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On Wed, 2006-01-18 at 14:11 +0100, Martin Andersen wrote: |
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> Recently I tried to install Gentoo using a PXE-enabled Grub image that I set up |
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> to boot the kernel provided on the experimental 2005.1 install CD (as well as |
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> also using the initial cpio ramfs image.) |
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Well, the normal CD kernel/initramfs/linuxrc is not designed for network |
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boot in any way, so I can understand why you were unsuccessful. |
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> Obviously, I quickly experienced that such an install was -- for the moment at |
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> least -- not exactly hassle-free and straightforward to set up in Gentoo. |
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> After perusing some of the bootup routines (syslinux, /linuxrc, the squashfs |
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> livecd image et al.), I sort of came to a dead end when trying to get my head |
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> around exactly where would be the appropriate place to modify the installer |
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> (/boot-process) or even what to do in order to manually tell it to source the |
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> installation files over NFS instead of the local CD/DVD rom. |
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The plan for Gentoo is to build a completely separate netboot image. |
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Modifying the current image is nearly impossible at this time. |
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> Now on to the reason for posting this to the list (and my sincere apologies if |
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> it isn't the right place for it) -- the best way for achieving this would |
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> naturally be to provide support for NFS installs at some early part in the boot |
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> procedure; e.g, as a kernel option for instance; or if no CD/DVD media is |
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> detected, ask for network-install. |
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Not going to happen... We want the media to be separate. If you want |
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netboot, we will (eventually) have a netboot image. We don't plan on |
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making the CD-based kernel/initramfs capable of properly working over a |
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network. For one, it bloats the CD-based kernel/initramfs with |
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unnecessary support. Second, it bloats the netboot with all of the CD |
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support. It also is unusable on certain architectures, such as SPARC, |
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and we're going for cross-architecture support in everything that we do. |
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> Any other thoughts on this? Is my request totally inappropriate (as in |
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> currently downprioritized), or do others see the benefits of having such a |
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> feature? |
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Well, it is nowhere near ready. We currently do not have any netboot |
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images for most architectures, and the backend GLI support for most |
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architectures is not there. My personal goal is to have proper support |
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for more architectures long before working on netboot images, simply |
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because the demand is fairly low in comparison to wanting to eventually |
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get rid of the GRP set. |
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|
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-- |
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Chris Gianelloni |
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Release Engineering - Strategic Lead |
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x86 Architecture Team |
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Games - Developer |
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Gentoo Linux |