Hello Simon, On 12/03/2025 10:31, Simon Josefsson wrote:
Roland Clobus <rclo...@rclobus.nl> writes:I can help you to get started.
Hi Roland. Thank you! What is the relationship between the netinst images and the live images? These seems to be prepared by different tools and teams?
Indeed. The netinst images are generated by different tools, IIRC the debian-cd project in Salsa is responsible for that. The live images are generated by live-build (and triggered by live-setup)
I'm mostly interested in reproducing my own netinst images (preferably in a GitLab pipeline) but if debian-live images are significantly easier to build than netinst images, or has other nicer properties (reproducible?) then that could work too. The live images contain a debian-installer too, right?
The live images are reproducible, I don't know the status for the netinst images. However, the installer on the live image is slightly different from the installer on the netinst image. The d-i on the live image copies the content of the live system minus some live-specific packages to the HD, whereas the d-i on the netinst image installs from scratch (and offers you during the installation the option to select your desktop environment, whereas you have made that selection already by the choice of the live ISO).
Or you can use '--debian-installer netinst' (functionality currently untested) to get a d-i similar to the netinst image.
I worry that the live images are larger than the netinst images, and for me it helps to focus on the smallest thing that address my needs (in the hope that this is easier to get working than a larger thing).
The 'standard' image is a text-only image. If you don't care about full i18n/l10n support, you could block the recommended package 'live-task-localisation'. Or start with the 'smallest-build' image, which contains only the default packages.
Since the current pipeline limit for Salsa is 250MB (as mentioned somewhere in this thread), you'll have a really tough job going that low.
You can get some inspiration from the manual: https://live-team.pages.debian.net/live-manual/html/live-manual/examples.en.html#869
However, it is the quality assurance and the user support part that is most of the work. We have nearly reached the level of quality assurance, that it would be possible to reverse the order the images are handled. At this moment the images are 1) generated, 2) published, 3) tested. In some (nearish) future, the order would be 1) generated, 2) tested, 3) published. Even though openQA [2] helps in automating some tests, there is a lot of test coverage missing (and computing power as well).Yeah, I can fully sympathize with QA concerns.
:-) With kind regards, Roland
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