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On Mon, Mar 23, 2009 at 7:18 AM, Eric Thibodeau <kyron@××××××××.com> wrote: |
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> In response to two e-mails I just got off list from Meetanshu Gupta and |
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> Ajith Kamath, in both cases the impression is that the project is simply to |
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> port the bootable CD to USB disk. Here is are some clarifications: |
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> |
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> - The wiki's¹ description is misleading, booting to USB was ONE of my |
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> suggestions with a little more details here². Quite frankly, porting to USB |
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> should be somewhat trivial. The hardest part is to being very methodical and |
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> making sure the process can be reproduced using, ideally, Catalyst and |
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> little outside scripting. All of this also implies getting the catalyst |
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> specs up to date, modifying/removing many hacks that would no longer be |
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> required for a USB based boot (since we would now have an RW system). *** |
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> root on JFFS2 might be of interest here ***... and so on. |
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> |
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|
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Is the idea that booting from a USB device would be added as an option |
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when building the liveCD image, or is booting from a USB device |
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supposed to replace booting from a CD? |
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|
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> - AuFS is used as an overlay system and is required for the NFS-booted |
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> nodes. One might want to migrate that to a less efficient tmpfs approach |
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> (ref: LTSP implementation as being done under Gentoo too). |
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> - Change most of the scripts to use dialog and automate some detection/ask |
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> questions as per what was discovered. |
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> - ... and so on, the idea would be to implement my original proposal and |
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> push it further. I do have it but want some feedback before I dig it out and |
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> re-post it (Donnie, thought you had posted it as an example? If not so, feel |
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> free to do so if it's still relevant.) |
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|
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I have been working on building the liveCD the last few days, and I am |
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almost finished. I have run into many problems along the way, and I |
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have come up with a few general ideas for things to include in my |
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proposal: |
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|
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-Add spec files for x86. |
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-Update the hpc-clustering and nfsroot profiles and the catalyst spec files. |
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-Simplify and automate the build process with a configuration script. |
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-Add documentation for building the liveCD using the new configuration script. |
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|
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These tasks all involve the build process, and once they have been |
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completed, work could begin on USB booting, JFFS2 or other areas of |
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interest. |
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|
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It seems like a lot of work has been done to make sure the right |
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packages are included in the build, and that currently the biggest |
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challenge is updating the build process and making it easy to |
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duplicate. Will improving the build process, USB booting and the |
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related file system changes be enough work for one summer, or are |
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there other parts of the cluster liveCD that Gentoo developers would |
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like to see improved? |
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|
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-Tom Stellard |