New ISO builder
Matthew Dillon
dillon at apollo.backplane.com
Mon Dec 1 13:25:46 PST 2003
There have been several updates to the ISO builder since my first
announcement. I have adjusted the mkisofs options to retain proper
permissions on files in /dev, added a README, an rc.conf, and an
example HD fstab. So the CD will not start things like cron and sendmail
now.
Once I get this reasonably stable (and it's basically there now, except
for some weirdness with fstat() failing during one of my tests), I am
going to go back to the IPC work.
The idea with /usr/src/nrelease is to start producing the 'new' release
infrastructure that we discussed a month or two ago. My goal is
basically to create an infrastructure that for all intents and purposes
looks like a fully installed system, but is entirely based on the CD (does
not require a hard drive), and then to hook the 'boot into installer'
option into the boot menu and have it set a variable that triggers
the installer during the RC sequence.
The advantages of this are:
* The CD can be used both to install new DFly systems and as an
emergency recovery CD. It has everything except ports. e.g. it
has all the manual pages.
* People who just want a shell prompt to play with DFly can boot
the CD and play with it without installing it onto their HD.
* The installer can depend on there being a fully functioning system,
which means that the installer (when written :-)) can be run from
the CD or from a previously installed normal HD-booted system.
* We do away with sysinstall.
I would also like to see an augmented boot menu for other situations.
For example, a boot menu option that causes the CD to boot normally but
to automatically run 'dhclient' on any existing network interfaces,
and to configure a random root password for remote access,
and another option that causes the CD to boot normally but then access
further boot/configuration info from the network to support automated
installations with minimal (or no) user intervention for people with
larger networks.
Jeroen has been dealing with the release stuff to date and is interested
in the new framework. I am hoping he will shift his efforts entirely
over to the new framework and both help coordinate the work and do a
good chunk of it!
-Matt
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