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On Mon, 2002-04-08 at 21:59, Thilo Bangert wrote: |
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> > Hmmm... I've just experienced the joys of completely reinstalling a |
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> > server while it was actually running. That is, I installed gentoo on |
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> > it while I had the RedHat installation running - and just replaced |
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> > the services from the RedHat system with those from the Gentoo |
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> > chroot one by one until everything ran from the Gentoo installation. |
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> > I then did a quick reboot and had a fully functional Gentoo |
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> > replacement system running. Downtime was two minutes. |
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> > |
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> |
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> great - i plan on doing this myself. |
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> good to hear somebody already accomplished this... |
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> (amazing downtime!) |
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For a complete system reinstallation and reconfiguration including data |
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transfers i would say 2 minutes is rather nice, yeah :D try doing that |
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with redhat, debian or whatever (no flames, plz) |
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> > I can also contribute with maybe a bootdisk/netinstall and even a |
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> > more automated installation process for people not really knowing |
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> > what they are doing - if there is any interest for it |
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> |
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> i've said this before: i wouldn't want to make it too easy for |
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> people - thats what made gentoo really fun |
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True. However, I think the installation process is unneccessarily |
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complex, because you set up the gentoo environment manually, but all the |
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boot-scripts etc which really teach you the inner workings of linux are |
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automatically installed. Sure, newbies won't be afraid of recompiling |
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their kernel etc, but it's not a "complete" learning experience. |
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But I do know that the feeling most newbies have after installing it |
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will most certainly motivate them to play around some more with the |
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linux system (which is what you *should* do with linux; play around), |
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and this is definitely a good thing. I know I was pretty damn proud |
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after doing my first lfs install. |
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Anyways, you've probably had discussions on this before, so I'll just |
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leave it to the dev's. |
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> yes, a steep learning curve will scare some people away, but it will |
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> make tech support much more easy (in the long) |
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> (perhaps this is all wrong, because then people just start |
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> doing new stuff...) |
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hehe, well, there's really nothing stopping me, or anyone else, from |
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making a GentooEasyInstall(tm) disk/cd which does this, so I wouldn't |
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have that as my primary business model ;) |
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> also, gentoo is constantly under (more or less) heavy development |
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> (getting better every day). brave newbies have no problem dealing |
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> with that, but they can handle heavy documentation as well... |
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> |
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> i don't want to kill your attempt on doing something good - i just |
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> personally feel we should not lower the high standards (in terms |
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> of dificulty or "heaviness") of the gentoo documentation |
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Also true, I just thought it would get some pressure off of the mailing |
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lists and make the gentoo install process a bit more flexible for people |
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who don't have the skills/creativity to do stuff like this - but if they |
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don't i guess they shouldn't be doing it in any case :) |
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> a dedicated gentoo floppy bootdisc really sounds like a good idea |
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Yup. I'll look into it, but no promises. |
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-- |
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Erik Grinaker |
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Freelance UNIX/Linux systems consultant |
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"Perfection is acheived not when there is nothing more to add, but |
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rather when there is nothing more to take away" |
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- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry |
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