Hi Nick! On Tue, Sep 28, 2021 at 12:47:11PM +0200, Cyril Brulebois wrote: >Hi nick, > >[ cc += debian-boot@ ] > >nick black <dankamong...@gmail.com> (2021-09-27): >> Marc Haber left as an exercise for the reader: >> > But maybe an alternative? I find the partitioning step one of the >> > most error-prone and hard-to-use parts of non-trivial Debian >> > installations. >> >> so overall, i've got to say the feedback i heard here was a lot more >> positive than i was expecting, though there was a bit less than i had >> hoped for. but perhaps something that can be touched would see more >> interest? > >FWIW I've followed the answers to your mail over the last few days, >but I haven't had a chance to look at either the video or the slides >(only 4 days before your initial mail and the one I'm replying to…).
Amen to that! >At first glance, it seems fine to be experimenting with a different >partitioner; of course all people are somewhere on the love/hate >spectrum regarding partman and the zillions of partman-* packages, but >it's indeed a shell maze and it *probably* could use some heavy lifting. >I keep hoping that simple use cases are made simple(r)… maybe growlight >could help there (e.g. “I'd like soft RAID1 with encrypted LVM, all that >with a UEFI boot — therefore ESP —, without being a storage wizard”). ACK. I've done a *bit* of hacking around partman over the last few years - it's heavy going and probably the least well understood part of d-i... :-/ >I suppose some step (once you've experimented on a growlight-only >d-i) would be to have both partman and growlight, and let people >choose (maybe with a flag at boot time, or by entering expert mode or >whatever), until we have a better idea what works, what doesn't, what >can be fixed, what cannot, and until a decision is made for the next >Debian stable release. > >Leaving the technical integration aside for a moment, one question >that comes to mind is whether this would be a one-shot contribution or >some kind of longer commitment to maintain that different partitioner. >I seem to remember earlier attempts at revamping the partitioning >step, which stalled eventually. > >(Your recent mail to debian-newmaint@ is a hint; your apparent >steadiness of those packages maintenance-wise is another; and your >apparent interest in adding support to possibly missing features yet >another.) > >Of course, one might object that the question is moot as there isn't >much active development on partman components (even if some patches have >been submitted over the last few days), but at least that's a known >(imperfect, but…) beast. Nod! >> given that no one seemed to reject the idea out of hand, i'm going to >> go ahead and rebase my work from 2012 (or more likely look at it once >> and redo it) in a Salsa fork of d-i, and make some installation media >> available. forgive me for likely only having x86 available at first. >> i'll try to have this done within a week or so, and put it up on my >> server. people can then give it a whirl. > >Feel free to touch base with debian-boot@ and/or debian-cd@ once you >have a working proof of concept that some people have toyed with; we can >discuss how the “alternative” part could be implemented (different >images, or both partitioners ship together, with some option/selection — >people might remember GRUB vs. LILO). I cannot guarantee a timely answer >(life tends to keep me busy), but you shouldn't see a lack of answer >after just a few days as if people were not interested. 100% true - expect people are busy, rather than hostile! :-) -- Steve McIntyre, Cambridge, UK. st...@einval.com Google-bait: https://www.debian.org/CD/free-linux-cd Debian does NOT ship free CDs. Please do NOT contact the mailing lists asking us to send them to you.
