[gentoo-dev] Gentoo Linux preinstalled

[gentoo-dev] Gentoo Linux preinstalled

[Stefan Schweizer]

Hi,

I want to preinstall Gentoo Linux on some devices for customers. Do
you have any tips for preinstallation, any scripts? What is the
correct prcedure of doing so?
Anyone knows of something like a "sysprep" script for linux that will
ask the costumer for user  and passwort setup when he first switches
on the PC?

On the technical side what I am currently doing is taking a normal
setup, cleaning up distfiles, /usr/src, /tmp, /home, creating a new
usser without any files of my own ;)
cleaning out all my passwords of /etc.
partimageing the partition, and dd'ing grub and sfdisking the partition table.
Then playing back the images on the HDs I want to put into the devices later.

Regards,
Stefan

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[gentoo-dev] Re: Gentoo Linux preinstalled

[Duncan]

Stefan Schweizer posted
<e79639220510131433u5bf59b36r8be28c93ab576c01@mail.gmail.com>, excerpted
below,  on Thu, 13 Oct 2005 23:33:57 +0200:

> I want to preinstall Gentoo Linux on some devices for customers. Do
> you have any tips for preinstallation, any scripts? What is the
> correct prcedure of doing so?
> Anyone knows of something like a "sysprep" script for linux that will
> ask the costumer for user  and passwort setup when he first switches
> on the PC?
> 
> On the technical side what I am currently doing is taking a normal
> setup, cleaning up distfiles, /usr/src, /tmp, /home, creating a new
> usser without any files of my own ;)
> cleaning out all my passwords of /etc.
> partimageing the partition, and dd'ing grub and sfdisking the partition table.
> Then playing back the images on the HDs I want to put into the devices later.

This is what the catalyst application does -- allow one to make their own
customized LiveCD installers*, just like Gentoo does with each periodic
snapshot release. The ebuild is in portage, and there's a catalyst
specific mailing list, should you have any questions.

---

* Presumably, they don't have to be CDs or CD images, but I've never used
it personally and haven't chanced to see that specifically stated in
threads such as this that I've come across, so can't say for sure.

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman in
http://www.linuxdevcenter.com/pub/a/linux/2004/12/22/rms_interview.html


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Re: [gentoo-dev] Gentoo Linux preinstalled

[notopic.hppa]

On Thu, 13 Oct 2005 23:33:57 +0200
Stefan Schweizer <genstef@gentoo.org> wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> I want to preinstall Gentoo Linux on some devices for customers. Do
> you have any tips for preinstallation, any scripts? What is the
> correct prcedure of doing so?
> Anyone knows of something like a "sysprep" script for linux that will
> ask the costumer for user  and passwort setup when he first switches
> on the PC?

what kind of hardware and his goal ?
what kind of users ?
here are the most important questions. For me, it will be a must to create
a "stage4" (stage3+all apps need). Do a normal install with all the currents
apps used or will be used by the customer and tar.bz2 it ;)

> 
> On the technical side what I am currently doing is taking a normal
> setup, cleaning up distfiles, /usr/src, /tmp, /home, creating a new
> usser without any files of my own ;)
> cleaning out all my passwords of /etc.
> partimageing the partition, and dd'ing grub and sfdisking the partition table.
> Then playing back the images on the HDs I want to put into the devices later.
> 
> Regards,
> Stefan
> 
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Re: [gentoo-dev] Re: Gentoo Linux preinstalled

[Alexander Simonov]

What about mass instalation Gentoo?
Now it's how i know impossible, it's get more time.
Any one know technology for mass instalation Gentoo?
W/ NFS,HTTP or FTP instalation.
W/ X server, KDE or Gnome ?
W/ Office packages?
How i know RH and SuSE have this.
Thank you for ansver.


On Fri, 14.10.2005 10:12, Duncan wrote:
> Stefan Schweizer posted
> <e79639220510131433u5bf59b36r8be28c93ab576c01@mail.gmail.com>, excerpted
> below,  on Thu, 13 Oct 2005 23:33:57 +0200:
>
>> I want to preinstall Gentoo Linux on some devices for customers. Do
>> you have any tips for preinstallation, any scripts? What is the
>> correct prcedure of doing so?
>> Anyone knows of something like a "sysprep" script for linux that will
>> ask the costumer for user  and passwort setup when he first switches
>> on the PC?
>>

> This is what the catalyst application does -- allow one to make their own
> customized LiveCD installers*, just like Gentoo does with each periodic
> snapshot release. The ebuild is in portage, and there's a catalyst
> specific mailing list, should you have any questions.
>
> ---
>
> * Presumably, they don't have to be CDs or CD images, but I've never used
> it personally and haven't chanced to see that specifically stated in
> threads such as this that I've come across, so can't say for sure.
>

--
  WBR, Alexander Simonov
  Ukrainian Gentoo Community Coordinator

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Re: [gentoo-dev] Re: Gentoo Linux preinstalled

[Preston Cody]

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The Gentoo Installer will be able to do mass installations very soon using a
secure XMLRPC server and nice web interface and all that jazz.
http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/releng/installer/
you can grab experimental livecds with the installer on them from the
mirrors.
-Codeman

On 10/14/05, Alexander Simonov <devil@gentoo.org.ua> wrote:
>
>
> What about mass instalation Gentoo?
> Now it's how i know impossible, it's get more time.
> Any one know technology for mass instalation Gentoo?
> W/ NFS,HTTP or FTP instalation.
> W/ X server, KDE or Gnome ?
> W/ Office packages?
> How i know RH and SuSE have this.
> Thank you for ansver.
>
>
> On Fri, 14.10.2005 10:12, Duncan wrote:
> > Stefan Schweizer posted
> > <e79639220510131433u5bf59b36r8be28c93ab576c01@mail.gmail.com>, excerpted
> > below, on Thu, 13 Oct 2005 23:33:57 +0200:
> >
> >> I want to preinstall Gentoo Linux on some devices for customers. Do
> >> you have any tips for preinstallation, any scripts? What is the
> >> correct prcedure of doing so?
> >> Anyone knows of something like a "sysprep" script for linux that will
> >> ask the costumer for user and passwort setup when he first switches
> >> on the PC?
> >>
>
> > This is what the catalyst application does -- allow one to make their
> own
> > customized LiveCD installers*, just like Gentoo does with each periodic
> > snapshot release. The ebuild is in portage, and there's a catalyst
> > specific mailing list, should you have any questions.
> >
> > ---
> >
> > * Presumably, they don't have to be CDs or CD images, but I've never
> used
> > it personally and haven't chanced to see that specifically stated in
> > threads such as this that I've come across, so can't say for sure.
> >
>
> --
> WBR, Alexander Simonov
> Ukrainian Gentoo Community Coordinator
>
> --
> gentoo-dev@gentoo.org mailing list
>
>

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Re: [gentoo-dev] Gentoo Linux preinstalled

[Shuduo Sang]

I want to know is there any way to install a gentoo to an embedded system?
For example, ipaq. Because those samll devices do not have enough effort to
build a system from stage1.  But it still need a portage-like way to upgrade
packages.

2005/10/14, Stefan Schweizer <genstef@gentoo.org>:
> Hi,
>
> I want to preinstall Gentoo Linux on some devices for customers. Do
> you have any tips for preinstallation, any scripts? What is the
> correct prcedure of doing so?
> Anyone knows of something like a "sysprep" script for linux that will
> ask the costumer for user  and passwort setup when he first switches
> on the PC?
>
> On the technical side what I am currently doing is taking a normal
> setup, cleaning up distfiles, /usr/src, /tmp, /home, creating a new
> usser without any files of my own ;)
> cleaning out all my passwords of /etc.
> partimageing the partition, and dd'ing grub and sfdisking the partition table.
> Then playing back the images on the HDs I want to put into the devices later.
>
> Regards,
> Stefan
>
> --
> gentoo-dev@gentoo.org mailing list
>
>

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Re: [gentoo-dev] Gentoo Linux preinstalled

[Corvus Corax]

Am Mon, 17 Oct 2005 15:06:29 +0800
schrieb Shuduo Sang <sangshuduo@gmail.com>:

> I want to know is there any way to install a gentoo to an embedded system?
> For example, ipaq. Because those samll devices do not have enough effort to
> build a system from stage1.  But it still need a portage-like way to upgrade
> packages.
> 

Well it should be possible with a network mounted data storage big enough to
compile everything on it, and hold the space consuming /usr/portage/* tree
shouldnt it?
 
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Re: [gentoo-dev] Re: Gentoo Linux preinstalled

[Stefan Schweizer]

On 10/14/05, Duncan <1i5t5.duncan@cox.net> wrote:
> Stefan Schweizer posted
> <e79639220510131433u5bf59b36r8be28c93ab576c01@mail.gmail.com>, excerpted
> below,  on Thu, 13 Oct 2005 23:33:57 +0200:
> > [..]
> > Anyone knows of something like a "sysprep" script for linux that will
> > ask the costumer for user  and passwort setup when he first switches
> > on the PC?
> > [...]
> This is what the catalyst application does -- allow one to make their own
> customized LiveCD installers*, just like Gentoo does with each periodic
> snapshot release. The ebuild is in portage, and there's a catalyst
> specific mailing list, should you have any questions.
[..]

Well, catalyst is not really good for that because I need something
that I can constantly upgrade without recompiling everything .. that
is a live system for me at the moment.
And LiveCD installers is nice, but what I need is a Sysprep-Installer
like when someone turns on his windows PC the first time, where you
can setuo hostname/user/password and maybe network.
Is anything like that available for Linux?

Regards,
Stefan

-- 
gentoo-dev@gentoo.org mailing list

Re: [gentoo-dev] Gentoo Linux preinstalled

[Chris Gianelloni]

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On Mon, 2005-10-17 at 15:06 +0800, Shuduo Sang wrote:
> I want to know is there any way to install a gentoo to an embedded system?
> For example, ipaq. Because those samll devices do not have enough effort to
> build a system from stage1.  But it still need a portage-like way to upgrade
> packages.

Considering there is a "Gentoo Embedded" project that has been releasing
stages, I would say yes.  In fact, they have stages for several
architectures available.  Check out /experimental/$arch/embedded/stages
on a local mirror that mirrors /experimental.

One thing to remember is that these stages are complete stage3, just
using uclibc, so there may still be packages that you do not require for
your end system.

-- 
Chris Gianelloni
Release Engineering - Strategic Lead
x86 Architecture Team
Games - Developer
Gentoo Linux

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Re: [gentoo-dev] Re: Gentoo Linux preinstalled

[Chris Gianelloni]

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On Mon, 2005-10-17 at 12:53 +0200, Stefan Schweizer wrote:
> Well, catalyst is not really good for that because I need something
> that I can constantly upgrade without recompiling everything .. that
> is a live system for me at the moment.

Because there isn't any way to cache packages in catalyst to keep from
having to recompile everything...

> And LiveCD installers is nice, but what I need is a Sysprep-Installer
> like when someone turns on his windows PC the first time, where you
> can setuo hostname/user/password and maybe network.

Simple enough.  This could be done with a small shell script.

> Is anything like that available for Linux?

Sure.  Write one.  It isn't like you're asking for anything complex.  It
needs to ask the user what?  User name, password, and time zone?

Heck, you could take a note from catalyst/release media and have the
system auto-login as root using bashlogin via inittab at first boot.
Then have the system run a shell script as root.  The shell script could
adjust the files (inittab and root's .bashrc) back to their original
state, along with asking the user for their "adminstrator" password, a
username for their normal user, that user's password, and the time zone.

Most of what sysprep does is completely irrelevant for a Linux
installation, as it clears out the hardware configurations in the
registry and prepares the system for detecting the hardware on boot.  It
also allows for the setting of passwords and such.  Even with sysprep,
you end up writing your own scripts for any customized software.

(Used to be a Windows admin... scary, huh?)

-- 
Chris Gianelloni
Release Engineering - Strategic Lead
x86 Architecture Team
Games - Developer
Gentoo Linux

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Re: [gentoo-dev] Re: Gentoo Linux preinstalled

[Peter Gordon]

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On Mon, 2005-10-17 at 12:53 +0200, Stefan Schweizer wrote:
> And LiveCD installers is nice, but what I need is a Sysprep-Installer
> like when someone turns on his windows PC the first time, where you
> can setuo hostname/user/password and maybe network.
> Is anything like that available for Linux?

Fedora has something called firstboot[1]. Perhaps, with some alterations
and tweaking, that it could help you?

[1] http://tinyurl.com/b898t
-- 
~ Peter Gordon ~
GnuPG Public Key ID: 0x87C59026



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Re: [gentoo-dev] Gentoo Linux preinstalled

[Shuduo Sang]

2005/10/17, Chris Gianelloni <wolf31o2@gentoo.org>:
> On Mon, 2005-10-17 at 15:06 +0800, Shuduo Sang wrote:
> > I want to know is there any way to install a gentoo to an embedded system?
> > For example, ipaq. Because those samll devices do not have enough effort to
> > build a system from stage1.  But it still need a portage-like way to upgrade
> > packages.
>
> Considering there is a "Gentoo Embedded" project that has been releasing
> stages, I would say yes.  In fact, they have stages for several
> architectures available.  Check out /experimental/$arch/embedded/stages
> on a local mirror that mirrors /experimental.
>
> One thing to remember is that these stages are complete stage3, just
> using uclibc, so there may still be packages that you do not require for
> your end system.
>

I did not find out the document of gentoo-embedded.
I'd like to customize my system. from desktop to embedded device.
I think most small devices  would not support a big disk now. So I just
wanna install some packages I need. And update them on my demand.
So I think portage is a good way if it already meet my requirement.

> --
> Chris Gianelloni
> Release Engineering - Strategic Lead
> x86 Architecture Team
> Games - Developer
> Gentoo Linux
>
>
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