From owner-freebsd-arch@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Jan 16 11:49:02 2011 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-arch@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8E6BD106566B; Sun, 16 Jan 2011 11:49:02 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from yanegomi@gmail.com) Received: from mail-ww0-f50.google.com (mail-ww0-f50.google.com [74.125.82.50]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9C1188FC12; Sun, 16 Jan 2011 11:49:01 +0000 (UTC) Received: by wwf26 with SMTP id 26so4418079wwf.31 for ; Sun, 16 Jan 2011 03:49:00 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:mime-version:sender:in-reply-to:references:date :x-google-sender-auth:message-id:subject:from:to:cc:content-type :content-transfer-encoding; bh=cEf0bTj8Ljehw9ACGJkS/b50dXuzm90sRrQ0KVbOQuo=; b=mgN39mRzvZQ1e8zA/cagWyJ6cZhgNXJwbCX6DKPLg3GN0CwDexNgZ/4xnUc2wEbVU7 DzoOdlg2Y6qxYlV0c6cRWDt8iqZwSZuQiM9vQ6sBElMasiefxIRoay6wT+87qRhquDOx I9fMh5fXtYWMKFWqSUZhumvWuqILi9JoDlCpM= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=mime-version:sender:in-reply-to:references:date :x-google-sender-auth:message-id:subject:from:to:cc:content-type :content-transfer-encoding; b=JOTAINbPPFMsmmAHo6TL+LcwjBnB94badCUDdY+Hr51K+lHm2SRNgE0swtc10i8aC5 cnZdVHjv3dgn31JdzBbgtNblUDarHI5FKv8I6lmHR9DSOurHJ7j6IBNKM6uehGY0HU3h RZf0JA0i3fPc9KFQwc/zBujns54rQoZFTWauM= MIME-Version: 1.0 Received: by 10.216.49.15 with SMTP id w15mr1300302web.1.1295178539705; Sun, 16 Jan 2011 03:48:59 -0800 (PST) Sender: yanegomi@gmail.com Received: by 10.216.254.226 with HTTP; Sun, 16 Jan 2011 03:48:59 -0800 (PST) In-Reply-To: References: <4D309563.1000404@freebsd.org> Date: Sun, 16 Jan 2011 03:48:59 -0800 X-Google-Sender-Auth: K5j7ZCijhGPOENgtGX9uSLdLu3A Message-ID: From: Garrett Cooper To: krad Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Cc: freebsd-arch@freebsd.org, freebsd-current Current , Nathan Whitehorn , freebsd-sysinstall@freebsd.org Subject: Re: BSDInstall: merging to HEAD X-BeenThere: freebsd-arch@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussion related to FreeBSD architecture List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 16 Jan 2011 11:49:02 -0000 On Sun, Jan 16, 2011 at 3:06 AM, krad wrote: > On 14 January 2011 18:26, Nathan Whitehorn wrote= : >> >> As those of you who have been reading freebsd-sysinstall and freebsd-arc= h know, I have been working for a few weeks on a lightweight new installer = named 'bsdinstall'. This is designed to replace sysinstall for the 9.0 rele= ase. >> >> After two weeks of testing and bug fixes on the sysinstall list, I belie= ve this now has all required functionality and is ready to be merged into t= he main source tree. I would like to do this on Tuesday, 18 January. Switch= ing this to be the default installer would happen a few weeks after that, p= ending discussion on release formats with the release engineering team. Thi= s should provide a sufficient testing period before 9.0 and allow a maximal= number of bugs to be discovered and solved before the release is shipped. >> >> Demo ISO for i386: http://people.freebsd.org/~nwhitehorn/bsdinstall-i386= -20110114.iso.bz2 >> SVN repository: svn://svn.freebsd.org/base/user/nwhitehorn/bsdinstall >> Wiki page: http://wiki.freebsd.org/BSDInstall >> >> Goals >> ----- >> The primary goal of BSDInstall is to provide an easily extensible instal= ler without the limitations of sysinstall, in order to allow more modern in= stallations of FreeBSD. This means that it should have additional features = to support modern setups, but simultaneously frees us to remove complicatin= g features of sysinstall like making sure everything fits in floppy disk-si= zed chunks. >> >> New Features: >> - Allows installation onto GPT disks on x86 systems >> - Can do installations spanning multiple disks >> - Allows installation into jails >> - Eases PXE installation >> - Virtualization friendly: can install from a live system onto disk >> =A0images >> - Works on PowerPC >> - Streamlined system installation >> - More flexible scripting >> - Easily tweakable >> - All install CDs are live CDs >> >> Architecture >> ------------ >> BSDInstall is a set of tools that are called in sequence by a master scr= ipt. These tools are, for example, the partition editor, the thing that fet= ches the distributions from the network, the thing that untars them, etc. S= ince these are just called in sequence from a shell script, a scripted inst= allation can easily replace them with other things, (e.g. hard-coded gpart = commands), leave steps out, add new ones, or interleave additional system m= odifications. >> >> Status >> ------ >> This provides functionality most similar to the existing sysinstall 'Exp= ress' track. It installs working, bootable systems you can ssh into immedia= tely after reboot on i386, amd64, sparc64, powerpc, and powerpc64. There is= untested support for pc98. The final architecture on which we use sysinsta= ll, ia64, is currently unsupported, because I don't know how to set up boot= ing on those systems -- patches to solve this are very much welcome. >> >> There are still some missing features that I would like to see in the re= lease, but these do not significantly impact the functionality of the insta= ller. Some will be addressed before merging to HEAD, in particular the lack= of a man page for bsdinstall. Others, like configuration of wireless netwo= rking and ZFS installation, can happen between merge and release. The test = ISOs are also lacking a ports tree at the moment, which is a statement abou= t the slow upload speed of my DSL line and not about the final layout of re= leases. >> >> Please send any questions, comments, or patches you may have, and please= be aware when replying that this email has been cross-posted to three list= s. Technical discussion (bug reports, for instance) should be directed to t= he freebsd-sysinstall list only. Most other discussion belongs on -sysinsta= ll and -current. > > I dont follow the=A0freebsd-sysinstall and freebsd-arc list so sorry if > this has already been discussed. From what I have seen pc-sysinstall > already does all these things, and can install freebsd. Therefore why > are we reinventing the wheel? > > I don't mean this as any disrespect to the work you have done. Hi Krad, I asked this two weeks ago and in summary: - pc-sysinstall is x86-centric and porting to powerpc is non-trivial, and sysinstall is incomplete on powerpc. Nate sought to get a working powerpc port with minimal effort. Please read other replies in the archives on freebsd-arch / freebsd-sysinstall to get more info as to why things have been done the way they have been done. Thanks, -Garrett