On Wed, Jun 01, 2011 at 03:36:47PM +0100, Wookey wrote:
+++ Arnd Bergmann [2011-06-01 16:11 +0200]:
On Wednesday 01 June 2011, Wookey wrote:
I absolutely agree that we should consequently think beyond image generation, but that doesn't necessarily mean that a CD image to perform an unattended installation is a better answer.
My main question to this is "install from where?".
I'd say the default case (at least for current hardware) is booting from SD or USB stick and installing from the network. (Which is how I install PCs these days too - it's a very long time since I got a CD out :-)).
All sorts of things are possible (and a well-designed installer will be flexible about sources and sinks, as the existing Debian one is), but if we only supported the above option I think that would cover most of what we want to support. (ARM servers might want different boot media?)
but that doesn't necessarily mean that a CD image to perform an unattended installation is a better answer
I'm not sure I follow you here. Are you suggesting that there is some third way between a locally-bootable installer image and pre-built images? (In which case what - I don't see this), or just that CDs are no longer the default media (agreed).
A basic pre-built image with network and packager functionality is arguably almost an installer anyway.
Anrdoid aside, if any of our images is not just an "apt-get install" command away from nano, we should be asking ourselves why not.
Separate question how big is Debian-installer, in terms of filesystem and RAM footprint?
If we can move the entire installation system to a ramfs on boot, we can unmount and free up the boot device, allowing the system to be installed in-place.
This might also require Linux's idea of which devices are "removable" to be overridden though, so that they can be repartitioned without a reboot. I think the kernel hard-codes this for some of our boards currently; i.e., the boot SD slot may be considered non- removable. I don't know how easy it is do get around this.
Cheers ---Dave