[Etherboot-developers] Moving ltsroot out of /tftpboot

[Jim M. <ja...@mc...>]

Hello all,

I sent this posting to several lists, because I think this
is important, and I want to get comments from as many people
as possible.

I want to move the location of the ltsroot directory.
I've been talking on and off about this for many months now,
and it's finally time to do it, before the next release of ltsp.

Currently, it exists in /tftpboot/lts, and I just really think
that is not the correct place for it.

I thought it would be a simple matter of sending mail to the
FHS (File Hierarchy Standards) guys, and ask them where it should
reside, but they don't have a place for it.


As part of this directory renaming task, I'm also going to
begin planning for other (non intel) architectures.

That is, PowerPC, StrongArm and whatever other CPUs are being
used in workstations.

I've had suggestions of many locations, but nobody could really
put their finger on one perfect location.

Here are some of the suggestions:

  /var/lts
  /var/opt/lts
  /var/local/lts
  /var/lib
  /var/lib/lts
  /usr/lib
  /usr/lib/lts
  /data
  /export
  /public
  /srv
  /sys

A few people on the FHS mailing list told me that there was work
towards putting things like the files that Apache serves into
"/srv/www" or "/srv/http".

I think that would also be a reasonable place for the ltsp files to 
reside.

So, I'm strongly considering putting the root directories into
"/srv/ltsp".

The basic structure would be:

    /srv/ltsp/root_i386     standard x86 based workstations
    /srv/ltsp/root_i686     workstations with PII, PIII and Celerons
    /srv/ltsp/root_ppc      workstations with PowerPC cpus
    /srv/ltsp/root_arm      workstations with StrongArm cpus


Initially, I'll have the root_i386, which would be useable by all
of the X86 compatible workstations. Then, we'll add root_i686, which
would
include the binaries and libraries optimized for the better processors.

Also, with help from some of you, we'll have packages for ppc, strongarm
and
other alternative cpus.

Also, in the plans are support for the --relocate option to RPM.  this
way, people can put the root directories anywhere they want.
I'm hoping there is a similar option for .deb packages.


So, any comments?

If so, please send them to me pronto.  I'd like to put a 2.09pre2
package together really soon, so people can test the directory move,
and other new features like:

     Kernels with NFS swap built-in
     2.4 kernels
     devfs
     XFree86-4
     Better support for Local apps

I'd like to get the 2.09-final out before Linux World at the end of
this month.

Thanks,

Jim McQuillan
ja...@Lt...