* Erik Dykema <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> [2004-03-03 19:35]:
| Hi-
| I think it would be very useful to support installing onto NFS | volumes.
| At my site we operate these big netapp NFS file servers (filers). | They have no intelligence except to serve NFS volumes, i.e. there is no | real 'os' on them.
| If we could support installing TO an NFS root, we could use diskless | workstations & servers that would install to their own volume on the | filers. Then, the filer takes care of stuff like redundancy.
| This might also help for a situation where the NFS master server is | one architecture (i386) and the machine you want to install 'to' is | different, i.e. powerpc / mainframe.
| Also, I think that it would be very useful if DI supported | installing FROM an NFS volume. Using an NFS volume is more flexible for | testers than the initrd.gz files. If the kernel supported NFS root, could | just mount it's root directory & init & etc, it would be possible to tinker | with a running installer system, add drivers as needed, etc. without | having to re-make the initrd.gz file, which is not easy.
ok. I know what you mean. Bringing nfs support to d-i shouldn't be very hard. But you must create your own installation medium, I guess.
First you must modify the existing d-i kernel to support nfs filesystems (in client mode). Next you must create udebs for the portmap package and the nfs client tools. Maybe you need also a small udeb, which ask the user for the nfs mounting parameters (server, port, etc.). And then you must mount the nfs volume into /target. (this udeb must provide mounted-partitions). After this d-i should be able to install to an nfs volume.
Create the udebs, and d-i will support it :-)
Hi-
Sounds like a plan, I'd like to start. Where can I find the documentation that tells me what a "udeb" is and how to make one? Also is the API, or however I would interact with d-i to ask the user questions, documented somewhere?
thanks, Erik
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