Re: Testers required: PXE boot Slackware installers from slackware.org.uk

On Sun, 27 Jul 2014, /dev/rob0 wrote:
> Probably everyone here knows Darren as well as I do, but for the 
> record I'll vouch for his character.

Thanks rob :)

> He's twisted and sick.  He eats little babies for breakfast.

Apparently you don't know me very well.  Breakfast only?
It's at least 3 meals a day :)

> But this isn't about baby sitting, this is about trusting him as a 
> PXE boot source.  Of course he is a professional and is perfectly 
> honourable in his intentions toward your computers.
> 
> It would be prudent to check the installer's gpg.  Is there a way to 
> validate that online?  If you know you're not using a trojaned gpg, 
> the signature verifications on the packages would confirm that you 
> are getting clean, genuine Slackware.

I'm absolutely happy for (and encourage people to) verify the MD5 sums 
aganst the files in whatever mirror you happen to trust.

Here's the directory layout used:

/
|-- memtest
|   `-- memtest
|-- menu.c32
|-- pxelinux.0
|-- pxelinux.cfg
|   |-- default
|   |-- slackware-menu
|   |-- slackware64-menu
|-- slackware-13.37
|   |-- huge.s
|   |-- hugesmp.s
|   `-- initrd.img
|-- slackware-14.0
|   |-- huge.s
|   |-- hugesmp.s
|   `-- initrd.img
|-- slackware-14.1
|   |-- huge.s
|   |-- hugesmp.s
|   `-- initrd.img
|-- slackware-current
|   |-- huge.s
|   |-- hugesmp.s
|   `-- initrd.img
|-- slackware64-13.37
|   |-- huge.s
|   `-- initrd.img
|-- slackware64-14.0
|   |-- huge.s
|   `-- initrd.img
|-- slackware64-14.1
|   |-- huge.s
|   `-- initrd.img
`-- slackware64-current
    |-- huge.s
    `-- initrd.img

To get the particular files, just fire up a tftp client (Slackware has one 
in the full install):
  tftp slackware.org.uk
Then use 'get' to grab the full path of the file you want:
  get /slackware64-current/initrd.img

Then you can use md5sum and check it against the ones on your trusted 
mirror.

As for the packages themselves, the Slackware installer lets you download 
them from a mirror of your choice.  If you don't trust mine, use one you do 
trust - but if I wanted a trusted mirror, I wouldn't be part of the group of 
mirrors provided by mirrors.slackware.com set up by Robby.

All the PXE boot service offers is the kernel and initrd files from the 
individual Slackware directories themselves - it's no different than booting 
from a mini-ISO and doing a ftp/http install from there.

Darren.