Hi,
Fr?d?ric VANNIERE wrote: > Hello, > > I will use this thread to report my experiences with Automated Installer, get > help and explain my whishes. > > My project is, for now, to have sort of xVM appliances based on OpenSolaris > 2010.02 (svn_123) with a minimal installation and custom configuration. > > The test installation is from a Virtualbox instance with Linux as > PXE/DHCP/mirror/manifest server. I've written a small python server for > serving the manifests. > > 1/ The install process should not start if "entire" is not in the package > list. For me, "entire" was the entire OpenSolaris distribution (with gnome, > firefox ...) so I've removed it and the install process was broken at the end. > "entire" is an incorporation, which means its 'sub-packages' aren't strict dependencies. Rather, it's used so that when upgrading between builds (e.g. from build 118 to 124), all packages are updated at the same time. What that means, is that 'entire' is necessary - but firefox, gnome, etc., are not. > 2/ If there is a wrong package name in ai_install_packages, the AI process > stops with the errror "pkg missing". It would be better to give the package > name that is missing. > I think I've heard this one before (or seen it myself) and I agree. I thought there was a bug for it, but I couldn't find it when searching. Unless someone speaks up pointing to one, could you file one on it? > 3/ I really don't understand why the web browser's home page is configured > via the installer and force us to install the firefox package (bug 5558), > there is a simple fix but a clean solution would be to configure the home > page in Firefox's post-install scripts. "post-install" scripts don't really exist for IPS packages, though it could define a one-off SMF instance. A cleaner solution might be to provide better control over whether or not to run some/all ICTs via the DC manifest. > > > 4/ I don't want to use multicast DNS for service detection, this should be > optional. > I'll let someone else answer this as I don't know enough of the details here. > 5/ The most anoying part is the lack of post-install scripts for custom > configuration. I will have to set-up an IPS repository, create and publish a > PWKpost-install package that will configure the system when installed. > Install it at the end of the AI process and then remove the package. It's > quite an ugly solution. > The lack of post-install (at the pkg level) is by design from IPS. However, you might want to look at the recently published doc[1] on potential methods for system customization as part of the installer. [1]http://opensolaris.org/os/project/caiman/auto_install/system_config_design.txt > 6/ I'd love a rescue mode based on AI with an SSH server (already done) I can > boot from network to repair a broken installation. > This is captured in http://defect.opensolaris.org/bz/show_bug.cgi?id=10879 (which lists some short term hacks for accomplishing this in the mean time) > More to come later, I still didn't manage to get a working custom install > from AI. > This is good feedback! Be sure to file bugs (or add comments to existing bugs) as you come across things. Thanks, Keith > Regards, > > Fr?d?ric V. >
