RE: [coLinux-devel] Installing regular distribution CDs

[Nir P. <ni...@em...>]

Hi,

Well, if you meant the patch from the mail titled "Invalid argument zeroing
block?", it does NOT solve the problem.

Nir


-----Original Message-----
From: Pat Erley [mailto:pat...@dr...] 
Sent: Tuesday, February 17, 2004 12:32
To: Nir Perry
Cc: col...@li...
Subject: Re: [coLinux-devel] Installing regular distribution CDs


On Tue, 17 Feb 2004 12:01:35 +0200
Nir Perry <ni...@em...> wrote:

> *** fdisk won't work
> fdisk can't get and/or modify a partition table. Since we don't really
have
> a real disk, we don't have a partition table fdisk can use. I think this
> will cause the installer of most distributions to fail. Not sure yet how
> coLinux can be extended to support this...

I believe this was fixed in a patch recently posted...
 
> *** /proc/partitions is empty
> Probably caused by the same point of lack-of-support as the previous item
> (fdisk).
> The installer tries to check which partitions of type "Linux" (83) are
> available for installation. Normally, such a partition is created by the
> "fdisk" stage.

probably fixed by above patch.

> *** ISO unsupported
> As noted before, we can't boot from CD. This is annoying, as we have to
copy
> the content to a disk image, and boot it using some sort of a "root-disk"
> (floppy installer, etc.).
> Being able to boot from CD is a must if we want coLinux to support
> installation CDs as they are without modification.

you'll have to get the people who write those CDs to add coLinux support to
the kernels on the CDs first. (the kernel included with colinux has special
patches included to enable the fake network, the fake PIC, etc.

> *** /dev/cobd0 is not supported as an installation target
> It is possible that most installers would agree to install on /dev/hdXX or
> /dev/sdXX (or similar), but would not agree to use /dev/cobdX. Can't
really
> blame them as it is not a standard device name.
> I'm not sure what is the best way to solve this, but maybe if we could
fake
> a "/dev/hda1" it would be easiest.

same as above (cobd driver this time) or perhaps you could create a sym
link.  also, perhaps a devfs layer solution would work.

> *** Unavailable kernel modules
> Most installations come with a kernel+modules of its own. Now we use a
> different kernel, so the distribution can't use its own modules. Usually
it
> will just give some errors that we can ignore, but maybe we can put the
> coLinux compiled modules on the installed system after installation.

putting the modules on the system isn't too unreasonable.  I could bundle a
zip of them with any kernel I compile.
 
> *** coLinux console
> The console needs some improvement to make installation easier. While
> testing it, I saw that the text dialogs are not painted fully (where it is
> just plain color, you could see the older text), and the direction keys
> didn't work (left, right,...). Should be an easy one. Note that it is not
a
> very big problem - you can install with it, but it is visually messy.
> Btw, having a frame-buffer support for the console (maybe vesa compatible)
> could be great - for graphic installers, but that would be too much work.

words have been mentioned for a vesafb style driver but until other 'bigger'
problems are solved, that seems pretty low on the pole.

ok, new my turn for a sanity check answer.

The major problem currently with trying to install another distro inside of
colinux (less of a hack...) is that colinux is not natively supported by the
kernel, and from what I've seen, a kernel tree patched for colinux may or
may not be safe for a non-colinux kernel.  

This means that systems will either have to include some way to detect
colinux (not too dificult, from what I've seen) and boot the kernel as such,
or provide a boot floppy image to setup an environment for their iso.

Now, asking say, redhat, to support it now, while it's not stableized is
just not rational.  this is why isos are provided that are preinstalled for
your experiences (the gentoo one is broken, expect a fixed one in the next
day or two).  It allows the experience without some of the big problems
currently encountered.

Hope This Helps.
Pat Erley
(some of this might not be 100% perfect, but it's all close enough)