[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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