Bug#900918: debian-installer: Please make the generated images reproducible

[Cyril Brulebois]

Cyril Brulebois <kibi at debian.org> (2019-01-19):
> Back to d-i results: I'm seeing small differences in the generated
> -images tarball, that I'll try to investigate. I'll probably push the
> series anyway, as these patches are helping anyway. :)

Here are the differences I'm seeing by building multiple times in the
same sid devel chroot:

    installer-amd64/20190119/images/cdrom/gtk/initrd.gz
    installer-amd64/20190119/images/hd-media/boot.img.gz
    installer-amd64/20190119/images/hd-media/gtk/initrd.gz
    installer-amd64/20190119/images/MD5SUMS
    installer-amd64/20190119/images/netboot/gtk/debian-installer/amd64/initrd.gz
    installer-amd64/20190119/images/netboot/gtk/mini.iso
    installer-amd64/20190119/images/netboot/gtk/netboot.tar.gz
    installer-amd64/20190119/images/netboot/mini.iso
    installer-amd64/20190119/images/SHA256SUMS

*SUMS are no-brainers due to changes in other files.

All gtk files have fontconfig-related cache/uuid changes…

Excluding those, remaining files are:

    installer-amd64/20190119/images/hd-media/boot.img.gz
    installer-amd64/20190119/images/netboot/mini.iso

The boot.img includes two initrds: initrd.gz and initrdg.gz; the latter
is the one with graphical support, which explains why it's also hit by
the fontconfig cache/uuid problem.

The mini.iso has apparently other changes… I'm attaching the diffoscope
output. Could this be because of missing tweaks to the xorriso calls in
build/config/x86.cfg? (In which case build/config/arm.cfg might need an
update as well.) Checking all MINIISO occurrences might also make sense
I suppose?


Cheers,
-- 
Cyril Brulebois (kibi at debian.org)            <https://debamax.com/>
D-I release manager -- Release team member -- Freelance Consultant
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