the installation if the package is unable
     to configure what we want using debconf.  I'm fairly satisfied
     with this solution, but am not sure if the method used to feed
     the debconf database is the best available.  I believe the best
     option would be to extend all the packages we use to make it
     possible to configure everything we need using debconf answers.

 - Automatic X configuration

     Using home-brewed script filling the debconf database, and then
     call dexconf from the xfree86 package to generate the
     configuration file.  The HW detection info is fetched from
     various packages (discover, kudzu, detect, etc).

 - CD building

     Using a heavily patched version of debian-cd to create the CDs.
     Most of the patches is to include the d-i boot floppies.  This
     should now be possible with the standard version of debian-cd,
     but no one in Skolelinux have taken the time to update our copy
     of the scripts.

 - Configure default language for all users

     Using a custom script to rewrite config files to modify the
     default language/locale.

 - Making simpler KDE menus

     Working on a system to make simple menus and change the menu
     depending on the users group membership.

There are probably others, but this should be a good starting point.
Are these issues common to other custom distros?  How did you solve
the problem?