John Davis wrote:

> Installer folk (I am not sure who all of you are atm) -

Primarily, it's tseng, spyderous, npmccallum, samyron, klieber, and 
myself. Regular contributors, commenters, cheerleaders, and 
bad-idea-pointer-out-ers are cshields, port001, ciaranm, method, and a 
few others (sorry if I missed anyone - I'm going from memory).

> Although the installer project is listed as a releng subproject, I
> cannot remember a time when we have actually coordinated our efforts!

Indeed. We've spoken (briefly) about how we might be able to integrate 
some of our efforts to work toward a common goal, but (speaking for 
myself only now) I think we wanted to solidify a number of things before 
we started dragging other teams in. We just didn't want to waste 
anyone's time. Our current goal was to be able to produce a beta quality 
chunk of code that met the original design and stated goals. I think 
that we're coming up on the time when we'll need to coordinate with our 
friendly releng cohorts and work out things like, well, "release 
engineering."

> 
> So, let's change that. What can releng do to help out with the installer
> project? I would like to work hand-in-hand with the installer project
> and work towards a Gentoo installer for mid-2005. Is this doable?

I think so. I feel like the interest is picking up and more and more 
people are wanting to get involved. To me, this says we're doing 
something right. I know it's a slow "right," but it's better than a fast 
"wrong," in my opinion. ;)

My gut tells me our main hurdle (in relation to things that we'd need to 
coordinate on) is going to be working out the installer / livecd 
integration. We've talked about this in installer channels like this 
list and #gentoo-installer and have some ideas how the impact could 
remain minimal, but I'd like to hear some ideas from releng who aren't 
tainted by what we've already been discussing. To be honest, our needs 
aren't exactly minimal - we need python, some extra C libraries and 
python bindings, network support, maybe even support for netbooting as 
we get into the automated deployment areas. The goal is to not force 
anyone in Gentoo land to use the installer - it should be an option only.

The best we can do is keep a tight contact with each other. I'll join 
the releng lists, if that's acceptable to you (zhen) and lurk so I can 
get a better picture of what you folks are up to.

Thanks again for "reaching out," John. It's nice to work with a team 
that acts like a team.

--
Eric Sammer
Gentoo Linux
http://www.gentoo.org


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