Bug#505773: debian-installer: Bootable netboot image for USB stick patch
Frans Pop [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote in message 2) Problem with these small USB images and the way they are written is that anything already on the USB stick gets deleted and that - given that most USB sticks nowadays are significantly larger in size - makes most of the stick completely unusable. Same goes for hd-media. If someone could come up with some solution to these problems, that would be great. My suggestion is to separate the concept of making the USB stick bootable from the concept of providing a d-i to boot. Any USB stick only needs to be made bootable once, by installing GRUB or similar. Once it is bootable, the user can add as many boot images as s/he likes, and may want to change/update them frequently - e.g. if testing new d-i releases. So provide a set of instructions (and a GRUB download, if you like) for helping people make their USB sticks bootable. (Remind them that some older systems only boot if the stick is in the superfloppy format, rather than formatted as a hard disk.) Separately, provide d-i releases for USB sticks *on the assumption that the stick is bootable*. This should save everyone lots of trouble. Ideally, a d-i for USB boot should give the user a choice between looking for an ISO on the stick, and connecting directly to a repository (netboot). It seems silly to have to keep two d-i images on the stick to achieve this. One alternative option for the second issue could be to instead create a tarball with everything in it, including syslinux config and a script the user can run manually to make the stick bootable (with appropriate warnings if required commands, possibly checking for availability of alternative commands, are not available). I would expect such a script to become smarter with time as users provide feedback. Yes - there is no reason that the instructions and download for making the stick bootable cannot be bundled with the d-i download. Just make it clear that they can be safely ignored by those whose stick is already bootable. Regards, CC This e-mail may contain information which is confidential, legally privileged and/or copyright protected. This e-mail is intended for the addressee only. If you receive this in error, please contact the sender and delete the material from your computer -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Bug#505773: debian-installer: Bootable netboot image for USB stick patch
Kenshi Muto [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Hi otavio, At 15 Nov 08 07:35:39 GMT, Otavio Salvador wrote: Christian Perrier [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Quoting Kenshi Muto ([EMAIL PROTECTED]): After this patch is applied, 'make build_netboot' will build boot.img.gz in dest/netboot/ directory for i386 and amd64 with both text and gtk installers. Because I didn't know well about other architectures, my patch didn't touch them. Nice. However, as this requires documentation changes, I think this should be post-Lenny. Kenshi, could you propose a text for it to the installer guide? After seeing installer guide, I think only a few changes are needed. Please see also attached patch against installation-guide r56652. I'm not in the position to decide about the inclusion of that into the Installation Guide but I believe it would be a problem due the translation. I think we should keep two patches in a queue to be commited as soon as we open svn to squeeze work. Do anyone disagrees with me? -- O T A V I OS A L V A D O R - E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] UIN: 5906116 GNU/Linux User: 239058 GPG ID: 49A5F855 Home Page: http://otavio.ossystems.com.br - Microsoft sells you Windows ... Linux gives you the whole house. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Bug#505773: debian-installer: Bootable netboot image for USB stick patch
On Monday 17 November 2008, Otavio Salvador wrote: I'm not in the position to decide about the inclusion of that into the Installation Guide but I believe it would be a problem due the translation. I think we should keep two patches in a queue to be commited as soon as we open svn to squeeze work. Agreed this is post-lenny. I can review and commit the patch for the manual at that point. Just remind me. Do anyone disagrees with me? I have a few minor, mostly practical, reservations against this. 1) netboot is heavily used for quick test builds. This increases build time for a regular netboot image by a LOT because we'll now also always build the gtk target. This in turn reduces development efficiency. I'd very much like to keep the option (or add it rather) to only build the plain netboot image or the mini.iso. 2) Problem with these small USB images and the way they are written is that anything already on the USB stick gets deleted and that - given that most USB sticks nowadays are significantly larger in size - makes most of the stick completely unusable. Same goes for hd-media. If someone could come up with some solution to these problems, that would be great. One alternative option for the second issue could be to instead create a tarball with everything in it, including syslinux config and a script the user can run manually to make the stick bootable (with appropriate warnings if required commands, possibly checking for availability of alternative commands, are not available). I would expect such a script to become smarter with time as users provide feedback. Note that I did recently improve the instructions for manually placing netboot images on a USB-stick somewhat in the installation guide. Cheers, FJP signature.asc Description: This is a digitally signed message part.
Bug#505773: debian-installer: Bootable netboot image for USB stick patch
At Mon, 17 Nov 2008 09:38:20 -0200, Otavio Salvador wrote: Kenshi Muto [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: After seeing installer guide, I think only a few changes are needed. Please see also attached patch against installation-guide r56652. I'm not in the position to decide about the inclusion of that into the Installation Guide but I believe it would be a problem due the translation. I think we should keep two patches in a queue to be commited as soon as we open svn to squeeze work. Of course sure. :) Thanks, -- Kenshi Muto [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Bug#505773: debian-installer: Bootable netboot image for USB stick patch
On Mon, 2008-11-17 at 13:17 +0100, Frans Pop wrote: On Monday 17 November 2008, Otavio Salvador wrote: I'm not in the position to decide about the inclusion of that into the Installation Guide but I believe it would be a problem due the translation. I think we should keep two patches in a queue to be commited as soon as we open svn to squeeze work. Do anyone disagrees with me? I have a few minor, mostly practical, reservations against this. 2) Problem with these small USB images and the way they are written is that anything already on the USB stick gets deleted and that - given that most USB sticks nowadays are significantly larger in size - makes most of the stick completely unusable. Same goes for hd-media. If someone could come up with some solution to these problems, that would be great. One alternative option for the second issue could be to instead create a tarball with everything in it, including syslinux config and a script the user can run manually to make the stick bootable (with appropriate warnings if required commands, possibly checking for availability of alternative commands, are not available). I would expect such a script to become smarter with time as users provide feedback. di-netboot-assistant achieve very similar tasks for netbooting. Since the development version in git[1] allows specifying the target folder for extraction, the most difficult task might be to run syslinux to install the bootloader ;) Franklin [1] http://git.debian.org/?p=users/franklin-guest/di-netboot-assistant.git;a=summary -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Bug#505773: debian-installer: Bootable netboot image for USB stick patch
On Sat, 2008-11-15 at 05:35 -0200, Otavio Salvador wrote: Christian Perrier [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Quoting Kenshi Muto ([EMAIL PROTECTED]): After this patch is applied, 'make build_netboot' will build boot.img.gz in dest/netboot/ directory for i386 and amd64 with both text and gtk installers. Because I didn't know well about other architectures, my patch didn't touch them. This boot.img.gz is more convenience than hd-media image for usual installation scene (install Debian into machine with wired network), because it isn't necessary to copy any ISOs, isn't necessary to setup TFTP server, and is pretty small. Currently I set 63MB for this image but we can change it to even 31MB. (I assumed user may copy firmwares and something into it). Nice. However, as this requires documentation changes, I think this should be post-Lenny. Kenshi, could you propose a text for it to the installer guide? Hello, I have a two cents question: what is the benefit over hd-media (which is 20MB to download, fits on 99% of the current usb keys, don't require to burn an ISO on a CD and don't requires a TFTP server)? Franklin -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Bug#505773: debian-installer: Bootable netboot image for USB stick patch
Hi, At Sat, 15 Nov 2008 09:55:59 +0100, Frank Lin PIAT wrote: On Sat, 2008-11-15 at 05:35 -0200, Otavio Salvador wrote: Christian Perrier [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Quoting Kenshi Muto ([EMAIL PROTECTED]): This boot.img.gz is more convenience than hd-media image for usual installation scene (install Debian into machine with wired network), because it isn't necessary to copy any ISOs, isn't necessary to setup TFTP server, and is pretty small. Currently I set 63MB for this image but we can change it to even 31MB. (I assumed user may copy firmwares and something into it). Nice. However, as this requires documentation changes, I think this should be post-Lenny. Kenshi, could you propose a text for it to the installer guide? Oops, I should have kept my mouth shut :) Seriously speaking, OK, I'll try it soon. I have a two cents question: what is the benefit over hd-media (which is 20MB to download, fits on 99% of the current usb keys, don't require to burn an ISO on a CD and don't requires a TFTP server)? As far as I know hd-media needs netinst ISO or business ISO also to work. It is a bit inconvenience and confuses novice users. Thanks, -- Kenshi Muto [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Bug#505773: debian-installer: Bootable netboot image for USB stick patch
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE- Hash: SHA1 Hi otavio, At 15 Nov 08 07:35:39 GMT, Otavio Salvador wrote: Christian Perrier [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Quoting Kenshi Muto ([EMAIL PROTECTED]): After this patch is applied, 'make build_netboot' will build boot.img.gz in dest/netboot/ directory for i386 and amd64 with both text and gtk installers. Because I didn't know well about other architectures, my patch didn't touch them. Nice. However, as this requires documentation changes, I think this should be post-Lenny. Kenshi, could you propose a text for it to the installer guide? After seeing installer guide, I think only a few changes are needed. Please see also attached patch against installation-guide r56652. Here are my changes: Section 4.3 Preparing Files for USB Memory Stick Booting 4.3 1st paragraph: ... packages, possibly in combination with a mirror. This second method is the common. ... packages, possibly in combination with a mirror. [Remove last sentence.] 2nd paragraph: For the first installation method ... and use the 'flexible way' explained below to copy the files to the USB stick. For the first installation method ... and use the 'easy way' explained below to copy the files to the USB stick. [replace flexible way with easy way.] paragraph before 4.3.1: Note that the USB stick should be at least 256 MB in size Note that the USB stick should be at least 64 MB (netboot) or 256 MB (hd-media) in size [describe both size.] 4.3.1 1st paragraph: There is an all-in-one file hd-media/boot.img.gz There is an all-in-one file boot.img.gz [remove 'hd-media/'.] 4.3.1 2nd paragraph: Note that If you use an hd-media image, note that [This paragraph is applied only for hd-media.] pargraph before 4.3.2: If you use an hd-media image, you have one more job. After extracting, mount the USB memory stick After that, mount the USB memory stick [ditto.] Section A.2.2 USB memory stick 2nd paragraph: The easiest way to prepare your USB memory stick is to download hd-media/boot.img.gz, and use gunzip to extract the image from that file. Write this image directly to your memory stick, which must be at least 256 mb in size. Of course this will destroy anything already on the memory stick. Then mount the memory stick, ... The easiest way to prepare your USB memory stick is to download netboot/ boot.img.gz or hd-media/boot.img.gz, and use gunzip to extract the image from that file. Write this image directly to your memory stick, which must be at least 64 mb (netboot) or 256 mb (hd-media) in size. Of course this will destroy anything already on the memory stick. Compared with that a netboot image takes most installer components from the net, an hd-media image uses a Debian ISO image file. So then mount the memory stick, which will now have a FAT filesystem on it. Next, download a Debian netinst CD image, and copy that file to the memory stick ... [describe both size. describe the difference between netboot and hd-media.] P.S. Of course please check my first patch against debian-installer. Though my build test (build_netboot and build_netboot-gtk, build_all) and boot test (text and gtk) worked on my i386 environment. Thanks, - -- Kenshi Muto [EMAIL PROTECTED] -BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE- Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Processed by Mailcrypt 3.5.8+ http://mailcrypt.sourceforge.net/ iEYEARECAAYFAkke/SYACgkQQKW+7XLQPLHZEACfXO5PkiUTDj4QRAHw2I3MFlq2 oAEAnjJQsDJ40l/A3NYWPWD9lpN/r+Bo =GImk -END PGP SIGNATURE- installation-guide-netboot-505773.patch Description: Binary data
Bug#505773: debian-installer: Bootable netboot image for USB stick patch
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE- Hash: SHA1 Package: debian-installer Severity: wishlist Version: 20081029 Tags: patch Hi, I made a patch to produce bootable netboot image for (mainly) USB stick. After this patch is applied, 'make build_netboot' will build boot.img.gz in dest/netboot/ directory for i386 and amd64 with both text and gtk installers. Because I didn't know well about other architectures, my patch didn't touch them. This boot.img.gz is more convenience than hd-media image for usual installation scene (install Debian into machine with wired network), because it isn't necessary to copy any ISOs, isn't necessary to setup TFTP server, and is pretty small. Currently I set 63MB for this image but we can change it to even 31MB. (I assumed user may copy firmwares and something into it). Thanks, - -- Kenshi Muto [EMAIL PROTECTED] -BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE- Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Processed by Mailcrypt 3.5.8+ http://mailcrypt.sourceforge.net/ iEYEARECAAYFAkkeUMYACgkQQKW+7XLQPLETBQCgzrkKs7tEsCe7rw3n5Ip4WMsz ChMAoLE9pS8kwzRjeSZrK0p52Ilt/dOv =ly50 -END PGP SIGNATURE- bootable-netboot.diff Description: Binary data
Bug#505773: debian-installer: Bootable netboot image for USB stick patch
Quoting Kenshi Muto ([EMAIL PROTECTED]): After this patch is applied, 'make build_netboot' will build boot.img.gz in dest/netboot/ directory for i386 and amd64 with both text and gtk installers. Because I didn't know well about other architectures, my patch didn't touch them. This boot.img.gz is more convenience than hd-media image for usual installation scene (install Debian into machine with wired network), because it isn't necessary to copy any ISOs, isn't necessary to setup TFTP server, and is pretty small. Currently I set 63MB for this image but we can change it to even 31MB. (I assumed user may copy firmwares and something into it). Nice. However, as this requires documentation changes, I think this should be post-Lenny. signature.asc Description: Digital signature
