KickStart [was Re: [Rule-list] Suggestions for having a small install.]

[Eugene Wong]

>From: Marco Fioretti <m.fioretti at inwind.it>
>
>...isn't it something to do in *parallel* to
>slinky and/or miniconda rather than add to/modify them? In other
>words, how much (in standard RH) a kickstart install  is done by a separate
>program/procedure/whatever and how much it is "built in" the standard
>installer?

I don't know. I don't understand the difference between "parallel" & "add 
to/modify them". I think that the KickStart software is all part of RH's 
standard installation floppy. I assumed that a bash script can handle most 
of it. It's seems that it's just a matter of parsing a few files, 
downloading through wget, recording status, parsing again, rpming, 
recording, and parsing again. I think that it might be wise to have it as a 
seperate program to slinky and/or miniconda, as you suggest. This isn't what 
I had in mind at first, but as I think about it more & more, your idea makes 
more sense. Having a seperate program will prevent it from corrupting the 
development of slinky & miniconda, and provide choices of installation 
methods. However, I would think that if this works, in the end it will 
replace slinky & probably miniconda.

On a side note, I would like to make use of Tom's-root-boot disk [can't 
remember the correct name]. As long as it is powerful enough to download, 
install rpms, and has bash scripting, then we should be okay. We can create 
the KickStart scripts & KickStart file on a seperate floppy with a standard 
ext2 formating. The user would boot the root-boot disk, umount it, mount the 
KickStart disk, edit the KickStart file, & run ".../install myfile". I want 
use the root-boot disk because there are utilites on there already, & I 
remember trying to learn how to modify boot disks. It isn't something that I 
want to do again in the near future. If there is something out there that 
works, then I'd like to use it, and use the saved time writing better 
documentation.

Thoughts? I'll probably begin sometime later on down the road, and the 
scripts will probably be based on slinky's scripts unless that other fellow 
wants to help with this. Somebody mentioned that it is better to use another 
language other than bash scripts. I'm more than flexible here. If you would 
like to take charge on this idea, I'd be willing to let you make most of the 
decisions.

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