Re: Stage 4 Gentoo Server Project ISO.

On Tuesday 22 July 2003 01:20 pm, adam morley wrote:

> On Tue, Jul 22, 2003 at 11:30:25PM +1000, Wade Mealing wrote:
<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.
> >

<snip>
>
> I do love the idea of a master build server --- reminds me of Sun's
> jumpstart which can be really handy for installs.


The concept of jumpstart moved over to linux with RedHat's kickstart, almost 
identical for most intents and purposes (if configured correctly). The 
automated systems are great, for both servers and workstations, cutting all 
of the headache out of setup. I honestly don't know how I used to manage 
actually manually configuring everything all of the time.

When the time came to consider Gentoo on the servers or workstations the first 
requirement was an automated install. About 6 months ago I started the basic 
remnants of "portstart" (yeh, needs a different name, but I was trying to 
follow the *start format). Unfortunately I got tied up with other things and 
never got passed the planning phase, but I would be more than willing to lend 
a hand in any group effort. Actually, before I forget to mention it, the GLIS 
project ( http://glis.sourceforge.net/ ) could lend a big hand in most of the 
basic automated setup once the system is booted by PXE/TFTP, floppy, or CD.

The last thing is about the root password being the MAC, it just seems like 
too much of a security risk unless you are building on a completely isolated 
network. Someone could get in an trojan the system before tripwire could take 
its first snapshot. The jumpstart and kickstart servers I have set up, 
scramble root's pwd and install a ssh public key in root's authorized keys 
file. Additionally, about 95% of the systems (the workstations at least) bind 
to an kerberos or nis for remote authentication so the *start adds a sudo 
entry for my user, allowing me to ssh in and set root's pwd, just incase.

Just some thoughts, but I think a machine profile based automated install is a 
great thing for Gentoo. At the moment, it and a network wide managment system 
(updates and such) are the only things keeping me from starting to replace my 
RedHat machines.

Justin Filoseta

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