Debian From Scratch

[John Goerzen <jgoerzen@complete.org>]

Debian From Scratch (DFS) is a single CD that is a full rescue CD
capable of working with all major filesystems, LVM, software RAID,
and even compiling a new kernel.

And, it's a cdebootstrap-based install CD that can install i386 woody,
i386 sarge, i386 sid, and amd64 sid directly from CD, and whatever
else from the 'net.  The installation can best be described as
"Gentoo-like".  Documentation is not yet very complete, but updates
will be posted at the URL below.

Download from: http://people.debian.org/~jgoerzen/dfs/dfs.iso.bz2
  (Single ISO boots both i386 and amd64 kernels)

Documentation: http://people.debian.org/~jgoerzen/dfs/html/

DFSbuild is a program that generates DFS CDs.  It is highly
configurable and can build a CD with whatever set of packages you
want, whatever .debs available for installation you like, and whatever
kernels you prefer.

Download builder: http://people.debian.org/~jgoerzen/dfs/dfsbuild-0.5.tar.bz2

The packages needed to build it are, roughly:
  ocaml scons libmissinglib-ocaml-dev libcash-ocaml-dev (incoming)
  gtk-doc-tools sgml2x docbook-utils jade lynx xpdf-utils
  cdebootstrap apt-move mkisofs

  I will be making .debs of this before too long.

Following are snippets from the DFS docs highlighting features of the
DFS image.  Generally, the docs still stink.  Sorry.  If you need
help, Gentoo's may be useful.

     _________________________________________________________

1.1. DFS Features

   You can expect the following from your DFS CD:

     * Bootable CD featuring the GNU Grub bootloader. Can be used
       to boot hard disk partitions even if no hard disk
       bootloader is present.
     * Kernel and userland support for all major filesystems,
       including ext2, ext3, JFS, XFS, ReiserFS, FAT, VFAT, NTFS,
       ISO9660, CramFS, tmpfs, and more. Userland support for
       Reiser4.
     * Kernel and userland support for different disk layout
       schemes including standard partitioning, Logical Volume
       Manager 2 (LVM2), software RAID, etc.
     * Full recovery tools runnable directly from CD, including:
          + Filesystem utilities for all mazjor filesystems,
            including undeletion tools for ext2
          + Partition editors (fdisk, cfdisk, parted)
          + Text editors (nano, joe, vim, emacs)
          + C, Perl, Python, and OCaml development environments.
            Enough to configure and compile a new kernel and
            build basic .debs. Kernel 2.6.6 sources included on
            CD.
          + Full networking support, including PPP and various
            Ethernet cards and DHCP
          + Network tools including FTP clients, Web client, ssh,
            telnet, NFS, smbclient, tcpdump, netcat, etc.
          + Backup restoration tools such as rdiff-backup,
            dump/restore, tar, cpio, amanda client, afbackup
            client, etc.
          + CD and DVD burning tools
          + Basic printing tools (cat for local printers, rlpr
            for remote ones, and netcat for Jetdirect, plus
            unix2dos for text files and Ghostscript for emergency
            conversions)
          + Mail reader (mutt)
     * Base systems for multiple versions of Debian installable
       directly from CD, including: woody (i386), sarge (i386),
       sid (i386), and sid (amd64).
     * amd64 support: Enough to install or fix an AMD64 system.
       Includes 64-bit kernel with 32-bit emulation (to run the
       32-bit userland on the CD). Also includes 64-bit package
       for bootstrapping a new AMD64 support. In short, you can
       boot a 64-bit kernel and be treated as a first-class
       citizen in almost all respects.
     * i386 or x86_64 (amd64) kernels bootable directly from
       initial boot menu.
     * DFS generation scripts support custom kernels, packages,
       mirrors, compressed ISO images (almost), and a high degree of
       flexibility.