Gentoo Archives: gentoo-installer

From: Chris Gianelloni <wolf31o2@g.o>
To: gentoo-installer@l.g.o
Subject: Re: [gentoo-installer] Pure network (medialess) install (PXE + Grub + NFS) support via installer
Date: Wed, 18 Jan 2006 14:20:36
Message-Id: 1137593866.7625.8.camel@cgianelloni.nuvox.net
In Reply to: [gentoo-installer] Pure network (medialess) install (PXE + Grub + NFS) support via installer by Martin Andersen
1 On Wed, 2006-01-18 at 14:11 +0100, Martin Andersen wrote:
2 > Recently I tried to install Gentoo using a PXE-enabled Grub image that I set up
3 > to boot the kernel provided on the experimental 2005.1 install CD (as well as
4 > also using the initial cpio ramfs image.)
5
6 Well, the normal CD kernel/initramfs/linuxrc is not designed for network
7 boot in any way, so I can understand why you were unsuccessful.
8
9 > Obviously, I quickly experienced that such an install was -- for the moment at
10 > least -- not exactly hassle-free and straightforward to set up in Gentoo.
11 > After perusing some of the bootup routines (syslinux, /linuxrc, the squashfs
12 > livecd image et al.), I sort of came to a dead end when trying to get my head
13 > around exactly where would be the appropriate place to modify the installer
14 > (/boot-process) or even what to do in order to manually tell it to source the
15 > installation files over NFS instead of the local CD/DVD rom.
16
17 The plan for Gentoo is to build a completely separate netboot image.
18 Modifying the current image is nearly impossible at this time.
19
20 > Now on to the reason for posting this to the list (and my sincere apologies if
21 > it isn't the right place for it) -- the best way for achieving this would
22 > naturally be to provide support for NFS installs at some early part in the boot
23 > procedure; e.g, as a kernel option for instance; or if no CD/DVD media is
24 > detected, ask for network-install.
25
26 Not going to happen... We want the media to be separate. If you want
27 netboot, we will (eventually) have a netboot image. We don't plan on
28 making the CD-based kernel/initramfs capable of properly working over a
29 network. For one, it bloats the CD-based kernel/initramfs with
30 unnecessary support. Second, it bloats the netboot with all of the CD
31 support. It also is unusable on certain architectures, such as SPARC,
32 and we're going for cross-architecture support in everything that we do.
33
34 > Any other thoughts on this? Is my request totally inappropriate (as in
35 > currently downprioritized), or do others see the benefits of having such a
36 > feature?
37
38 Well, it is nowhere near ready. We currently do not have any netboot
39 images for most architectures, and the backend GLI support for most
40 architectures is not there. My personal goal is to have proper support
41 for more architectures long before working on netboot images, simply
42 because the demand is fairly low in comparison to wanting to eventually
43 get rid of the GRP set.
44
45 --
46 Chris Gianelloni
47 Release Engineering - Strategic Lead
48 x86 Architecture Team
49 Games - Developer
50 Gentoo Linux

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