Interview with Adam Di Carlo (Debian Boot)

robstah writes: "The installer is the heart of any Operating System, Debian is no different. The mature but ageing boot-floppies installer will rear its head for the last time in woody. In this interview with Adam Di Carlo, one of the lead developers of this system we investigate the past, present and future of the Debian installation system ready for the upcoming release of woody: The next generation of Debian."

The heart of any operating system?

[Bobo_the_Chimp]

Although it's a necessary component, it's a stretch to call it the heart.

What I'd like to see is more install source options... perhaps the capability to mount Windows shares via smbmount to access the CDROM.

Re:The heart of any operating system?

[reverius]

I wonder what the heart of Linux From Scratch [sourceforge.net] is?

The "scratch", maybe?

Unless... could it be... Linux!?

Policies essential, installer incidental

[Euphonious Coward]

The installer is incidental. Debian users run it once, and never again.

What makes the difference in a distro is the set of policies and procedures that make the distro something recognizable. If those are comprehensive, enforced, and automated enough, it becomes possible to trust the distro from release to release.

The infrastructure of the Debian distro has flowered as the "apt-get" tool and its related GUI applications (gnome-apt, aptitude, deity). Apt-get makes a Debian system far easier to maintain, and keep up to date and secure, than any other. Debian policies and package tools make it possible to use safely. Apt-get without all the infrastructure beneath would be too dangerous to trust.

For more detail on the topic, see the Advogato posting [advogato.org].

Boot Floppies aren't "aging"!

[wowbagger]

Installers that work by using a boot floppy to access a network image of the install are still one of the best ways to install systems in a large environment:

1) You don't have to configure the machine to boot from CD, then remember to turn that back off in the BIOS when you are done.

2) HTTP or NFS access across a 10Base-T is about equal to a 10 spin CD-ROM - across a 100Base-t its faster than all but the most top of the line DVDROM drives.

3) Start one install, as soon as the machine boots remove floppy, insert into next machine, and repeat.

Don't get me wrong - I like CD installs for single machine environments. But I ALWAYS have the latest copy of RedHat exported from my server in the basement - makes it a lot easier when rolling a firewall/scratch machine/whatever.

The "heart"?

[uid8472]

OK, then: the heart of my new NetBSD system would be tar(1), because that's about as close as I got to an installer while setting it up.

Really useful feature to add

[billcopc]

What I'd really like to see in a new installer is the ability to actually install the thing from a serial port. I always find myself hauling around a spare monitor from box to box when rebuilding my 3 boxen. It would be quite nice to remotely control them all from my desktop with a standard terminal emulator, just like I do with the big iron at work.