[Debian-NP-Commits] r178 - trunk/docs/report/report-docbook
micah
debian-np-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org
Fri, 16 Jul 2004 22:23:28 -0600
Author: micah-guest
Date: Fri Jul 16 22:23:28 2004
New Revision: 178
Modified:
trunk/docs/report/report-docbook/appendix-cdd.xml
trunk/docs/report/report-docbook/appendix-installer.xml
Log:
Finished docbooking Appendix E: Debian-NP Installer
Added a proper URL anchor for an entry in the installer appendix
Modified: trunk/docs/report/report-docbook/appendix-cdd.xml
==============================================================================
--- trunk/docs/report/report-docbook/appendix-cdd.xml (original)
+++ trunk/docs/report/report-docbook/appendix-cdd.xml Fri Jul 16 22:23:28 2004
@@ -20,12 +20,14 @@
that instead of individually working on similar problems and not
sharing the results, that there was a strong potential for mutual
benefit. At the OSWC conference in Malaga a workshop on this issue
- took place, resulting in the beginning of a paper which describes
- the philosophy of Custom Debian Distributions, and the techniques
- which are used to manage those projects, and good overview of how
- this is important to the vitality and quality of Debian a a
- whole. This paper is a work in progress, and Debian-NP contributed
- to its growth during Debconf, and continues to do so.</para>
+ took place, resulting in the beginning of a <ulink
+ url="http://people.debian.org/~tille/debian-med/paper/talks/cdd/debian-cdd.html">paper</ulink>
+ which describes the philosophy of Custom Debian Distributions, and
+ the techniques which are used to manage those projects, and good
+ overview of how this is important to the vitality and quality of
+ Debian a a whole. This paper is a work in progress, and Debian-NP
+ contributed to its growth during Debconf, and continues to do
+ so.</para>
<para>The main goal of a customized Debian distribution is to
enhance the role of Debian as the missing link between upstream
Modified: trunk/docs/report/report-docbook/appendix-installer.xml
==============================================================================
--- trunk/docs/report/report-docbook/appendix-installer.xml (original)
+++ trunk/docs/report/report-docbook/appendix-installer.xml Fri Jul 16 22:23:28 2004
@@ -0,0 +1,173 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding='UTF-8'?>
+<!DOCTYPE appendix PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.2//EN" "docbookx.dtd">
+
+<appendix>
+ <title>Appendix E: Debian-NP Installer</title>
+ <sect1>
+ <title>Overview</title>
+
+ <para>During Debconf Debian-NP made strong progress towards an
+ Installer, both the technical framework was worked on, the tools
+ to create the installer and ISO, and an actual installable version
+ of Debian-NP was created.</para>
+
+ <para>The installer is derived from the latest development version
+ of the Debian Installer. As such, it has all the characteristics
+ of the Debian Installer: it can be run from a CD, it can be
+ installed over the Network, from floppies, and so on. It is also
+ localized into many different languages (the number and status of
+ these translations are available at the <ulink
+ url="http://people.debian.org/~seppy/d-i/translation-status.html">Debian
+ Installer translations</ulink> page).</para>
+
+ <para>During Debconf, we studied how the Debian Installer could be
+ customized for our purposes, learning from the customization work
+ that has been done to the Debian Installer for other Customized
+ Debian Distributions, namely Skolelinux and Debian-BR.</para>
+ </sect1>
+
+ <sect1>
+ <title>Accomplishments</title>
+
+ <para>By the end of Debconf, Debian-NP had created an installer
+ out of the Debian-Installer, using the Skolelinux framework and
+ the proximity of Skolelinux developers, Debian Installer
+ developers, and Debian-BR developers to overcome technical hurdles
+ quickly.</para>
+
+ <para>The Debian-NP installer created at Debconf allows the
+ following to occur:</para>
+
+ <itemizedlist>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Choose a profile (Server or Workstation).</para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Install the system (with auto-partitioning) based on the
+ profile chosen.</para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ </itemizedlist>
+
+ <para>We decided to base the Debian-NP installer on two profiles:
+ Server and WorkStation after the definition of our social
+ specifications, we expect to also be creating a LAN server and
+ diskless terminal profile in the near future.</para>
+
+ <para>The accomplish this work on the installer we needed about
+ one week of work, because of a lack of documentation on Debian
+ Installer, bugs, and the test installation cycle is long, it takes
+ about 20 minutes to build an ISO image, and about 30 minutes to
+ complete the installation.</para>
+
+ </sect1>
+
+ <sect1>
+ <title>Technical Overview</title>
+
+
+ <para>To accomplish the creation of the Debian-NP installer, we
+ had to create 'udeb' packages which modify the installer
+ behavior. Debian-installer has 2 stages. In the 1st stage the
+ installer does some basic initialization (partitioning, copying
+ the debian-base system, install boot-loader and so on.). The
+ program that handles the first stage can be modified adding some
+ udeb packages. udeb packages are minimal Debian packages that
+ contain mainly scripts to be run in the 1st stage installer. udebs
+ specify also the order of execution. Through this method we were
+ able to modify the Debian Installer to how we needed. </para>
+
+ <para>We created the following udeb packages:</para>
+
+ <itemizedlist>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para><filename>debian-np-profile</filename> - this asks for
+ which kind of installation must be performed and sets the
+ answer in /etc/debian-np/profile </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para><filename>debian-np-install</filename> - this makes the
+ main modifications. It installs two partition table
+ definitions (one for the server and the other one for
+ workstation) for automatic partitioning, it also overrides
+ some Debian defaults (this is needed to replace exim with
+ postfix for example), insert some scripts for network
+ configuration, and accomplishes other minor things.</para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ </itemizedlist>
+
+ <para>In the 2nd stage, The Debian Installer runs the base-config
+ program. The base-config installs all the meta-packages and
+ configures them. It is at this point where we will need to insert
+ the configuration interface mentioned above. For the moment it
+ simply installs the np-mail-server meta-package package (or
+ np-workstation, depending on the choice on installation) and
+ configures them.</para>
+
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Building the ISO image</title>
+
+ <para>In order to create an installable DebianNP, we needed to
+ be able to build bootable ISOs. An ISO is a CD image that is
+ burned to an actual CD that then can be booted from and
+ installation can proceed. </para>
+
+ <para>The work that was accomplished was was based mainly on the
+ debian-br-cdd-cdtools package, developed by Otavio Salvador and
+ Debian-BR group. With this tool that we have adapted and called
+ debian-np-cdtools, we are able to generate a working ISO image,
+ providing the following information:</para>
+
+ <itemizedlist>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>a package selection list</para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>a base-system package list</para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>1st stage udeb list</para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ </itemizedlist>
+
+ <para>During Debconf we also learned about an alternative
+ installation ISO creation method, called PICAX developed by
+ Progeny. We plan to look into how this methodology could be used
+ for DebianNP to facilitate building ISOs in a simpler
+ manner.</para>
+
+ </sect2>
+
+ </sect1>
+
+</appendix>
+
+
+
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