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I'm posting this to gentoo-dev in addition to gentoo-installer, but please take |
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any conversation over to the gentoo-installer ML. |
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|
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I know we've been saying that the LiveCD for the installer would be done in a |
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few weeks for the past 5 months or so, but now it will only be a few more weeks. |
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Just kidding! |
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|
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We are happy to announce GLI 0.1 (a.k.a "the alpha") along with a *real* LiveCD |
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(usable X environment with goodies) as opposed to the normal minimal or |
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universal "LiveCD". It will hit the mirrors under /experimental at the same |
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time as the 2005.1 release. |
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|
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The LiveCD contains most of the standard GRP set as usable packages. This |
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includes (but isn't limited to): |
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|
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* GNOME |
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* fluxbox |
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* enlightenment |
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* Xfce4 |
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* Firefox |
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* Thunderbird |
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* OpenOffice.org (Ximian goodness) |
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* sylpheed |
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* xmms |
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* gaim |
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* xchat |
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* mplayer |
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|
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Obviously, the installer will also be included. In GNOME, there is even a handy |
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desktop launcher for the GTK frontend! We have strived to allow you to do |
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anything with the installer that you could do if installing with the current |
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method. Keep in mind that this is only a first release, and there is a lot of |
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room for improvement. Here are some known limitations: |
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|
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* no /etc/portage support in the frontends |
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* no way to modify runlevels in the frontends |
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* only supports x86 and probably amd64 (other arches are in the works) |
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* the GTK frontend's make.conf screen only offers a few options |
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* no way to custom configure a kernel without a premade .config |
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* no lvm or software raid support |
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|
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Of course, to offset these bad things, we have a few features that are |
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available with the installer that were not available previously: |
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|
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* livecd-kernel - the installer will install the kernel from the LiveCD into |
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the new install so that you don't have to wait for genkernel to do its |
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thing. It is installed as a package with emerge so that certain dependencies |
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are satisfied (virtual/alsa for example) |
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* GRP w/o an extra CD - the installer will quickpkg and emerge -K packages from |
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the LiveCD instead of using prebuilt binary packages. This obsoletes the GRP |
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CD, which will probably disappear in the next release. |
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* dynamic stage3 - the installer can build a stage3 equivalent in the chroot |
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directory from the packages on the CD. This will be useful down the road for |
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networkless installs. Currently, there is no snapshot on the LiveCD for |
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space reasons, but play with it anyway. |
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|
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Along with the GTK frontend, there is also a dialog-based frontend. This is |
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useful for doing remote installs via SSH. gli-dialog also supports some things |
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that the GTK frontend doesn't and vice versa. If not using gnome, the |
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installer can be started by running 'installer' from a terminal. This will try |
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to launch the GTK frontend first with the 'installer-gtk' script. If this |
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fails, it will fall back to the dialog installer with the 'installer-dialog' |
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script. If you wish to use the dialog frontend, you can run 'installer-dialog' |
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directly. |
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|
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Now, for the *most* important part...reporting bugs. Gentoo's bugzilla has a |
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special sub-section for the installer. When you click the link to enter a new |
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bug report, select "Gentoo Linux" and then "GLI" from the "Component" list. |
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Please search for the bug you're reporting *before* creating a new bug. We |
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would much rather see "me too" comments, or even the much more silent act of |
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adding yourself to the bug's CC, than having to deal with tons of duplicate |
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bugs. When you do encounter an error in the installer, try to grab |
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/tmp/installprofile.xml and /var/log/install.log from the LiveCD environment. |
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We may request them when you file a bug. |
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|
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If you've actually made it this far, congratulations for having an attention |
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span greater than that of the average 3 year old! Happy installing :) |
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|
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-- |
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Andrew Gaffney http://dev.gentoo.org/~agaffney/ |
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Gentoo Linux Developer Installer Project |
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-- |
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gentoo-dev@g.o mailing list |