Is Bering GNU? I'm beginning to have my doubts. Where is /usr/src/linux/.config? Where are the other compile time options for other binaries? Just how was Bering_1.0-rc3_img_bering_1680.bin made?
After spending a good part of a week, and _all_ day Friday getting up a Bering router before a deadline -- subsequently missing the first day of a conference http://h2k2.org -- I looked back at what was the problem. I discovered I was hacking around a product (the Bering image) much like the manner of before I used Linux. I have this disk image, that I mount to find, compressed archives, containing finely tailored scripts and a handful of binaries. Together they make up the GNU Bering. (And maybe other leaf versions as well.) I have hunted all over http://leaf-project.org and http://leaf.sourceforge.net/ for the source, or even a file that says version xx.yy.zz of busybox was compiled with the following patch and compile time options. Or maybe a tgz of the /usr/local/src/bering where the image was made? Nothing. I find myself writing scripts to extract and compress lrp files. Surely everyone doesn't gzip -c9 what they made by tar cf after mounting and extracting their first floppy image? Is this the intended way to indoctrinate new developers to the old school? I even asked a few well read LUG groups what the lrp format was, or how I could run the lrcfg that I read about without actually booting the distro. Nobody knew because the design is not conducive to group development, it's intended use is like that of proprietary software -- take the binary, configure it with the configuration menu and be like everyone else. Okay, I just found the developer.rtf and scanned the whole thing. Formidable task, but I only see part of the forest and none of the trees. I already know linux and there seem to be some very specific LRP details in there, but will it be done before it's out of date? I'm not saying produce a `./configure && make && make image` but if the environment for building the release was published, or easier to find, I'm sure there would be a lot more community support. At one point I kicked myself for not looking in CVS before, but when I got in there, was in disbelief -- no source, only doc. So now I have problems with my image to resolve, why do those Belkin cards detect as reltek under RH but, none of the Bering modules will work with them??? How will I ever get my tulips back from my boss so I can test an image at home? What am I going to do about making an image and quickly changing a few parameters (ssh host keys, network, firewall and other site information) or major structure (LaBera, ppp, ipsec, dns) without spending a ton of time hand extracting and compressing components? I'm going to make my own distribution. reBering. Complete with scripts to mount and extract all the subcomponents, global configure, mix'n'match packages, compress and unmount. Only I don't think I can call it GNU because since I'm in a hurry, I won't have time to reverse engineer the compile time options and source. I'd rather work on putting it on an eprom anyway. In all sincerity, Bering is very cool. It could just be a lot better if it was more in the spirit of _encouraging_ open source development rather than barley qualifying, actually I bet if it was audited, it wouldn't pass. If there are scripts to tar and gzip a lrp package, why aren't they part of a tools.tgz right beside package_src.tgz and compile_configs.tgz next to the Leaf_UML packages and extraction instructions for odd archives? I know asking for doc is a lot, but maintaining a file of command lines used to make the binaries from source would be an excellent first step. // George -- GEORGE GEORGALIS, System Admin/Architect cell: 347-451-8229 Security Services, Web, Mail, mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] File, Print, DB and DNS Servers. http://www.galis.org/george ------------------------------------------------------- This sf.net email is sponsored by:ThinkGeek Welcome to geek heaven. http://thinkgeek.com/sf ------------------------------------------------------------------------ leaf-user mailing list: [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/leaf-user SR FAQ: http://leaf-project.org/pub/doc/docmanager/docid_1891.html
