[RULE] WCLP 0.7.1 Released ("RULE for Debian")

[Paul Nijjar]

	WCLP stands for the "Working Centre Linux Project". It's a Debian
subdistribution for older hardware that a few of us have been working on
for a few years now. Our goals are similar to those of the RULE project:
get up to date software running on older hardware. We also have the goals
of making an installer that is easy for our volunteers to use, and of
making our distribution resemble Windows.

	The big news I have is that we have (finally) made another release
of our installer, updated for Sarge (the soon-to-be released version of
Debian). Bigger news is that we have finally gotten a CD-based installer
together, which means that for the first time it is feasible for others to
download the distro and try it out.

	You can access the main WCLP site here:
http://wclp.sourceforge.net

	Our project pages (where you can download stuff) is here:
http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/wclp

	The version you want is 0.7.1

	Our distribution is based on Debian. The installer is based on FAI
-- Fully-Automated Installation. As it turns out, our installer is not
fully-automated, but it does some things on its own, such as partitioning
and formatting hard drives (which is both a good and a bad thing).

	We are not trying to replace the Slinky installer, nor are we
asserting that RULE should give up its goal of getting Fedora installed on
older computers. Rather, I am thinking of our project as a Debian-based
approach to the problems RULE is trying to solve.

	Sorry this message is so huge. I am posting it because I know some
people on the list have expressed interest in RULE for Debian, and because
I am looking for feedback and help.

	I should also note that we are totally looking for more volunteer
help in getting certain tasks accomplished, so if you are willing to help
out let me know.

	Some caveats:
	0. Consider this release to be alpha software. It has bugs, and I
welcome bug reports of all kinds. I am also totally willing to help (on
this list if Marco allows it, on wclp-user at lists.sourceforge.net
otherwise) with any problems you are facing. I am only a volunteer, so I
can't promise instant turnaround, but I will do my best.

	1. The installer (intentionally) wipes out your hard drive and
reformats it, so don't try it on a machine containing data you care about.
	At the same time, I am hoping that people will try the installer
out so that it can progress.

	2. So far the installer only supports i386, and it requires that
you only have one hard drive called /dev/hda. (This is actually a lie. We
have a NOPARTITION class that allows you to manually partition your drives
however you want. However, I would call this option for "experts only").

	3. You can do a small amount of customization (select keyboard
layouts, etc), but the way you do this is by putting a tarball called
faiconf.tgz on a diskette.

	4. The download of the CD image is BIG, so it is not well-suited
to those who have slow dial-up connections. If you don't have a high-speed
connection and are anxious to try out the installer, please let me (or the
list) know. I am hoping to be able to do a RULE Network-type mailout
service, but I have not set that up yet.
	Furthermore, it comes as a gzipped .iso file, which in retrospect
was a really stupid idea.

	5. The minimum requirements for a comfortable experience are
probably a Pentium (or maybe 486 DX4 100) with 16-32MB of RAM and a
largist (800MB?) hard drive, and a graphics card capable of displaying
800x600 resolution at 15 or 16 bit colour. You can make the distribution
work with lesser hardware, but this requires some manual configuration.

	6. I am not sure that the CD will work with SCSI drives. I may
have cut out SCSI support to make the boot image fit on a floppy (but I
don't remember. Sigh.) The installed kernel has SCSI support, though.

	7. Hardware detection is still not so good. In particular network
cards modules don't get written to /etc/modules on the installed machines.
This is fairly bad.

- Paul

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