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Re: Are there any good reasons to use emdebian on 386 platform with large hard drive?



On Fri, 14 Nov 2008 07:29:55 +0000
Fredrik Israelsson <fredrik_is@hotmail.com> wrote:

> I am looking for a good way to create a target OS to install on a
> kiosk-like machine. I want to have good control of what is running on
> the target machine, and I want to create my own install CD for it.
> The machine will be running a 386-compatible mainboard, and it will
> have a large disk and a large display.
> 
> What are the reasons to use emdebian in this case? 

Almost none. What you are probably looking for is the "Debian Pure
Blends" initiative - the new name for Custom Debian Distributions.

You get control over what is running by using a meta-package that
depends on everything you need (and possibly conflicts against stuff
you don't want). Blends has established methods for this kind of
support.

http://wiki.debian.org/DebianPureBlends

> I can see that it
> is possible to configure the emdebian tools for the 386 architecture.
> 
> What are the biggest reasons for NOT using emdebian in this case?

Almost everything you can think of:

1. There are no i386 packages in Emdebian right now.
2. Emdebian Crush is pointless on a system with more than 500Mb storage
space.
3. Emdebian Grip is pointless on a system with more than 2Gb storage
space.
4. Debian fits on such a device without problems - there is no reason
to add another layer (with the inevitable bugs).
5. There are no Emdebian Grip packages for i386 yet although these are
closer than Emdebian Crush.
6. Emdebian Grip is only in development and is not problem free -
methods for extending the package set and keeping the installation
updated are not yet implemented.

> Are there any other good tools out there, if all you want is to pick
> a subset from a Linux OS and shoot it into a target machine? What
> tools are used by the Debian developers for creating the Debian
> install CD:s?

Debian-Installer - pre-seeding. Also look at apt pinning.

-- 


Neil Williams
=============
http://www.data-freedom.org/
http://www.linux.codehelp.co.uk/
http://e-mail.is-not-s.ms/

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