Status update 2004-04-27

Here's a quick status update on the installer project.

- Quite a bit of conversation has been taking place about what 
partitioning tools are "safe" and "stable" on what architectures. As you 
may have suspected, this is different on each arch and on some, none are 
a safe bet. A generic partitioning framework has been started that 
should (eventually) accommodate all archs that Gentoo runs on (or may 
run on in the future). This set of python classes will most likely be 
released as a separate package for other projects to make use of.

- An object network notification system has been built which will allow 
any python object to register itself as an "observer" and receive events 
as they happen in real time. (Not checked in yet, undergoing external 
testing and being considered for separate release as well.)

- Work has been done on file encryption for the protection of installer 
profiles that may be stored in unsecured locations.

- Some todo lists, documents, and other items have seen updates.

We are still moving along to a testable prototype (in some fashion) and 
will let everyone know when there is something substantial to really 
test. That said, we are approaching that point at a much better rate. 
Partitioning is a major sticking point due to its arch dependent nature 
and the ability to render a machine unusable if the code is not just right.

As always, I'll finish with an open invite to those interested in the 
installer project to join us in #gentoo-installer (irc.freenode.net). 
Most (if not all) of the developer communication and working out of 
ideas happens here.

Questions, comments, feedback welcome.

Regards.
-- 
Eric Sammer
Gentoo Linux
http://www.gentoo.org