Hello Arch devs and users, here is my holidays present for you: AIF alpha-0.6 ! * Changes since alpha 0.5: - fully reworked disk subsystem - support for lvm and dm_crypt - Autoprepare looks exactly the same (ui-wise) - Manual mode UI is entirely reworked and has a general editor (see screens) - Unified, more flexible/reusable backend code for partitioning, making filesystems and mounting them. Uses structured file formats for defining partitions and filesystems - Rollback functionality: when something failed while processing, or user changes his mind afterwards, you can do a rollback (things like umount, lvremove etc are done automatically in the correct order) and start over/retry - fully decoupled UI (dia/cli): - there are now generic, transparent functions for asking dates,numbers,strings,checklist,.. etc with an implementation in both ncurses (dialog) and cli. - all code now uses these functions, making the codebase much cleaner. (look at the code for autoprepare for instance) - with a simple command line flag you can toggle between running the program in cli or dialog mode. - support for commandline args - /arch/aif -p interactive -d # runs the interactive profile with debugging enabled - /arch/aif -p interactive -i cli # runs the interactive profile in CLI mode. - updated howto for using AUR packages - replaced all refs to previous name (fifa) to aif. - enabled date/time setting - a massive amount of bugfixes - a lot of code cleanups * Screenshots - AIF manual filesystems, here showing a setup with /dev/sda3 containing a dm_crypt, containing /, and /dev/sda3 containing an LVM setup with 1 LV for /home http://users.edpnet.be/dieter/aif/aif-alpha_0.6-disks-overview-dia.png - Processing the filesystems. The installer automatically reorders everything http://users.edpnet.be/dieter/aif/aif-alpha_0.6-disks-processing-dia.png - a CLI shot where the partitions/filesystems of the autoprepare just have been processed http://users.edpnet.be/dieter/aif/aif-alpha_0.6-autoprepare_processed-cli.pn... * Usability I tested the installer personally in virtualbox in different scenarios (ftp & cdrom based, autoprepare, manually with normal disk layout,/ on lvm, dm_crypt,.. ), and all produced working installations. Although I often need to fix bugs after testing a specific scenario, I don't re-test all scenarios each time. YMMV Note that the installer doesn't automatically add the lvm2/encrypt modules to mkinitcpio yet, and doesn't add the right string for lvm/dm_crypt in grubs menu.lst yet. There are some known issues (which are not critical, just avoid them or live with them). Here are the biggest ones (for more, see TODO) - don't remove lvm LV's if you have more then one in one lvm VG. So think before you create :-) - make the correct devicemapper devices directly because they are not cleaned up correctly if you remove them again - keyboard and timezone settings from installer don't go into target systems config - long selections (eg packages) are very cumbersome to do in CLI mode. - rollback of dm_crypt partitions doesn't work yet * How? http://github.com/Dieterbe/aif/tree/master/HOWTO Use package aif-git from AUR. Even though I tag releases in git, I don't build packages for them. I now use the master branch as "stable" branch where I pull in code from the experimental branch after it has been tested. So the master branch (package aif-git) always contains the latest, stable code. Use "/arch/aif -p interactive -d" (the interactive procedure is the port of /arch/setup) Have fun, Dieter
Dieter Plaetinck wrote:
There are some known issues (which are not critical, just avoid them or live with them). Here are the biggest ones (for more, see TODO) - don't remove lvm LV's if you have more then one in one lvm VG. So think before you create :-) - make the correct devicemapper devices directly because they are not cleaned up correctly if you remove them again - keyboard and timezone settings from installer don't go into target systems config - long selections (eg packages) are very cumbersome to do in CLI mode. - rollback of dm_crypt partitions doesn't work yet forgot to mention: I hope to be able to resolve (most of) these issues before Xmas
Dieter Plaetinck wrote:
Dieter Plaetinck wrote:
There are some known issues (which are not critical, just avoid them or live with them). Here are the biggest ones (for more, see TODO) - don't remove lvm LV's if you have more then one in one lvm VG. So think before you create :-) fixed - make the correct devicemapper devices directly because they are not cleaned up correctly if you remove them again fixed - keyboard and timezone settings from installer don't go into target systems config low prio - long selections (eg packages) are very cumbersome to do in CLI mode. low prio - rollback of dm_crypt partitions doesn't work yet fixed forgot to mention: I hope to be able to resolve (most of) these issues before Xmas
Have fun! Dieter
Does this mean we can furtunately have a new release ISO at the end of this year? Thanks for your hard work. On Wed, Dec 17, 2008 at 4:48 PM, Dieter Plaetinck <dieter@plaetinck.be> wrote:
Dieter Plaetinck wrote:
Dieter Plaetinck wrote:
There are some known issues (which are not critical, just avoid them or live with them). Here are the biggest ones (for more, see TODO) - don't remove lvm LV's if you have more then one in one lvm VG. So think before you create :-)
fixed
- make the correct devicemapper devices directly because they are not cleaned up correctly if you remove them again
fixed
- keyboard and timezone settings from installer don't go into target systems config
low prio
- long selections (eg packages) are very cumbersome to do in CLI mode.
low prio
- rollback of dm_crypt partitions doesn't work yet
fixed
forgot to mention: I hope to be able to resolve (most of) these issues before Xmas
Have fun! Dieter
甘露(Gan Lu) wrote:
Does this mean we can furtunately have a new release ISO at the end of this year? Thanks for your hard work.
The presence of the iso will be depending on the rewrite of the iso scripts that Aaron is doing, release testing and maybe other factors ( See http://archlinux.org/pipermail/arch-general/2008-December/002969.html ) AIF is just a little bonus (it will be included as alternative, experimental installer) You're welcome, it has been a lot of hard work indeed, but it's fun :) Dieter
Am Mittwoch 17 Dezember 2008 schrieb Dieter Plaetinck:
甘露(Gan Lu) wrote:
Does this mean we can furtunately have a new release ISO at the end of this year? Thanks for your hard work.
The presence of the iso will be depending on the rewrite of the iso scripts that Aaron is doing, release testing and maybe other factors ( See http://archlinux.org/pipermail/arch-general/2008-December/002969.html ) AIF is just a little bonus (it will be included as alternative, experimental installer)
You're welcome, it has been a lot of hard work indeed, but it's fun :) Dieter
If you cannot wait you can use the archboot iso, here: ftp://ftp.archlinux.org/iso/archboot/2008.12/ or your favorite mirror. Note this is just a demonstration of the archboot scripts and not an official iso. greetings tpowa -- Tobias Powalowski Archlinux Developer & Package Maintainer (tpowa) http://www.archlinux.org tpowa@archlinux.org
On Mittwoch, 17. Dezember 2008 11:47 Tobias Powalowski wrote:
Note this is just a demonstration of the archboot scripts and not an official iso.
This ISO works fine because yesterday i've done with it a fresh install on the new pc of my girlfriend. Very nice that the most config files get automatic their values as at example. The only "little" thing is that the MODULES array of the mkinitcpio.conf don't get automatic the filesystem what i have choosed in the partition part. But this be a great work and thanks for it. See you, Attila
participants (4)
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Attila
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Dieter Plaetinck
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Tobias Powalowski
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甘露(Gan Lu)