torios team mailing list archive

[Nio Wiklund <nio.wiklund@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Israel,
[replying inline]
Best regards
Nio

Den 2014-09-19 00:29, Israel skrev:
> Hi all,
> I have been reworking a few things in the builder script to make
> everything nicer for others.
> I have decided to use the package nodm on the live CD, as it requires no
> Display manager and auto configures everything (yay no more text files
> to install)
> I also decided that I really like seamonkey way more than midori.  So I
> added the Mozilla repo and installed seamonkey.
> Puppy Linux uses seamonkey and besides it is the good old Netscape
> Navigator feel.  Plus we now have a native chat utility, mail program,
> web browser and web editor for the Tori people.
> this is just the live CD version, mind you.

:-)

> I am contemplating reworking the install that uses OBI to using a
> chroot... but that is something I haven't decided on doing.  I think we
> can pack a lot more stuff in our image this way.  i.e. I can archive a
> whole slew of debs in a tar.xz file and simply extract them into the
> chroot that is created using basically the same ISO builder script. 
> Then install grub2 on the machine this way the user can configure their
> own password and username.  I haven't fully decided if this is a good
> idea or not.  I'd like some feedback on it.  I am only contemplating
> this for ToriOS 2.0  (or a later 1.X version)

The OBI is light and simple. But it does pack also the programs, that
are already there in the live system, while the conventional installers
(alternate and desktop) do not. If you manage to make a desktop
installer do the same job as ubiquity but with less need of RAM, it
would be great. But I don't think it is easy.

Letting the users configure their own password and username is possible
already with the OBI. Make a tarball of an OEM system, that is 'ready
for the end user'.

Size is no problem except for keeping an iso file within CD size. For
DVD drives or USB pendrives you can spend 4 GB, which is a lot :-) In
Sweden it is difficult to buy a USB pendrive with less than 4 GB.

> I will need to do a lot more testing and whatnot to get that even
> sketched out as a realistic proposal.... however I know that many Linux
> distros use this type of method.  Ubiquity prehaps uses this as well. 
> Though I will want to use something very light (like dialog or zenity)
> to get user input.
> 
> Anyhow, things are tightening up and becoming more stable and much
> better for the eventual Beta release.  Hopefully sooner rather than later.

I'm looking forward to ToriOS beta :-)

> Oh, also, I will upload the build scripts to github soon.  I am
> currently implementing a 'caching' feature.  This basically copies the
> chroot's /var/cache/apt/archives folder to your bas directory in a
> folder called archives-${RELEASE}_${ARCH}
> where release is (currently) precise
> and arch is (currently) i386
> so
> archives-precise_i386
> It also makes a tarball for the deboostrap to use.
> This way you or I can modify it without having to download the entire
> thing every single time.
> I have negated the need for a lot of the hacky stuff I was using.  I
> will soon get more things set up so the only thing that is needed is the
> basic script.
> 
> Thanks everyone!
>