[gentoo-embedded] Configuration of an embedded system

[Gareth McClean]

I figure this group is best placed to answer my questions, if not please
feel free to point me in the right direction: 

a) Do any open source projects target the initial setup of an embedded
system i.e. basics like manually configuring an Ethernet port, configuration
of wireless networking or possibly other essentials like hostname, timezone,
etc?

b) If not, do you perform your 'out-of-the-box setup' i.e. did you create
your own set of tools using packages like awk, sed, perl etc?

c) How are you communicating with the user during the installation process?

c) Are there any intentions to migrate the Linux 'system configuration' into
a machine readable format like XML. Ignore that that might sound like a call
to implement the equivalent of the windows registry and focus on the fact I
am concerned about the potential issues of processing unstructured, human
readable text files and want an easy/reliable way to programmatically change
the system configuration and manage future system updates.  


Thanks in advance, Gareth