Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Sun, 16 Jan 2011 03:48:59 -0800
From:      Garrett Cooper <gcooper@FreeBSD.org>
To:        krad <kraduk@gmail.com>
Cc:        freebsd-arch@freebsd.org, freebsd-current Current <freebsd-current@freebsd.org>, freebsd-sysinstall@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: BSDInstall: merging to HEAD
Message-ID:  <AANLkTind4umAwfvmJ4SioX7sTM8cysjke3UVEe8_AEgZ@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <AANLkTi=kyN-pMbUwK=PxOrcpB4caE4zSbsNypjWXpQot@mail.gmail.com>
References:  <4D309563.1000404@freebsd.org> <AANLkTi=kyN-pMbUwK=PxOrcpB4caE4zSbsNypjWXpQot@mail.gmail.com>

next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
On Sun, Jan 16, 2011 at 3:06 AM, krad <kraduk@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 14 January 2011 18:26, Nathan Whitehorn <nwhitehorn@freebsd.org> wrote=
:
>>
>> As those of you who have been reading freebsd-sysinstall and freebsd-arc=
h know, I have been working for a few weeks on a lightweight new installer =
named 'bsdinstall'. This is designed to replace sysinstall for the 9.0 rele=
ase.
>>
>> After two weeks of testing and bug fixes on the sysinstall list, I belie=
ve this now has all required functionality and is ready to be merged into t=
he main source tree. I would like to do this on Tuesday, 18 January. Switch=
ing this to be the default installer would happen a few weeks after that, p=
ending discussion on release formats with the release engineering team. Thi=
s 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 instal=
ler without the limitations of sysinstall, in order to allow more modern in=
stallations of FreeBSD. This means that it should have additional features =
to support modern setups, but simultaneously frees us to remove complicatin=
g features of sysinstall like making sure everything fits in floppy disk-si=
zed 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 scr=
ipt. These tools are, for example, the partition editor, the thing that fet=
ches the distributions from the network, the thing that untars them, etc. S=
ince these are just called in sequence from a shell script, a scripted inst=
allation can easily replace them with other things, (e.g. hard-coded gpart =
commands), leave steps out, add new ones, or interleave additional system m=
odifications.
>>
>> Status
>> ------
>> This provides functionality most similar to the existing sysinstall 'Exp=
ress' track. It installs working, bootable systems you can ssh into immedia=
tely after reboot on i386, amd64, sparc64, powerpc, and powerpc64. There is=
 untested support for pc98. The final architecture on which we use sysinsta=
ll, ia64, is currently unsupported, because I don't know how to set up boot=
ing 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 re=
lease, but these do not significantly impact the functionality of the insta=
ller. Some will be addressed before merging to HEAD, in particular the lack=
 of a man page for bsdinstall. Others, like configuration of wireless netwo=
rking and ZFS installation, can happen between merge and release. The test =
ISOs are also lacking a ports tree at the moment, which is a statement abou=
t the slow upload speed of my DSL line and not about the final layout of re=
leases.
>>
>> 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 list=
s. Technical discussion (bug reports, for instance) should be directed to t=
he freebsd-sysinstall list only. Most other discussion belongs on -sysinsta=
ll and -current.
>
> 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.

Hi Krad,
    I asked this two weeks ago and in summary:

- pc-sysinstall is x86-centric and porting to powerpc is non-trivial,
and sysinstall is incomplete on powerpc. Nate sought to get a working
powerpc port with minimal effort.

    Please read other replies in the archives on freebsd-arch /
freebsd-sysinstall to get more info as to why things have been done
the way they have been done.
Thanks,
-Garrett



Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?AANLkTind4umAwfvmJ4SioX7sTM8cysjke3UVEe8_AEgZ>