> (Bruce Parens [sic], I hope you're listening) The idea that sprang to mind
> as I read your scenarios was that we should have either an optional
> base disk or a very well described recipe for adding NFS to a new
> system. An NFS disk makes a lot of sense to me.
There are a few different issues we're considering here. One is network
bootstrapping. Another is configuration-file replication where the /usr files
are shared, and having dpkg understand shared /usr partitions.
Another is network configuration.
Rather than NFS mount a distant site for bootstrapping purposes,
we should make the system capable of
installing from any FTP archive that mirrors the Debian distribution.
You just plug in the boot/root disk, and it uses ethernet/ppp/slip to do the
rest of the work. It's easier to add non-anonymous FTP to a local system than
NFS, but of course if you want a shared /usr you'll need NFS as well.
I'd like to copy the FTP method and make a SMBCLIENT method
(that's the Samba client program), as that would allow any Windows 95
or NT system to serve Debian to a local net for purposes of bootstrapping
another system.
Hacking dpkg to understand partially-shared systems (where /etc and /var
are non-shared and /usr is shared) is something Ian Jackson should design.
My CD will provide a pre-installed /usr ROM partition, which should provide
an opportunity to exercise this sort of code.
Thanks
Bruce
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