Knoppix

[djgoku]

On Fri, 13 Aug 2004 10:49:40 -0500, Chris Bier <chris.bier at cymor.com> wrote:
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> Brian Kelsay wrote:
> |>>>"Brian Densmore" <DensmoreB at ctbsonline.com> 08/12/04 01:22PM >>>
> |>>
> |>>-----Original Message-----
> |>>From: Brian Kelsay
> |>>
> |>>An online LiveCD builder would be sweet.  I think I heard
> |>> some guys were working on something like this.  I've seen a
> |>> couple of websites that build a custom firewall floppy.  If
> |>> you had a full Debian mirror available and have the web app
> |>>add the selected programs to a group that is in turn fed to
> |>> cloop to compress and then fed to mkisofs, then have it save
> |>> to a new directory that has your name from the online form,
> |>> then email you when it was done with the path to the new iso.
> |>>Any of you programmers want to take this on?
> |>>Could Java do this?  I think so.  Or a php or python script.
> |>> Making the user interface would probably be the hardest part.
> |
> |
> |>I've got a few ideas on this. I was thinking, of building a page where
> |>users select several types of things. Like:
> |>+----- Desktop ----------------------+
> |>| [] I want a lightweight desktop   |
> |>| [] I want a fullblown desktop      |
> |>| [] I want no desktop                   |
> |>+--------------------------------------+
> |>etc.
> |>
> |>Then I could have a couple of premade iso directories and also some
> |>"package groups" of certain apps. Then when the user has selected
> |>all of the families they want I could add to the basic iso with the custom
> |>apps. I'm not sure you can actually add to an iso or not. But then
> |>you could have a small group of premade iso's and rather quickly build
> |>complete isos. Of course, you would also want to have an "expert let me
> |>pick everything" option. Which of course you'd want to build a drop down
> |>list based on standard categories (net,core,multimedia,X,etc.)
> |
> |
> | In a script, you will most likely not want unpack and repack an iso
> image (too much time and CPU).   I like the idea of the  base images
> (that's what Morphix does).  Now you would want the list of apps in
> those premade iso files to be editable by the user choice portion of the
> program and build the iso from scratch.  This would help to build the
> iso from the latest version of each app in the repository, unless you
> wanted the packages to stay frozen for some reason.  Each category would
> add preselected packages to the list and then the user expert mode would
> edit the final list.  I wonder if dependencies would still be met in
> this fashion.  You will probably want to tie in to dpkg or apt with your
> script.  Look at how the current Debian Net installer works.  It doesn't
> build an ISO on the fly, but allows the lang. choice and package choice.
>   maybe you just need to add the ISO creation to the end of that rather
> than have it install to HDD and remove their GUI front-end for a w!
> |  eb-based one.  Or tie-in to theirs with the web front-end if
> possible.   The Progeny kickstart project might be another avenue.  They
> have been altering the Redhat mass installer to work w/ .debs and a
> Debian system.  Kickstart is basically scripting for repetitive,
> duplicate installs.
>
> This could be an interesting project for the LUG.  However, we might
> consider just making a nice script interface that people can use (a la
> jigdo, but easier to use) that will build the iso on their machine.
> Building it and downloading it from the server would eat a lot of
> resources and bandwidth.
>
> Chris
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I wouldn't mind trying to help on a project like that. I don't have
much to contribute to a interface, but would be willing to learn.

Thanks,

--
dj_goku
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