[RULE] FWD: question about RULE installers

[Michael Fratoni]

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On Thursday 13 February 2003 12:12 pm, M. Fioretti wrote:

> this is part of an email exchange between me and Matthew Miller, a
> sysadmin at Boston University where they package their own Red Hat
> derived distro for their users. Any comment/further explanation is
> welcome (I have asked to Matthew to subscribe temporarily, so he can
> ask further questions). I'll take care to reformat any answer and
> update the miniconda/slinky pages with any information that you think
> needs to be there.
[snip]
> On Thu, Feb 13, 2003 09:41:14 at 09:41:14AM -0500, Matthew Miller wrote:
> > Now I have a question for you. :)


Hi Matthew,

B.U. being in my home state, I suppose I ought to answer... ;)

> > Does the RULE low-memory-modified installer do everything that the
> > full anaconda does? 

For the most part yes. Miniconda (last version for Red Hat Linux 7.3) 
forces anaconda into text mode, removes the artificial minimum memory 
limit, and adds a "low memory" installation class. (plus a few hacks to 
make it all work.) Other than that, it behaves exactly as the stock 
anaconda.

>> Are your improvements going back to the main tree
> > or is it so drastically changed that it needs to stay a fork?

It needs to remain a fork, mainly because I don't believe Red Hat has any 
interest in these changes. For example, Miniconda functions by using it's 
own boot.img floppy to boot the installer. This worked fine for Red Hat 
Linux 7.2. When 7.3 was released, code had been added to prevent booting 
the installer from a non standard boot.img. Disabling that code was 
simple enough, but I found it rather odd that the code had been added in 
the first place. Paranoia? Perhaps. So, Miniconda for 7.3 was built, and 
worked fine. Then, 8.0 is released, without an i386 kernel package... 
Just because I'm paranoid, doesn't mean they aren't out to get me. <grin>

In any case, the changes, patches, scripts, etc. are all posted on my 
server. http://www.tuxfan.homeip.net:8080/rule/miniconda/

>> Do you
> > have a version based off the current Raw Hide? 

A Miniconda installer? No. I never quite got around to finishing Miniconda 
for the 8.0 release. I am currently fooling around with a new version of 
Miniconda for 8.0, which should allow rapid release of an installer for 
the next official release. Assuming of course that I get it finished and 
it works...

I can easily create an anaconda based installer for any given version, but 
it would require RULE distributing the iso images. I don't have the 
bandwith for that, and I doubt the FSF would be happy if we used their 
servers either. We aren't trying to create a new distro, and that is 
essentially what such a project would entail, even if it did use all Red 
Hat rpm packages. (Because we use the stock media for the install, I'm 
told we haven't run afoul of Red Hat's legal department either. This is 
an important consideration.)
Our goal has been to create a boot disk with an updates disk that allows 
the user to install from stock Red Hat media. It's not an officially 
supported install path, but the final product is in fact Red Hat Linux.

>> Basically: would we be
> > best off adopting your installer for BU Linux?

Depending on your needs, maybe. ;)
The Slinky installer is an option. It does _not_ do everything that 
Anaconda does, but it does install a working system. On first boot, kudzu 
runs, which handles the hardware detection that the installer skips. On 
oddball hardware, slinky can be a little challenging to get working. I 
have managed to use it without difficulty on several laptops and various 
boxes from P-100 to an Athlon 2600. Slinky is basically a set of scripts 
that do the installation and configuration, prompting the user for info 
when decisions are needed. It can use a config file that does away with 
most of the prompts. It easily installs in as little as 8M of RAM. The 
last Miniconda needed at least 12M and success was questionable at less 
than 16M.

> I will forward your questions to the mailing list, so that Michael
> Fratoni (the guy who actually wrote the installers) will be able to
> answer, and all the other list members to contribute. I'd suggest that
> you subscribe for some day (low volume list), to ask directly any
> further question. Michael and others are much more qualified than me
> to give updated details on this.

If you have any questions, or want to offer input, feel free to mail 
either myself or the rule list.

- -- 
- -Michael

pgp key:  http://www.tuxfan.homeip.net:8080/gpgkey.txt
Red Hat Linux 7.{2,3}|8.0 in 8M of RAM: http://www.rule-project.org/
- --
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