Bug#1068898: Reinstate OpenRD netboot images for bookworm

[Martin Michlmayr]

* Cyril Brulebois  [2024-04-13 08:25]:
> I don't mind doing that again, but what's the game plan here? If systems
> are already installed and working fine, then d-i is irrelevant.

Well, maybe someone wants to install Debian, either because they find
an old OpenRD somewhere or because Rick's hard drive dies or
something.

> For any new systems people might want to deploy, installing bullseye
> then upgrading to bookworm already works?

Of course, but bullseye will be moved to archive.d.o at some point (I
know you can install from there, but then you have to specify the
mirror).

Anyway, I have no game play.  Like I said, it's probably all a waste
of time, but Debian bookworm works on OpenRD and d-i should work if we
add the image, we already have a patch... so it seems like we should
just do it.

My game play is that I'm a perfectionist but I am aware there are
pretty much no users of Debian on OpenRD (I only know of Rick!).

> So OpenRD has no future in trixie as far as I understand. At least that
> would mean not having to do that again again, if we were to enable
> OpenRD images again for bookworm.

Yes, imho let's add the image for bookworm and let this be the end of
it. ;)

But if you just want to close this feature request, I doubt many
people will care.
-- 
Martin Michlmayr
https://www.cyrius.com/

Bug#1068898: Reinstate OpenRD netboot images for bookworm

[Cyril Brulebois]

Hi Martin,

(Replying as much as braindumping to avoid rediscovering this next time
around.)

Martin Michlmayr  (2024-04-13):
> I'm sorry to be that guy who shows up every few years to waste
> everyone's time... but... I was updating my Kirkwood pages for
> bookworm and noticed that the OpenRD images are gone.
> 
> Now you may remember that we had the same situation for bullseye
> (#934072) and Cyril kindly restored the netboot images:
> https://salsa.debian.org/installer-team/debian-installer/-/commit/3ef30be60ab128f53a0cd16e6c1e91a3123988b4
> 
> I guess this change never got committed to master/main because
> bullseye was going to be the last release for armel.

Well, Rick explicitly said he was happy with bullseye or bookworm, so
one of them got implemented…

> But armel is still in bookworm and Rick confirmed he's running
> bookworm on his OpenRD, so I see no reason why d-i wouldn't work if
> we apply the same patch to the bookworm d-i.
> 
> Honestly, I'm not sure if it's worth it as Rick is probably the one
> Debian on OpenRD left, but since bookworm will probably be the last
> release of armel (or not?) it would be nice if the installer was
> working on OpenRD.
> 
> Cyril or Vagrant, can you easily apply the patch above and generate a
> test image for Rick?

I don't mind doing that again, but what's the game plan here? If systems
are already installed and working fine, then d-i is irrelevant. For any
new systems people might want to deploy, installing bullseye then
upgrading to bookworm already works?

We don't have anything to support for armel at the moment (as far as
master and testing/unstable are concerned), hence the current “let it
die altogether” plan from a d-i perspective:
  https://lists.debian.org/debian-boot/2024/03/msg00016.html

I'm not sure we should be encouraging new installations of 32-bit
hardware at this stage (look at what's happening for i386…). I don't
remember seeing a decision regarding armel's being a release arch for
trixie, but kernel support is gone already (same thread):
  https://lists.debian.org/debian-arm/2024/01/msg8.html

So OpenRD has no future in trixie as far as I understand. At least that
would mean not having to do that again again, if we were to enable
OpenRD images again for bookworm.


Cheers,
-- 
Cyril Brulebois (k...@debian.org)
D-I release manager -- Release team member -- Freelance Consultant


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Bug#1068898: Reinstate OpenRD netboot images for bookworm

[Martin Michlmayr]

Package: debian-installer
Version: 20230607+deb12u5

I'm sorry to be that guy who shows up every few years to waste
everyone's time... but... I was updating my Kirkwood pages for
bookworm and noticed that the OpenRD images are gone.

Now you may remember that we had the same situation for bullseye
(#934072) and Cyril kindly restored the netboot images:
https://salsa.debian.org/installer-team/debian-installer/-/commit/3ef30be60ab128f53a0cd16e6c1e91a3123988b4

I guess this change never got committed to master/main because
bullseye was going to be the last release for armel.

But armel is still in bookworm and Rick confirmed he's running
bookworm on his OpenRD, so I see no reason why d-i wouldn't work if
we apply the same patch to the bookworm d-i.

Honestly, I'm not sure if it's worth it as Rick is probably the one
Debian on OpenRD left, but since bookworm will probably be the last
release of armel (or not?) it would be nice if the installer was
working on OpenRD.

Cyril or Vagrant, can you easily apply the patch above and generate a
test image for Rick?

Sorry for creating work (again) for such a minor platform...
-- 
Martin Michlmayr
https://www.cyrius.com/