Project GSoC 2013: Installer Rework

[Justin Sherrill]

Can you go into a bit more detail about the functions you'd move to
libraries and the new features you would add?

I'm not able to mentor this, but I would like to hear more.

On Mon, Apr 15, 2013 at 10:06 PM, Alfonso Sabato Siciliano
<alfix86 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I would want to work at this project: "Installer rework"
> for the Google summer of code 2013, meta information [0].
> If time permits I might add to the project the characteristics
> of another projects: "Make DragonFly multiboot capable" (meta
> information [0]) and/or "The BSD Installer" [1].
>
> I hope this is the first step to start contributing to DragonFly BSD
> also in the future. I love multiprocessor programming so DFBSD looks
> very tempting for me and I also like all the other features: HAMMER,
> LWKT, NUMA, and so on...(I am migrating my laptop from Debian
> to DragonFly BSD)
> However working on an OS installer has always been one of my dreams then,
> for the reasons above, DragonFly BSD is a great place for me.
>
> Before writing an official application template I would like to give
> a draft to confront the mentor and write an application template
> that fits the needs of DragonFly BSD.
>
>
> Draft of Application Template
>
> Name: Alfonso Sabato Siciliano
>  I am attending the last year of Master's degree at the University of
> Salerno, Italy.
>  I have completed my bachelor's degree with 110/110 with honors.
>  I have written some open source software: for my dissertation: (C lang)
>  Implementation of RFID secure cryptography protocols [2],
>  (C++) 3D game [3], (Java) on my site [4],  debian contributions: [5][6][7].
>
> Email: alfix86 at gmail.com
>
> Phone number: 01139 0818299038
>
> Project title: Installer rework
>
> Description of project goals:
>
>  The project is aimed at upgrade and partially rewrite (to add features) the
>  installer  to be much simpler to maintain.
>  Several functions scattered around in other base utils should be factored
>  out into libraries that both the installer and the util it comes from can use,
>  examples:
>   -partitioning (both GPT and MBR) should be factored out into two libraries,
>    that the fdisk and the gpt tools use, but the installer can make use of, too.
>   -disklabel32/64 functionality
>   -adduser (and other user/group management)
>  In addition, the project will add new features to make it easier installation
>  process for users, example: cfdisk.
>  The updated installer should then make use of all these new libraries and
>  other  ones that are already  available (libcryptsetup, libluks,
> liblvm, libtcplay)
>  to offer more advanced features.
>  If time permits I might add to the project the characteristics
>  of anothers projects: "Make DragonFly multiboot capable" (meta
> information [0])
>  and/or "The BSD Installer" [1].
>
>
> Project timeline broken down by week:
>
> Week 1:
>  Study the code.
>
> Week 2-5:
>  Scattered functions should be factored out into libraries.
>
> Week 6-8:
>  Add new features to the installer.
>
> Week 9-12:
>  Testing and I might add to the project the
>  characteristics of projects: "Make DragonFly multiboot capable" [0]
>  and/or "The BSD Installer" [1].
>
> Additional resources as hardware or software needed for this project:
>
>  This project should not need special hardware resources, only my laptop;
>  however for any eventuality I can use computers of the University.
>  For resources software just DragonFly BSD.
>
> Please include or provide links to prior code related to this area of work:
>
>  Source code of DragonFly BSD Installer.
>
>
> I hope that someone will be willing to help me write a more accurate Template.
>
> Thank you for your attention.
> regards,
>   Alfonso
>
> [0] http://www.dragonflybsd.org/docs/developer/gsocprojectspage/
> [1] http://www.bsdinstaller.org/about.html
> [2] it should be on the site of the University but it is under renovation.
>     I will upload soon protocols on my personal website [4].
> [3] https://sites.google.com/site/dangeruboot/video-immagini
> [4] http://www.alfix.altervista.org/portale/
> [5] http://qa.debian.org/developer.php?login=alfix86@gmail.com
> [6] https://mentors.debian.net/packages/uploader/alfix86%40gmail.com
> [7] http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=668914