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#1 2006-01-10 02:32:21

aegean_linux
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Registered: 2006-01-10
Posts: 16
Website

Arch Installer written in Perl

Hi Y'all!

I would just like to ask for your thoughts on what you think of the following screen shots::

screen1.png
^^ This is what comes up when you type in startinstall

screen2.png
^^ It asks if you accept the terms of the GPL (You can press UP && Down to see the whole license)

screen3.png
^^ Progress Bar that shows the percentage of the current task

screen4.png
^^ If you dont accept the GPL, your not allowed to install!

At the moment the Installer only exists as perl script that makes windows, progress bars and checkboxes, but I hope that by next week I will have some sort of Installer working.

Tell me what you think:

- Tim

(YAY! my first post! tongue)


<b>AegeanLinux</b> aka ALi.
Version 0.5-rc1
http://www.aegeanlinux.be
http://svn.aegeanlinux.be:81

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#2 2006-01-10 04:59:02

deficite
Member
From: Augusta, GA
Registered: 2005-06-02
Posts: 693

Re: Arch Installer written in Perl

I think unless you state your purposes on forking nobody is going to know precisely WHAT to think based on some screenshots of an installer you're working on. What are you doing with your fork that is so much different than Arch that it deserves a fork? I was thinking about forking a while ago and then realized that I could accomplish everything I wanted to with Arch.

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#3 2006-01-10 05:24:56

aegean_linux
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Registered: 2006-01-10
Posts: 16
Website

Re: Arch Installer written in Perl

I am not forking.

Why should I fork!

Arch is the best and I think that everyone (including me) that is here in this forum knows this.

My Purpose for this installer, however is because for this project, that is for __WORK__ (ie, this version of Arch is for internal use, for servers).

I am not forking per say, I am extending Arch to do for __me__ and what the company wants Arch to do, slapping on an (possible better, possible worse) installer.

And my whole post was all about showing the fact, that because this distrobution, which is for private use only, is bassed 100% fully on Arch Linux, that everything, including the installer I am writting, can be used for Arch itself.

And I was asking what people thought they like / don't like about the few screen shots I have up now, so that I can improve this to benifit both: Me, for my own private use (as this will be installed on >50 servers), and for others.

Arch is a good distrobution, and by forking, you only have the possibility of splitting up a work force.

ie, if I do fork, There will only be one person working on the distrobution.

I would not call this a fork, as what I said earlier, it uses Arch. I would more call it an 'scriptable installer, that can be used to create a script of packages, and choose how to install them'.

Please note:: This is not a fork!!

I would hate to send this POV over to other people.

As they say, necessity is the mother of invention.

And I am sort of said to say that the current installer, although alot of things are possible, is real crap and we can (as a community) do alot of better things to extend this.

All This is an install script. Nothing else.

It still need Arch Linux. (ie pacman etc).

- Tim


<b>AegeanLinux</b> aka ALi.
Version 0.5-rc1
http://www.aegeanlinux.be
http://svn.aegeanlinux.be:81

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#4 2006-01-10 06:33:39

paranoos
Member
From: thornhill.on.ca
Registered: 2004-07-22
Posts: 442

Re: Arch Installer written in Perl

i realize it's just an installer script, i got that from your first post.

however, i don't think writing a nice installer script constitutes making a new name for a distribution.

you are, of course, entitled to do as you wish. you're allowed to copy slackware and start calling it something else. even if you don't add or change anything at all. it may not be "fair", or a "good idea", but you're free to do it.

my personal opinion and suggestion is to simply call the installer script "Aegean", and acknowledge it as an alternative Arch Linux installer ... just like archbootstrap is a user-contributed Arch Linux installer.

in short, Aegean is a software, an installer script, and not a distro of its own, so it should be named as such.

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#5 2006-01-10 06:39:52

paranoos
Member
From: thornhill.on.ca
Registered: 2004-07-22
Posts: 442

Re: Arch Installer written in Perl

by the way, to return to the topic at hand ...

the screenshots look nice, it's a rather clean looking installer. but you haven't shown what sort of options the installer provides... for instance, any sort of customization for hard drive partitioning.

i for one am partial to the type of installer that assumes you've created your hard drive partitons, have mounted them, and would simply like to extract a basic, working system onto your hard drive, similar to the quickinstall script on the CD. the type of installer i descriped doesn't need any sort of fancy interface.

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#6 2006-01-10 09:46:04

tomk
Forum Fellow
From: Ireland
Registered: 2004-07-21
Posts: 9,839

Re: Arch Installer written in Perl

No particular opinion to offer on your install script, but if you think like this:

aegean_linux wrote:

And I am sort of said to say that the current installer, although alot of things are possible, is real crap and we can (as a community) do alot of better things to extend this.

why not make some suggestions here?

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#7 2006-01-10 10:31:18

aegean_linux
Member
Registered: 2006-01-10
Posts: 16
Website

Re: Arch Installer written in Perl

tomk wrote:

why not make some suggestions here?

website wrote:

Sorry, but only users granted special access can post topics in this forum.


<b>AegeanLinux</b> aka ALi.
Version 0.5-rc1
http://www.aegeanlinux.be
http://svn.aegeanlinux.be:81

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#8 2006-01-10 11:15:13

tomk
Forum Fellow
From: Ireland
Registered: 2004-07-21
Posts: 9,839

Re: Arch Installer written in Perl

OK - sorry about that. Let me check it out. :?

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#9 2006-01-10 13:02:22

rasat
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From: Finland, working in Romania
Registered: 2002-12-27
Posts: 2,293
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Re: Arch Installer written in Perl

aegean_linux wrote:

My Purpose for this installer, however is because for this project, that is for __WORK__ (ie, this version of Arch is for internal use, for servers).

The very moment anyone extend a name with the word "linux" (e.g. Aegean Linux) and the content is Arch Linux or another distro, it becomes a fork. To avoid the issue, call it instead something like "Aegean Installer". Its acceptable, same as there is "Archie Live CD".

If someone wants to fork, then its not appropriate to use the native distro's package repo. In open source community there is noting stopping in using others repo. But in principal it goes against the common sense when taking an advantage of other developers' hard work and the person him/herself having an easy time in the distribution. If there is a mutual agreement, that's fine.


Markku

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#10 2006-01-10 16:41:11

Dusty
Schwag Merchant
From: Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada
Registered: 2004-01-18
Posts: 5,986
Website

Re: Arch Installer written in Perl

rasat wrote:

The very moment anyone extend a name with the word "linux" (e.g. Aegean Linux) and the content is Arch Linux or another distro, it becomes a fork.

Hardly, Rasat. A fork is the moment takes the existing code and starts modifying it to create a brand new system with no intent of merging their changes into the existing system (actually, some forks ARE made with the intent of merging them). 'Linux' is just a word. Its trademarked and has a meaning, but that meaning is NOT 'distict'.


If someone wants to fork, then its not appropriate to use the native distro's package repo. In open source community there is noting stopping in using others repo. But in principal it goes against the common sense when taking an advantage of other developers' hard work and the person him/herself having an easy time in the distribution. If there is a mutual agreement, that's fine.

That's mostly bullshit. Look at all the distros that use debian's repos unmodified. What's the point in redoing all the work one developer has done if they have provided it already? The goal in open source is to make things better, not to compete.

There is some merit to your argument, however, in that it is not really polite to use, for example, Judd's resources -- his bandwidth especially is limited. I agree that in the best case some arrangement should be made, but it is not required.

All this is moot in the current context. I'm not sure why everyone is attacking this poor guy, I think its great he's trying to do an improved installer. The screens look nice, though we have nothing else to go on. If the installer is better than the existing one when he is finished, maybe it will even get incorporated into the next Arch release, making things better for everybody. Here he is trying to contribute something to the Arch community and a bunch of people try to accuse him of taking away from it. Where is the justice in this? :-)

Dusty

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#11 2006-01-10 16:50:51

arooaroo
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From: London, UK
Registered: 2005-01-13
Posts: 1,268
Website

Re: Arch Installer written in Perl

I have a feeling that the use of Perl could be an issue. It means that Perl must be available in the initial boot environment. I assume that the devs will not be too chuffed about anything so 'bulky'. It doesn't bother me, btw.

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#12 2006-01-10 22:46:16

tomk
Forum Fellow
From: Ireland
Registered: 2004-07-21
Posts: 9,839

Re: Arch Installer written in Perl

tomk wrote:

OK - sorry about that. Let me check it out. :?

As per this thread, please try again, making sure that you are logged in, and that you select Post Reply, not New Topic.

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#13 2006-01-12 05:27:13

aegean_linux
Member
Registered: 2006-01-10
Posts: 16
Website

Re: Arch Installer written in Perl

arooaroo wrote:

I have a feeling that the use of Perl could be an issue. It means that Perl must be available in the initial boot environment. I assume that the devs will not be too chuffed about anything so 'bulky'. It doesn't bother me, btw.

Yes, but don't forget, Perl already is on the CD! (/arch/pkg/perl-5.8.7-1.pkg.tar.gz)

It should not be that hard to extract the .tar.gz into memory so that you can use Perl from the Arch live CD? Right?

I am not sure if this is possible, but if Debian, Ubuntu, Gentoo and nearly every other LiveCD can do it, then why can't we?

Just a thought.

Also, I have another installer screenshot:
screen5.png

Umm, Is there any other /dev/ entries that I need to add incase that a user has something other than IDE or ATA? Or should I just create another option for ""other"" that the user can type in his /dev/hda/ type location his own?

Thank,

- Tim


<b>AegeanLinux</b> aka ALi.
Version 0.5-rc1
http://www.aegeanlinux.be
http://svn.aegeanlinux.be:81

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#14 2006-01-12 06:00:57

Dusty
Schwag Merchant
From: Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada
Registered: 2004-01-18
Posts: 5,986
Website

Re: Arch Installer written in Perl

Your best bet would be to scan the hardware somehow (don't ask me how) to get the list of drives available.

My drives are /dev/sda and /dev/sdb for two sata drives.

Dusty

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#15 2006-01-12 06:03:32

aegean_linux
Member
Registered: 2006-01-10
Posts: 16
Website

Re: Arch Installer written in Perl

Dusty wrote:

Your best bet would be to scan the hardware somehow (don't ask me how) to get the list of drives available.

My drives are /dev/sda and /dev/sdb for two sata drives.

Dusty

Thanks for that info Dusty!


<b>AegeanLinux</b> aka ALi.
Version 0.5-rc1
http://www.aegeanlinux.be
http://svn.aegeanlinux.be:81

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#16 2006-01-12 18:53:13

stavrosg
Member
From: Rhodes, Greece
Registered: 2005-05-01
Posts: 330
Website

Re: Arch Installer written in Perl

You can concider using /proc/partitions or something similar maybe?

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#17 2006-01-12 19:12:01

Jefg60
Member
From: UK
Registered: 2006-01-07
Posts: 100

Re: Arch Installer written in Perl

dont hardcode the list. I have /dev/hda, /dev/hde and /dev/hdg in my server (4 IDE channels) - who knows what else anyone else has?

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#18 2006-03-12 04:52:33

Zepp88
Member
Registered: 2006-03-12
Posts: 2

Re: Arch Installer written in Perl

agean_linux, I'm really interested in your installer script, could you give us an update on your progress? I realize it is for your personal use, but if you could make it available to others that would be wonderful, An installer like this is all I'm missing from arch, I want to be able to start the install and walk away and set it up how I like it every time, but sadly I don't grasp programming very well, lol

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#19 2006-03-27 23:02:12

pressh
Developer/TU
From: Netherlands
Registered: 2005-08-14
Posts: 1,719

Re: Arch Installer written in Perl

I just came across this Aegean stuff on the net, looks like they are releasing it to the public after all.
Not sure what to think about it though, as there is about no information on their website: http://www.p2pman.info/

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