Re: Stage 4 Gentoo Server Project ISO.

On Wed, Jul 23, 2003 at 03:19:06AM +1000, Wade Mealing wrote:
> On Wed, 2003-07-23 at 03:20, adam morley wrote:
> > On Tue, Jul 22, 2003 at 11:30:25PM +1000, Wade Mealing wrote:
> > > Gday all, 
> > 
> > hi
> > 
> > [snip]
> > > still be done ), but I would like to have the install start ssh with a
> > > root password set to the MAC of the first ethernet card.  
> > > 
> > > The IP will either be DHCP assigned, or fallback to a 192 address in
> > > case no DHCP server can be found. (Perhaps maybe an app to find the
> > > computer that is being setup... shouldnt be too hard to write )
> > > 
> > > It may be possible to do the install via a serial console for those who
> > > are interested in this method and if possible this will included on the
> > > LiveCD version of the GSP.
> > 
> > I'd probably never use stage 4.  But it might help some.  I would *love* to see a full serial console based install ---  I hated having to put a monitor on a new rackmounted server that's already plugged into a serial concentrator.  Is this coming at some point in the LiveCD?
> > 
> 
> Thats good, because you could use the standard gentoo stages otherwise,
> maybe they can be distributed on another server LiveCD.

That was actually the issue I saw --- serial console required passing a serial parameter to the kernel (easy enough), but getting the gettys to start up required enabling ttyS0/S1, and I wondered whether that would break the video consoles.

> 
> > I do love the idea of a master build server 
> > -- reminds me of Sun's jumpstart which can be really handy for installs.
> 
> Can you point us in directions.. do you have any old manuals ? this is
> the kinda stuff we need :).  If there is any work already done on
> something like this the less we have to code the better.

I haven't heard of anything for linux, but here's some links from Sun's docs.sun.com site:

Custom jumpstart (parts of this are way more complicated than they need to be):

http://docs.sun.com/db/doc/806-5205/6je7vd5tb?a=view

Network installs:

http://docs.sun.com/db/doc/806-5205/6je7vd5rm?a=view

Both from the "install guide":

http://docs.sun.com/db/doc/806-5205

And an older "book" from Solaris 8:

http://docs.sun.com/db/doc/816-2411?q=jumpstart

Parts of jumpstart I like, parts I don't, but mostly the completely unattended installs are amazing.  Sun's got the advantage of systems booting off the network by default from the factory, so you just plug a new box into the local net, hit "on" and it installs away based on the profiles.  This could be done with intel boxes now that the netcards have the PXE boot or whatever its called.

I honestly think the configuration process could be much simplier with gentoo. . .

> 
> Either way, the server project vision is in development at the moment,
> this kinda stuff needs to be talked about.
> 
> This project is really standing on the shoulders of giants, (Gentoo Dev
> Team, GPL coders), but hopefully we can produce something gigantic from
> it.

Then I'm confident something really slick will come out of it.  Probably better than what I'd think up too!

thanks,

-- 
adam

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