Re: [Devil-linux-develop] Update in boot process.

[Bruce S. <bw...@ar...>]

> Congratulations on becoming a core developer.

Thanks!

> The optional boot process can take a lot of turns all of which, except yours,
> dilute security and make DL dependent on some external source.
> 
> The method I created in my eLSD version of DL simply finds no floppy and boots
> w/o it requiring manual configuration manual input.

That is the next project I'm going to work on (manual configuration).

My plan is to start out with something fairly simple, to get it working
ASAP.  Later on we can enhance it, add functionality, pretty it up, etc.

My goal is to make DL usable by someone who does not know much about
Linux (as a firewall, for home or SOHO).

I'm not talking about the old guy down the street who has never touched
a computer in his life (at least not to start with).  My original target
audience is is someone who is computer savvy, but hasn't used Linux.

With that in mind, I'm trying to create a script that a Windows admin
can use to configure Linux with a few simple instructions, without
actually knowing Linux.  (he won't need to know VI, config file formats,
or command line usage - other than typing my script name)

> The most important part of the boot process is configuring the network card. 
> To do this successfully, the PCI ether recognition process will have to be as
> sophisticated as Knoppix.

That's going to be the toughest part of my script.

Currently I have a script written that will edit the two files:
/etc/sysconfig/[software,config]   It's not fancy, but it works.
A lot of Q&A, like the kernel "make config".

Speaking of my scripts, is it permissible to post them to this mailing
list for people to comment on, or should I upload them somewhere
(where?), and post a URL?  They are small, but I know some lists strip
attachments, and/or they are not permitted.  (I'm still new here :)

> Knoppix uses Anaconda where the detection subset is Libhardware.  The question
> is, "where should this happen in the boot process?"  All the ethernet modules
> will have to be in the distro in such a place that the boot kernel can find
> them.

Do you have something working now, that I can use?

- BS