Date: Sat, 6 Mar 2010 07:28:54 -0600 From: Josh Paetzel <jpaetzel@freebsd.org> To: Garrett Cooper <yanefbsd@gmail.com> Cc: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org, randi@freebsd.org, David Wolfskill <david@catwhisker.org> Subject: Re: Scripting sysinstall(8) to create & use multiple slices on a disk? Message-ID: <201003060729.01225.jpaetzel@freebsd.org> In-Reply-To: <7d6fde3d1003060041p225e8718n29a8e75a718237a@mail.gmail.com> References: <20100304213329.GJ57205@bunrab.catwhisker.org> <201003051233.42861.jpaetzel@freebsd.org> <7d6fde3d1003060041p225e8718n29a8e75a718237a@mail.gmail.com>
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On Saturday 06 March 2010 02:41:30 Garrett Cooper wrote:
> (Attempts to avoid shoe flying in his direction from randi@ :/),
>=20
> FWIW, sysinstall(8) is a good starter tool and it has a lot of the
> information that you need in order to complete an install (especially
> if you're doing it from scratch), but the amount of effort for using
> sysinstall(8)'s install.cfg, etc has the greater potential to change
> in the future when compared with a shell scripted method which is less
> likely to change; granted gpart vs fdisk is in transition, but the
> number of steps and the simplicity required to get everything up and
> going is trivial, and I did so in < 100 lines of bourne shell.
>=20
> I'd be happy to share my custom script if desired as well to provide
> you a general idea of what could be done to solve your problem.
>=20
> Cheers,
> -Garrett
One of my main issues with using sysinstall comes from an intersection of i=
t's=20
lack of documentation, and the way it can arbitrarily change over time. Fo=
r=20
instance, this week I was working on an install for a number of machines th=
at=20
had to be imaged with an early 7.x version of FreeBSD, and were specified t=
o=20
be installed with "distSet${OBFUSICATED}" In order to determine what=20
distSet${OBFUSICATED} installs on 7.${EARLY} involves either installing a=20
system via sysinstall and noting what it installs, or reading the source co=
de. =20
Where this becomes an issue is sysinstall changes over time,=20
distSet${OBFUSICATED} is not necessarily the same between 7.${EARLY} and sa=
y=20
8.0. Since there is no documentation you either end up tracking the change=
s=20
to sysinstall, or sorting it out at upgrade time.
I'd also like to mention John saying you can build a custom mfsroot to use=
=20
additional tools during install...I go a different tack on this. I'm a hug=
e=20
fan of python, and like to use it for installers. Rather than build a cust=
om=20
mfsroot with python what I prefer to do is build a chroot that the target=20
machine boots diskless off. Then I chroot into that directory and install=
=20
whatever tools I want using ports/packages. I find that getting FreeBSD to=
=20
boot diskless is so easy that I've had it accidentally happen more than onc=
e=20
when I wanted something else to happen. Installing ports in a chroot is al=
so=20
pretty trivial. Building a custom mfsroot has a bit of a learning curve wi=
th=20
a fairly expensive trial and error penalty.
At any rate. There are a lot of compelling reasons to not use sysinstall f=
or=20
automated installs. And while there are compelling reasons to use sysinsta=
ll=20
for this task, most of them involve things like "I'm a masochist." or "It w=
as=20
there so I thought I'd use it."
=2D-=20
Thanks,
Josh Paetzel
=46reeBSD -- The power to serve
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