Re: Infrastructure for meta-distribution projects
Sorry for continuing the cc's, I've got to drive this home once and
for all:
On Thu, 5 Jun 2003, Enrico Zini wrote:
> We're finally addressing the issue of what structure and data is
> required to build a metadistro.
> These are the proposals I've seen so far in the thread:
> - The Debian Package Tags
> - Task packages
> - Meta packages
FAI classes! I won't include all of your email, but everything you've
described here has already been implemented with FAI. FAI allows
automated installation and customisation of any subset of Debian
packages, and I've stuck it onto a bootable CD with a subset package
pool so you don't need NFS or a full mirror:
http://www.informatik.uni-koeln.de/fai/
http://www.iinet.net.au/~niall/fai/
Next step when I have time is to do a usermode linux install to build
a bootable live CD, should just be a few simple FAI hooks to skip disk
configuration. I've been saying this for months, just haven't had the
time.
FAI already does what you need, and it's very stable and mature. Yes,
we do need to bring this functionality into the new debian-installer
as a standard feature of Debian down the road, but there's no sense in
re-inventing the wheel. Trust me, I've spent the last couple of years
working on Debian meta-distros: use FAI and contribute patches for the 1%
that it doesn't already do.
Niall Young Chime Communications Pty Ltd
niall@chime.net.au Level 6, 263 Adelaide Terrace
Ph: (+61) 08 9213 1330 / 0408 192 797 Perth, Western Australia 6000
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