Re: Ximian Desktop 2 | SUSE 9.0 Install

The *biggest* problem with local media installs is that many of our
packages depend on other packages from the OS vendor (SUSE in your
case), and if those packages aren't installed, our installer would
prefer to download them from our servers.  Say, for the sake of example,
that you're installing gtk2-devel, which depends on XFree86-devel.  Or
suppose that our packages depend on a glibc update (more common on Red
Hat than on SUSE).

Then there's the pain of getting all the xml files that the installer
wants to have Just So.

One alternative that has arrived since the installer was created is rug.
rug is a command-line Red Carpet, easily scriptable, with several
powerful features not found in Red Carpet:

"rug mount": this allows you to take a directory with packages and treat
it like a Red Carpet channel.

"rug in --entire-channel": this allows you to tell rug to install every
package in a channel, pulling in packages from other channels as needed.

How this simplifies installs:
- Have all the SUSE 9.0 packages you might need in order to satisfy
dependencies in one directory.
- "rug mount" that directory.
- Have all the XD2 packages you want to install in another directory.
This needn't be the full set of XD2 packages; you can have -devel
packages in another directory, for example.  You'll probably want to add
Evolution and Red Carpet packages as well, since they'd normally be
included in an XD2 install.
- "rug mount" the XD2 package directory.
- "rug in --entire-channel" the channel corresponding to the XD2
packages.
- "rug unmount" the unneeded channels.
- Adjust a few things that aren't in package management (details will be
provided later).

This can be done truly locally, assuming you have a single CD with the
XD2 packages and a known set of SUSE packages that will be needed to
satisfy dependencies (which can possibly be guessed fairly well from one
install, assuming your machines are fairly standardized).  If you have a
file server available, you can put the XD2 packages on that and run
around with the SUSE install media DVD (assuming your drives will take
it).  Other variations are certainly possible.

The non-package-managed bits mostly have to do with having gdm running
on runlevel 5.  This involves editing /etc/sysconfig/displaymanager
(comments in the file should make it clear what's necessary).  IIRC,
YaSt can clobber this if you don't do the changes through YaST (which
has a built-in /etc/sysconfig editor).  It's possible that's been
changed, but I'm not certain.

The rug end of things should be pretty trivially scriptable.

-Mark Gordon

On Wed, 2004-05-19 at 16:19 -0400, Jimmy Benson wrote:
> Mark,
>      Thanks for the response.  You hit it on the head - I am wanting to
> rollout XD2 to 60 SUSE 9.0 desktops installed here in our corporation. 
> However, without the local media option available it would take
> *forever* to complete.  What I have done is download everything per the
> instructions on Ximians site
> (http://support.ximian.com/cgi-bin/ximian.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_sid=wzlx_Lbh&p_lva=&p_faqid=40&p_created=994795178&p_sp=cF9ncmlkc29ydD0mcF9yb3dfY250PTQzJnBfc2VhcmNoX3RleHQ9JnBfcHJvZF9sdmwxPTEwJnBfcGFnZT0x&p_li=),
> but if you look at the site, you will see there is no section for SUSE
> 9.0.  However, I have made sure I have all the packages listed under 8.2
> installed and I have also downloaded the entire FTP tree structure as
> outlined at the bottom of the article.  
> 
> When I launch the XD2 installer, it detects I have SUSE90-i586 loaded
> on the desktop, and I click "Next."  At this point I choose "Local
> Media" and type in the local location of the XD2 setup structure I have
> copied to my local hard drive ("/xd2"), but the "Forward" button just
> remains greyed out.  I cannot move on and I get no indication at all why
> I cannot proceed, which is where I am currently stuck.  As you said, the
> local media option is tricky, but I am hoping I can get this working so
> I can move forward with our pilot linux deployment here.  
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> >>> Mark Gordon <[email protected]> 5/19/2004 4:04:46 PM >>>
> On Wed, 2004-05-19 at 15:32 -0400, Jimmy Benson wrote:
> > I am trying to setup a local media install of XD2 on a SUSE 9.0
> desktop.
> >  However, after launching the XD2 installer, and choosing the "Local
> > Media" button, I type in my local XD2 path ("/xd2"), but the
> "Forward"
> > button remains greyed out.  Is the local media install option now
> > available for SUSE 9.0 desktop?  
> > 
> > I have downloaded all the necessary files and directories off the
> FTP
> > server per Ximian's guidelines.  However, there is no SUSE90-i586
> > directory under the "redcarpet" directory on their FTP server, so I
> am
> > curious if this type of install will even work for SUSE 9.0 desktop.
> 
> > Anyone have this working or have an idea why the "Forward" button is
> not
> > available during the XD2 install?
> > 
> > Thanks in advance!
> 
> Completely local installs are very tricky.  Describe the scenario, and
> I'll offer my advice on the best way to proceed.  Are you completely
> network-isolated? Is this mostly a matter of having high bandwidth and
> a
> CD burner (perhaps under Windows) in one place and wanting to install
> in
> another place? Is this for a major rollout where you have large
> numbers
> of desktops to install, and local media would simply be more
> efficient?
> 
> -Mark Gordon

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