[custom] Custom Debian Distros need the help from debian developers
yep,
I've read this long thread and some points come to mind :
1- Non-interactive installation :
as said before [DEBCONF-LEVEL], there is two configuration levels :
- end-user level, that should install really non-interactively ;
- power-user level, that let the installer tweak the config, still beeing
compatible with the end-user case ;
debconf frontend is a tool of choice for acheveing that.
- For a end-user, debconf configuration should be :
* debconf/priority: medium
* debconf/frontend: Noninteractive
- For a power-user :
* debconf/priority: low
* debconf/frontend: Dialog
that's the debian way, IMHO.
The "Noninteractive" frontend just keep default values for all registered
templates.
2- debconf pre-seeding
( isn't that "pre-feeding" ? i'm not a native english speaker, but , AFAICS,
pre-feeding seems to better match the concept )
The point now is feeding debconf with coherent default values that _will_ be
different from stock Debian releases.
As said before [DEBIAN-STOCK], trying to change default values from
stock-Debian packages can be a waste of time.
A "Custom Debian Distro" has to, errr..., customize its distribution ! that is
making its own packages.
An easy way may be using dbs [DBS] to maintain a BSD-like port system.
I use it every day to maintain my own custom debian [PRAKSYS]. ( forget my
gory scripts, but watch the idea ;)... i still have a lot of cleanups to do )
this way, a CDD can have its own debconf tree from where each customized
package can take relevant config.
e.g. :
CDD/host/name
CDD/network/lan/fqdn
CDD/network/lan/interface
CDD/network/lan/netmask
CDD/network/lan/gateway
CDD/network/ipsec/fqdn
CDD/network/ipsec/interface
CDD/network/ipsec/netmask
CDD/network/ipsec/gateway
... and so on...
3- another point, is beeing able to have a remote debconf database (for
network-wide configurations) and a local one (for, err..., local
configurations).
for the previous example, CDD/network hierarchy can be stored on the
network-server, while CDD/host is host-specific...
cheers,
guillaume pernot
[DEBCONF-LEVEL]
http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2004/debian-devel-200402/msg00911.html
[DEBIAN-STOCK]
http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2004/debian-devel-200402/msg00801.html
[DBS]
http://packages.debian.org/stable/devel/dbs
[PRAKSYS]
a straigth-forward example :
http://praksys.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb/pool/g/ganglia-monitor-core/ganglia-monitor-core/debian/patches/30praksys-config.diff?rev=1.5&content-type=text/x-cvsweb-markup
generated packages can be found at :
http://download.gna.org/praksys/praksys/ganglia-monitor-core_2.5.5-4praksys0.tar.gz
http://download.gna.org/praksys/praksys/ganglia-monitor_2.5.5-4praksys0_i386.deb
http://download.gna.org/praksys/praksys/ganglia-webfrontend_2.5.5-4praksys0_i386.deb
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