What about "Knoppix CD/DVD as Debian installer (next generation)' ?
On January 12th 2006, Klaus Knopper wrote:
And we may be able to replace some knoppix-patched Debian-packages
(like sysvinit) by the original ones using some script-based "evil
hacks" instead, in order to make them behave like the earlier live-cd
versions.
(...)
Anyways. Since you asked, indeed, I could need some help.
The most urgent and probably a big breakthrough also for other
Debian-installers would be the following:
For the planned "hd-install and update from CD or DVD" feature
(especially "update" could be exciting), I would need an extension for
dpkg and apt-get that allows a /etc/apt/sources.list entry like this:
deb installed:/UNIONFS
that doesn't use .deb packages, but a preinstalled system including
the dpkg database in /var/lib/dpkg. This is supposed to make it
possible to install debian packages that are already unpacked and
preinstalled (with the existing and probably modified corresponding /
etc/ configuration files) from a root directory tree, in this
example /UNIONFS.
A not-so-advanced workaround would be dpkg-repack'ing every single
package from the live system, put all the .deb files into a temporary
directory, create a database with apt-ftparchive, and the use this as
file:/ resource in sources.list. But why go through all this effort
and waste space and CPU time when all packages are already installed
on the medium and a database including all dependencies already
exists?
With a feature like the above, we could easily make a Live CD or DVD
that can be installed and updated the standard Debian way, without
having to use a deb package file repository.
Plus, updating an existing harddisk installation using just the live
CD or DVD would be possible.
Any comments/ideas/code recommendations for his?
---------------------------------
There were very few comments on this wonderful project thereafter. Is
it still alive? I'd like to help, unfortubately IANAP. I could
provide a french translation from the english translation if nobody
offers to translate directly from german.
GP
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