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Re: INSTALL kernel [Re: CVS commit: src/distrib]



On Tue, 25 Nov 2008, Andrew Doran wrote:
Should we add back a INSTALL kernel for this purpose, which would hold
the needed device, filesystems and kernel options to do a PXE install ?

No. I will add back the automatically built miniroot.kmod instead, I was too
hasty in removing it.

The requirement for a root on NFS makes things much more difficult,
because it needs a specific dhcp config on a case by case basis (while,
with a tftp-only solution, all can be done from a pxelinux menu).

I don't see how it is much more difficult, see above. For non-bespoke setups
we now have a simple net install procedure, which is to my mind a lot easier
for the uninitiated:

- mount the install CD-ROM image
- export via tftp+nfs
- configure dhcp/bootp server
- boot

... no copying files around, no searching for boot loaders, no changing file
permissions or whatever. You don't even have to enter paths or NFS server
information on the client.

We have a multitude of different ways to load kernels. Common ones include ffs, cd9660 and tftp, but there are also dosboot, boot_fat16, grub and grub on ntfs. These allow a kernel to be downloaded and then booted easily by anyone.

AIUI, kernel modules can be easily linked into kernels, so why can't we offer MONOLITHIC which is GENERIC linked with modules and INSTALL which is MONOLITHIC linked with miniroot.kmod. This would be analogous to the "linking" of ramdisk with kernel by mdsetimage in the old world order. The link would be effectively free and wouldn't increase maintenance or build time (unlike the old profusion of kernels which you rightly reduced).

--
Stephen


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