Comments on CD images v4 (was Re: new CD images (II))

[Stefan Gybas <stefan@gybas.com>]

Michael Bramer wrote:

> Today I upload a new CD image to lug-bremen.de/linuxtag-cd/image/
> again.

I did two test installations which went pretty well but I still have some
comments and suggestions for improvements:

The following packages from testing should be included on the CD:

- devfsd (for kernel 2.4)
- reiserfsprogs (for kernel 2.4)
- pppoe
- libapache-mod-ssl (non-US)
- zip (why was it removed from v3 to v4?)
- java-compiler-dummy (if not included, we can remove java-common)
- java-virtual-machine-dummy
- grub
- coldsync
- mkisofs (recommended by cdrecord)
- krb5-user (non-US, recommended by libkrb53)
- netscape-smotif-477 (non-free, and everything it depends on) [1]
The following packages from potato-proposed-updates / unstable should also
be included:

- boot-floppies 2.2.24 from potato-proposed-updates (contains kernel 2.2.19
  which is in pool/ on the CD)
- pcmcia-modules-2.2.19* from potato-proposed-updates (required by
  kernel-image-2.2.19*)
- lvm and lvm-common (for kernel 2.4)

Some package should be upgraded to the current version in testing, at lease
these:

- ssh 2.5.2p2 (non-US, instead of the included 2.2.0)
- dpkg 1.9.6 (or better 1.9.9 from unstable)
- fetchmail-ssl 5.8.3-1 (non-US, depended on by fetchmailconf 5.8.3-1)
- gdb 5.0-4 from unstable (recommended by ddd, RC bugs are for non-i386)
- mozilla 0.9.1 (M18 is from Sep 2000!) [1]

These packages should be removed IMHO (all have no reverse dependencies):

- libstdc++3.0 (depends on gcc-3.0-base which is not available)
- libungif3g-dev (conflicts with libungif4-dev, gdk-imlib-dev depends on
  either)
- qt-designer and uic (both conflict with kde-designer)
- aolserver (preinst exits with error 100)
- kernel-image-2.2.18pre21* with pcmcia-modules from dists/potato/base
  (2.2.19 is in pool/ on the CD)
- libsdl1.1 (install smpeg-xmms 0.3.4-4 from unstable which depends on
  libsdl1.2, this is better because libsmpeg0 also depends on libsdl1.2)
  SDL 1.1 is obsolte and was a decveopment versrion. The maintainer wants
  to remove in from the archive once all packages are linked aginast SDL 1.2.
- expect5.24 (expect 5.31 is still present)
- itcl3.0 and itk3.1 (itcl3.1 and itk3.1 are still present)
- tcl8.2 and tk8.2 (change task-tcltk to depend on 8.3)
- zope-emarket
- plugger and all libc5-based libraries: libpng0, libgd1, zlib1, libc5
- netscape-base (or include the complete netscape) [1]

We should then build a new base2_2.tgz (I can do this if noone else
volunteers) with the version from testing instead of potato because
upgrading causes some problems:

- libc6 now uses /etc/locale-gen, this should be in base.tgz and configured
  to build at lease de_DE
- libc6 wants to restart inetd because of NSS changes
- I got some requests by dpkg about changes config files (sorry, don't
  remember which), this IMHO causes confusion to new users

I found some problems with debconf:

- I got the message "debconf: cannot preconfigure packages -- apt-utils isi
  not installed." See #92140 for details.
  Suggested solution: Put apt-utils in our base.tgz or change debconf's
  dependencies
- libterm-stool-perl is not installed so the Slang frontend does not work
  Suggested solution: Put libterm-stool-perl in our base.tgz or change
  debconf's dependencies

Some more suggestions:

- Set the default keymap to German (in base-config and console-tools debconf
  DB)
- Set the default papersize to a4 (in libpaperg's debconf DB)

Another problem:

- There is an X11 configuration in base (anXoius) and and xserver-xfree86
  (XFree 4.0.3). But I'll guess there's nothing we can do about this if we
  want to include XFree 3.3.6 servers.


[1] Are you really suggesting to include Mozilla M18 (released September 2000)
    instead of Netscape 4.77? If we include Mozilla, we should use 0.9.1,
    I think there was an announcemant on debian-devel about an unoffical
    package recently. I think we should include both: Mozilla is not
    yet usable for most web sites, like online banking.

-- 
Stefan Gybas