[custom] Custom Debian Distros need the help from debian developers

yep,

I've read this long thread and some points come to mind :

1- Non-interactive installation :

as said before [DEBCONF-LEVEL], there is two configuration levels :
 - end-user level, that should install really non-interactively ;
 - power-user level, that let the installer tweak the config, still beeing 
compatible with the end-user case ;

debconf frontend is a tool of choice for acheveing that. 
 - For a end-user, debconf configuration should be :
	* debconf/priority: medium
	* debconf/frontend: Noninteractive
- For a power-user :
	* debconf/priority: low
	* debconf/frontend: Dialog

that's the debian way, IMHO.

The "Noninteractive" frontend just keep default values for all registered 
templates.

2- debconf pre-seeding 
( isn't that "pre-feeding" ? i'm not a native english speaker, but , AFAICS, 
pre-feeding seems to better match the concept )

The point now is feeding debconf with coherent default values that _will_ be 
different from stock Debian releases.
As said before [DEBIAN-STOCK], trying to change default values from 
stock-Debian packages can be a waste of time.

A "Custom Debian Distro" has to, errr..., customize its distribution ! that is 
making its own packages.

An easy way may be using dbs [DBS] to maintain a BSD-like port system.
I use it every day to maintain my own custom debian [PRAKSYS]. ( forget my 
gory scripts, but watch the idea ;)... i still have a lot of cleanups to do )

this way, a CDD can have its own debconf tree from where each customized 
package can take relevant config.
e.g. :
CDD/host/name
CDD/network/lan/fqdn
CDD/network/lan/interface
CDD/network/lan/netmask
CDD/network/lan/gateway
CDD/network/ipsec/fqdn
CDD/network/ipsec/interface
CDD/network/ipsec/netmask
CDD/network/ipsec/gateway
... and so on...

3- another point, is beeing able to have a remote debconf database (for 
network-wide configurations) and a local one (for, err..., local 
configurations).
for the previous example, CDD/network hierarchy can be stored on the 
network-server, while CDD/host is host-specific...

cheers,
guillaume pernot





[DEBCONF-LEVEL] 
http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2004/debian-devel-200402/msg00911.html

[DEBIAN-STOCK]
http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2004/debian-devel-200402/msg00801.html

[DBS]
http://packages.debian.org/stable/devel/dbs

[PRAKSYS]
a straigth-forward example :
http://praksys.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb/pool/g/ganglia-monitor-core/ganglia-monitor-core/debian/patches/30praksys-config.diff?rev=1.5&content-type=text/x-cvsweb-markup

generated packages can be found at :
http://download.gna.org/praksys/praksys/ganglia-monitor-core_2.5.5-4praksys0.tar.gz
http://download.gna.org/praksys/praksys/ganglia-monitor_2.5.5-4praksys0_i386.deb
http://download.gna.org/praksys/praksys/ganglia-webfrontend_2.5.5-4praksys0_i386.deb