From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Jan 16 11:35:02 2011 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id F159F106564A; Sun, 16 Jan 2011 11:35:01 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from kraduk@gmail.com) Received: from mail-ww0-f50.google.com (mail-ww0-f50.google.com [74.125.82.50]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 10D648FC08; Sun, 16 Jan 2011 11:35:00 +0000 (UTC) Received: by wwf26 with SMTP id 26so4412217wwf.31 for ; Sun, 16 Jan 2011 03:35:00 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:mime-version:in-reply-to:references:date :message-id:subject:from:to:cc:content-type :content-transfer-encoding; bh=eA/SUMdFKUUpXpjmSyGSA7cYUhCYDewUq6bo3fpC3AI=; b=MrnO7jRBOmRX5bltAMYCE5cqlarx//gEjU1G571CwlJG8ZFNXDb0MzwRe8t9715YTr 9fhBR3j+oGdwdbrBu66ddZRcRKJmqR7RWUg6X9QI/UKmN8i+HFnIGDquoV5KecdLWkhY L+FVOpUBLNaFCg7xbIYQNBgHAYay8WE6nHtOc= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=mime-version:in-reply-to:references:date:message-id:subject:from:to :cc:content-type:content-transfer-encoding; b=gCtaolOPsJVwZVOlNcze8keTV++YFnTM8T7xy58p0RFA+Ubcke7IIUEjuGPXpuOJfn LZjUhCJ+wb47O0iguhUqsujnKp0mYZCoF3qCL2qcpKeSQ/0U43zPBbtAtxvosTGus4YY WBmhZW6hwMpXGdm6NsFz65QTDyC/p1xsShDMQ= MIME-Version: 1.0 Received: by 10.216.51.135 with SMTP id b7mr1311984wec.29.1295176011430; Sun, 16 Jan 2011 03:06:51 -0800 (PST) Received: by 10.216.229.73 with HTTP; Sun, 16 Jan 2011 03:06:51 -0800 (PST) In-Reply-To: <4D309563.1000404@freebsd.org> References: <4D309563.1000404@freebsd.org> Date: Sun, 16 Jan 2011 11:06:51 +0000 Message-ID: From: krad To: Nathan Whitehorn Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Mailman-Approved-At: Sun, 16 Jan 2011 13:23:15 +0000 Cc: freebsd-current Current , freebsd-sysinstall@freebsd.org, freebsd-arch@freebsd.org Subject: Re: BSDInstall: merging to HEAD X-BeenThere: freebsd-current@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-current List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 16 Jan 2011 11:35:02 -0000 On 14 January 2011 18:26, Nathan Whitehorn wrote: > > As those of you who have been reading freebsd-sysinstall and freebsd-arch= know, I have been working for a few weeks on a lightweight new installer n= amed 'bsdinstall'. This is designed to replace sysinstall for the 9.0 relea= se. > > After two weeks of testing and bug fixes on the sysinstall list, I believ= e this now has all required functionality and is ready to be merged into th= e main source tree. I would like to do this on Tuesday, 18 January. Switchi= ng this to be the default installer would happen a few weeks after that, pe= nding discussion on release formats with the release engineering team. This= should provide a sufficient testing period before 9.0 and allow a maximal = number of bugs to be discovered and solved before the release is shipped. > > Demo ISO for i386: http://people.freebsd.org/~nwhitehorn/bsdinstall-i386-= 20110114.iso.bz2 > SVN repository: svn://svn.freebsd.org/base/user/nwhitehorn/bsdinstall > Wiki page: http://wiki.freebsd.org/BSDInstall > > Goals > ----- > The primary goal of BSDInstall is to provide an easily extensible install= er without the limitations of sysinstall, in order to allow more modern ins= tallations of FreeBSD. This means that it should have additional features t= o support modern setups, but simultaneously frees us to remove complicating= features of sysinstall like making sure everything fits in floppy disk-siz= ed chunks. > > New Features: > - Allows installation onto GPT disks on x86 systems > - Can do installations spanning multiple disks > - Allows installation into jails > - Eases PXE installation > - Virtualization friendly: can install from a live system onto disk > =A0images > - Works on PowerPC > - Streamlined system installation > - More flexible scripting > - Easily tweakable > - All install CDs are live CDs > > Architecture > ------------ > BSDInstall is a set of tools that are called in sequence by a master scri= pt. These tools are, for example, the partition editor, the thing that fetc= hes the distributions from the network, the thing that untars them, etc. Si= nce these are just called in sequence from a shell script, a scripted insta= llation can easily replace them with other things, (e.g. hard-coded gpart c= ommands), leave steps out, add new ones, or interleave additional system mo= difications. > > Status > ------ > This provides functionality most similar to the existing sysinstall 'Expr= ess' track. It installs working, bootable systems you can ssh into immediat= ely after reboot on i386, amd64, sparc64, powerpc, and powerpc64. There is = untested support for pc98. The final architecture on which we use sysinstal= l, ia64, is currently unsupported, because I don't know how to set up booti= ng on those systems -- patches to solve this are very much welcome. > > There are still some missing features that I would like to see in the rel= ease, but these do not significantly impact the functionality of the instal= ler. Some will be addressed before merging to HEAD, in particular the lack = of a man page for bsdinstall. Others, like configuration of wireless networ= king and ZFS installation, can happen between merge and release. The test I= SOs are also lacking a ports tree at the moment, which is a statement about= the slow upload speed of my DSL line and not about the final layout of rel= eases. > > Please send any questions, comments, or patches you may have, and please = be aware when replying that this email has been cross-posted to three lists= . Technical discussion (bug reports, for instance) should be directed to th= e freebsd-sysinstall list only. Most other discussion belongs on -sysinstal= l and -current. > -Nathan > _______________________________________________ > freebsd-current@freebsd.org mailing list > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-current > To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-current-unsubscribe@freebsd.org= " I dont follow the=A0freebsd-sysinstall and freebsd-arc list so sorry if this has already been discussed. From what I have seen pc-sysinstall already does all these things, and can install freebsd. Therefore why are we reinventing the wheel? I don't mean this as any disrespect to the work you have done.