torios team mailing list archive

[Nio Wiklund <nio.wiklund@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,
[replies inline]
Best regards/Nio

Den 2014-11-09 21:21, Israel skrev:
> 
> Hi everyone (bottom)
> On 11/09/2014 02:28 AM, Nio Wiklund wrote:
>> Den 2014-11-09 08:58, Ali/amjjawad skrev:
>>> Hi all,
>>>
>>> Just thinking loudly here ...
>>>
>>> While ToriOS is made for very old machines, it's still can be used for newer ones.
>>>
>>> Some features might be missing for whatever reason (CD size limit, etc..) so, is it possible to add a script or a code to check the physical RAM on the target machine? 
>>>
>>> IF RAM = xxxMB THEN
>>> ...
>>> ELSE
>>> ...
>>>
>>> For example (again, just thinking loudly): 
>>>
>>> if RAM=1024MB then use Ubiquity 
>>>
>>> Else use OBI 
>>>
>>> Just a crazy idea :) 
>>>
>>> Thank you!
>>> Sent from my smartphone.
>>>
>> Hi Ali and all,
>>
>> Yes it is possible, but ubiquity will compete with the disk space within
>> the CD size. It might be a better idea to supply two iso files,
>>
>> - one iso file for really old computers, where booting from CD is
>> necessary, and/or where the RAM is so small, that ubiquity does not work.
>>
>> - and one iso file for other computers, where booting from DVD and USB
>> is possible.
>>
>> We can add a lot of packages to the second iso file. It will probably be
>> enough with approximately 1 GB, but I would say the limit is 4 GB for
>> such an iso file.
>>
>> -o-
>>
>> On the other hand: For people who are not familiar with ubiquity, I
>> think it is at least as easy to use the OBI. Or can be: if you think
>> something is not intuitive, the work flow can be improved, better
>> explained, or some text improved.
>>
>> Best regards
>> Nio
>>
> I think the only way we could do this is if the OBI was radically changed.
> The only way we could do this is if we built an alternate Ubiquity for
> low-end computers.
> Something that used all the di scripts (di = Debian Installer) but
> functioned from much less memory... maybe just using Zenity dialogs or
> something like xmessage dialogs.
> I think (not 100% sure here) Ubiquity is Python... so even remaking
> Ubiquity in C or C++ could improve memory consumption... if it is a
> Python program.

... Or if we have 'double installers' with both the OBI and Ubiquity.
That would work either with two separate iso files or with a big iso
file, that can contain both installers, a lot of packages and the files
necessary to install both ways. It might be better to have two separate
iso files.

> For this first release we have to go a bit 'Warty Warthog' on it.  We
> need to simply get something out that works really well and does not
> have bugs.

I agree

> If Nio can figure out how to make persistence possible in an OBI system
> we should use it!  That would make things much nicer and we could make
> it 'persistent'.
> It would be nice to offer this in mkusb for normal Ubuntu distros and
> have it tie in to their system, though I think that would be something
> for a much later version of mkusb.

Or [much] later version of the normal Ubuntu distros :-)

> Also, I'd like to mention if anyone is using something other than mkusb
> to make usb versions of ToriOS please switch to mkusb.  It is MUCH
> faster and very accurate.  You have been wasting too much of your
> precious time using something else.  mkusb takes around half the time
> (hmm... maybe much less that that....) to make a bootable USB from an ISO.
> If you have ToriOS installed on something you have mkusb installed.  It
> is very fast error free and lightweight.  I get much better results for
> every thing that boots a USB.
>