[Freedombox-discuss] Tweaks: Package selections and configuration customizations

Thu Oct 7 13:23:26 UTC 2010

On Thu, Oct 07, 2010 at 01:53:26PM +0200, Christian Brædstrup wrote:
>Am I the only one to get a security complaints from my browser when I 
>try to access alioth the past couple of days? It is quite strange.

This one is probably better suited for debian-users at lists.debian.org, 
but here you go:

Perhaps verify that you have the needed CA certificate installed?

If it isn't, then either install it for your browser, or try this:

   aptitude install ca-certificates
   dpkg-reconfigure ca-certificates

...and check that all certificates (which you want to trust) are 
enabled.

>> Until Debian matures enough to render Tweaks obsolete, it serves as a 
>> repository of generalized customization classes - for users to 
>> consume, and for Debian package maintainers to adopt from.
>>
>> One possible way to consume Tweaks would be something like 
>> "Hands-off": http://hands.com/d-i/
>>
>> Another would be via FAI.
>
>
>I don't know what would be the best approach for the install system. I 
>see the benefits of a fully automated install system but it also has 
>some limits. F.eks. if you want to install your system on one harddisk 
>and you have five connected. You can't automate your way out of that :)

Sure you can, and I believe Hands-off supports that - with a big fat 
warning that you then risk loosing valuable data!

What you cannot do is automate installing on the particular disk that 
you had in mind - because that would require a mind reader which is yet 
to be invented. ;-)

>Perhaps creating a small live CD to run a installer from a web 
>interface would be a solution?

A solution to what, exactly?

Please note that I do not mean to imply that Hands-off or FAI should be 
used for FreedomBox.  I mention those to try hint at how generic I want 
Tweaks to be: Useful both for general-purpose routines like FAI and 
debian-installer (which Hands-off is an old proof-of-concept of).

I propose to use Tweaks here because I really want our customizations to 
be adopted back into Debian, and if we express them in a way that are 
reusable by others most broadly, then I believe they are most likely to 
gain the interest of the various package maintainers.

>The scenario I see is: The user download s the install to a USB stick. 
>Plugs it into the device and turns it on. After 30 sek he/she points a 
>browser to a local domain name and a simpel web interface guides the 
>user through the installation. Then a script in the live environment 
>could identify the hardware type and make some decisions for the user 
>in advance (ex. if it is an embedded device with no attached storage 
>then there is no reason for the installer to ask for a location to 
>install the software). It could also be during this step that the user 
>tells what services to install (but these can of course also be 
>installed later).
>
>I don't know how difficult this would be to setup but perhaps there 
>should also be a option to run it as a live distro from a USB for 
>system with very low internal storage.

This sounds like a big mouthful to me.  But sure, if you are up to the 
challenge, then go for it!

There are many many ways to initially install Debian onto hardware.

The general-purpose ways are the official ones using debian-installer.

Certain hardware have certain quirks that might cause the official 
methods to be sub-optimal or outright unusable.  In particular 
SheevaPlug and similar embedded devices are not yet supported by 
official Debian install methods.

Also, certain uses might render official install methods sub-optimal.  
Examples of this is setting up diskless enviroments or setting up strong 
networked security like Kerberos.

So, it really depends on whether you want to aim for general-purpose or 
hardware-specific install routines which approach makes the best sense.

Here are some ideas on tools that might save you reinventing wheels:

  * debian-installer project: http://wiki.debian.org/DebianInstaller
  * Makebootfat: Debian package by same name
  * UNetbootin: Debian package by same name
  * debirf: Debian package by same name

I know that the Sugar project (i.e. the GUI software of the One Laptop 
Per Child project a.k.a. "$100 laptop" project) fought a long time 
(re)inventing routines to make their "Sugar on a Stick" generally 
bootable on unknown hardware, so perhaps you can gain some knowledge by 
reading their mailinglists (tell me if interested in this, and I can try 
locate more specifically what thread might be relevant reads).  What I 
did find looking a bit now is some pieces of the puzzle: hints about the 
inner details of FAT and boot sectors, which is important to perfect to 
make the resulting USB stick bootable on most possible hardware: 
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/How_to_Damage_a_FLASH_Storage_Device

Maybe some of the above tools already have perfected this. Not sure. I 
do know that one of the experts in this field is Peter Anvin, the author 
of SYSLINUX.

Good luck!

  - Jonas

-- 
  * Jonas Smedegaard - idealist & Internet-arkitekt
  * Tlf.: +45 40843136  Website: http://dr.jones.dk/

  [x] quote me freely  [ ] ask before reusing  [ ] keep private
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