[arch-dev-public] ArchISO FTP Installer - Testers Needed
Hey everyone, I'd like to begin testing some preliminary work with the arch livecd system. You can find a livecd rigged up to work as an ftp installer at: http://dev.archlinux.org/~simo/archiso_tests/arch-ftp-live-1206519468.iso This ISO consists of our current installer scripts and a functioning arch livecd containing most of the base package set. It uses the grub boot loader, which is likely to be changed to isolinux in the near future. At this point, it's an i686-only thing, but an x86_64 version will be coming soon. If you've got some time to kill, please give the iso a whirl. You'll find the installer and its documentation in its usual home at /arch/ on the livecd system. It'd be nice to have this tested on a large variety of systems if possible. **I need feedback on the following regarding ISO bootup** - Did the grub loader work as expected? - Did it pick up and load the module for your network hardware? - Did it pick up and load the modules for your disk controllers? - Any kernel panics, freezes, that sort of ugly stuff. Please keep in mind that this is not intended to be production quality at this point, and it's a very early version, so there are still a lot of sharp edges that need to be smoothed out. Thanks for your help, -Simo offtopic: archiso_tests also contains a hacky xfce4 livecd image you might want to play around with, although it's a little oldy moldy.
2008/3/26, Simo Leone
Hey everyone,
I'd like to begin testing some preliminary work with the arch livecd system. You can find a livecd rigged up to work as an ftp installer at: http://dev.archlinux.org/~simo/archiso_tests/arch-ftp-live-1206519468.iso
I'll be able to test in vmware only.
This ISO consists of our current installer scripts and a functioning arch livecd containing most of the base package set.
Will the next release include the same package set as in tpowa's ISO? -- Roman Kyrylych (Роман Кирилич)
Wednesday 26 March 2008, Simo Leone wrote: | I'd like to begin testing some preliminary work with the arch | livecd system. You can find a livecd rigged up to work as an ftp | installer at: | http://dev.archlinux.org/~simo/archiso_tests/arch-ftp-live-1206519 |468.iso i'll give it a try in qemu on x86_64 | This ISO consists of our current installer scripts and a | functioning arch livecd containing most of the base package set. | It uses the grub boot loader, which is likely to be changed to | isolinux in the near future. At this point, it's an i686-only | thing, but an x86_64 version will be coming soon. | | If you've got some time to kill, please give the iso a whirl. | You'll find the installer and its documentation in its usual home | at /arch/ on the livecd system. It'd be nice to have this tested | on a large variety of systems if possible. i have a no-optical-drive laptop (non-macs are not able to boot from firewire cdroms) and usually i prepare a image to put on a memory-stick to boot from [1]. since this setting (no cdrom) are getting more common and having a live-linux-system on a usb-key is getting interesting i'm wondering if we should provide also a partition image[2] for such use? - D [1] : as described here: http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Lenovo_Thinkpad_x61t_SXGA+#No_optical_dr... [2] : partition image that can be directly written to a device e.g. with dd -- .·´¯`·.¸.·´¯`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸.·´¯`·.¸.·´¯`·.¸.·´¯`·.¸¸.·´ ° ° ° ° ° ° ><((((º> ° ° ° ° ° <º)))>< <º)))><
On Wed, Mar 26, 2008 at 11:28:58AM +0100, Damir Perisa wrote:
i have a no-optical-drive laptop (non-macs are not able to boot from firewire cdroms) and usually i prepare a image to put on a memory-stick to boot from [1]. since this setting (no cdrom) are getting more common and having a live-linux-system on a usb-key is getting interesting i'm wondering if we should provide also a partition image[2] for such use?
There's a little bit of code for it that Aaron wrote, but it's something very close to 100% untested at this point. It's definitely something to start offering at some point. -S
On Wed, Mar 26, 2008 at 5:21 PM, Simo Leone
On Wed, Mar 26, 2008 at 11:28:58AM +0100, Damir Perisa wrote:
i have a no-optical-drive laptop (non-macs are not able to boot from firewire cdroms) and usually i prepare a image to put on a memory-stick to boot from [1]. since this setting (no cdrom) are getting more common and having a live-linux-system on a usb-key is getting interesting i'm wondering if we should provide also a partition image[2] for such use?
There's a little bit of code for it that Aaron wrote, but it's something very close to 100% untested at this point. It's definitely something to start offering at some point.
Yeah, take a peek at the difference in the "boot-cd" and "boot-usb" hooks. It should be very straightforward, it's just a matter of finding the proper usb device that we booted from.
Simo Leone wrote:
If you've got some time to kill, please give the iso a whirl. You'll find the installer and its documentation in its usual home at /arch/ on the livecd system. It'd be nice to have this tested on a large variety of systems if possible.
I had some time to kill and a system to reinstall :)
**I need feedback on the following regarding ISO bootup** - Did the grub loader work as expected?
yes
- Did it pick up and load the module for your network hardware?
It even loaded two, but well sadly, it didn't work twice better, I was so disappointed. No seriously, there are both the iwl3945 and ipw3945 drivers available for that chipset, and both modules seemed to be loaded. In dmesg, I only saw the iwl3945 which failed to initialize because of missing firmware. Looking at /lib/firmware, it seems the ipw firmware was there, but not the iwl one. I simply added the iwl firmware, removed both modules and reloaded iwl3945 and it all worked well. I have a preference for iwl because it's included in the kernel and removes the need of that crappy daemon, but many people have big troubles with it. Maybe one of them should still be disabled by default. Anyway, it's not a big deal, and it's very easy to fix, but since you asked :)
- Did it pick up and load the modules for your disk controllers?
yes
- Any kernel panics, freezes, that sort of ugly stuff.
Nothing that ugly.
Please keep in mind that this is not intended to be production quality at this point, and it's a very early version, so there are still a lot of sharp edges that need to be smoothed out.
Well I found it rather amazing for a very early version.
Sorry for this being 2 weeks late, but better late then never.
**I need feedback on the following regarding ISO bootup** - Did the grub loader work as expected?
System 1: Old Dell PowerEdge 350. Won't even boot the CD. Bios says "Invalid boot device" or similar. System 2: Newer Asus P4 2.8ghz with DVD Burner. Boots to a grub> prompt. So far I'm 0 for 2, but haven't really tried it on any truly decent hardware. Dale
On Fri, 2008-04-11 at 19:34 -0400, Dale Blount wrote:
Sorry for this being 2 weeks late, but better late then never.
**I need feedback on the following regarding ISO bootup** - Did the grub loader work as expected?
System 1: Old Dell PowerEdge 350. Won't even boot the CD. Bios says "Invalid boot device" or similar. System 2: Newer Asus P4 2.8ghz with DVD Burner. Boots to a grub> prompt.
So far I'm 0 for 2, but haven't really tried it on any truly decent hardware.
I think I spoke too soon. I toasted to a different brand CDR and it worked fine on both boxes. Very smooth indeed! Good work guys. The only not-currently-documented problem I saw that I can't find the source to tell if it's fixed or not is where it tells you that ftp.archlinux.org is throttled and to pick "an other" mirror instead of "another" mirror. If that's the worse flaw we have, we're in good shape :) Dale
On Fri, Apr 11, 2008 at 08:27:13PM -0400, Dale Blount wrote:
On Fri, 2008-04-11 at 19:34 -0400, Dale Blount wrote:
Sorry for this being 2 weeks late, but better late then never.
**I need feedback on the following regarding ISO bootup** - Did the grub loader work as expected?
System 1: Old Dell PowerEdge 350. Won't even boot the CD. Bios says "Invalid boot device" or similar. System 2: Newer Asus P4 2.8ghz with DVD Burner. Boots to a grub> prompt.
So far I'm 0 for 2, but haven't really tried it on any truly decent hardware.
I think I spoke too soon. I toasted to a different brand CDR and it worked fine on both boxes. Very smooth indeed! Good work guys.
The only not-currently-documented problem I saw that I can't find the source to tell if it's fixed or not is where it tells you that ftp.archlinux.org is throttled and to pick "an other" mirror instead of "another" mirror. If that's the worse flaw we have, we're in good shape :)
I think the rest of it needs a good reading over as well. *adds to todo list* -S
participants (6)
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Aaron Griffin
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Dale Blount
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Damir Perisa
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Roman Kyrylych
-
Simo Leone
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Xavier