Hi, debian-devel readers: please follow-up to debian-boot
debian-boot readers: sorry for the in media res cross-post but I think this is the more appropriate forum (I'm sure you'll correct me if I'm wrong :) these are all very useful tools (FAI et al.), but not quite what I'm looking for... I don't want to duplicate an install, and we don't use DHCP for workstations around here they need fixed IP's so the users can ssh from wherever. The current "official" GNU/Linux install (what we provide and support, though don't require) involves: * the user finding a free IP address using an old and buggy hack we provide * registering the IP with a host name through a WebDNS interface * writing out a boot disk (dd or rawrite) * filling out an html form that asks basic info (is your HD <2G, IP address, do you want VMware) * copying the ks.cfg file this form generates onto the boot floppy * boot from floppy Notice the admins do *nothing* the boot disk does hardware detection (which the boot-floppy folks are dilegently working on), partitions the HD using some logic (I forget the details but it atleast provieds a "and everything else" option), sets up the base system and common packages (via NFS), then calls a post install script that sets some configs and makes the required symlinks for our NFS setup. So in short, what I want is something I can setup and not touch for a very long time, yet can handle very different hardware and provides for assigning fixed IP info, with no questions after the config file is created dynamicly via a web interface. The most hair is probably with the partitioning voodoo, the rest is not so bad (If I can convince the appropriate developers :) I think this is best implemented in the official install, though I'm probably going to need to hack something together with what's available be for the nextgen installer is ready. Hopefully the work that I have to do (lest I stay stuck with RH, which I really don't want to do after their latest round of faux pas) will beable to integrate with the ongoing work by the boot-floppy team. -jon
