[pkg-fso-maint] GSoC 2010: Debian Installer on Freerunner

[Thibaut GIRKA]

Hi,

I am a French student, Debian user, Neo FreeRunner owner, and I'm really
interested in porting the Debian Installer to the FreeRunner (on which
I've installed Debian manually, although SHR unstable is my main OS).

Although I don't know much about d-i yet, I use Debian daily on several
machines, and I am maintaining a Debian package: bluemindo.
By the way, I've built custom Debian CD images and PXE boot images using
live-helper, and knows what an initial ram disk or a kernel is.
I also have skills in C and Python, and I have some experience in
contributing to FLOSS projects.

Regarding the FreeRunner, I've got one since the beginning of the year,
and I use it as my sole phone.
I have flashed SHR unstable on the NAND, and I've manually (reading the
so-called install.sh script) installed Debian on a µSD card, although I rarely
use it.

I haven't tried d-i on the FreeRunner yet, but I think the main
issues/things to do would be:
* Starting d-i. I can see two ways of doing it:
  - Putting it on a µSD card, maybe not the easiest thing if there's
already something on it.
  - Using kexec on a host system to run d-i without altering the
partition table beforehand.
* Using the kernel from pkg-fso
* Hacking g-i to work with the touchscreen and
provide an on-screen keyboard.
  As far as I know, directfb is being dropped in favor of X11, so, it
shouldn't be that much of an issue.
* Including all those things in a fairly lightweight initrd.



Best regards,
Thibaut Girka.



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