On 06/05/2017, Nicholas D Steeves <nstee...@gmail.com> wrote: > I would recommend the second of the following options: > > 1. Install using the non-free media with "Advanced options" -> "Expert > install" > 2. Install using the non-free media, then cleanup [...] > > It's faster than an "Advanced > options" -> "Expert install", where I believe it is also possible to > install a system which pulls uniquely from main and contrib.
Thank you for reminding me of the existence of the "Expert install" option in the Debian Installer! :) My understanding of this feature request (#861263) is that it would be satisfied when a Debian Installer exists in which: the user can install Debian by simply click through the ncurses interface pretty much as usual, but in addition to the current guided[1] and manual[2] partitioning options, the user would have the option to select guided or manual partitioning with ZFS. Ideally, that would also include the option for encrypted ZFS using either a LUKS container or native ZFS encryption.[3] So, between your two options, I think the "Expert install" would probably be a better fit for resolving this feature request. However, although "Expert install" would be appropriate, it might not be necessary to use an unofficial installer. See below. On 05/05/2017, Ben Hutchings <b...@decadent.org.uk> wrote: > On Fri, 2017-05-05 at 14:26 +0100, Sam Kuper wrote: >> If the Debian Installer were instead to ship with, or to download at >> runtime, the ZFS on Linux source code, would that be acceptable from a >> licensing standpoint? > > I imagine this would be acceptable (though not in the default > installer, which only uses and installs packages from main). > > [...] there is already an (officially unofficial) installer that > includes non-free firmware. I have just run an *official* Jessie NetInst CD, using "Expert install" mode. Fairly late in the process, there is a step titled "Configure the package manager".[4] This step asks the user if they want software from "non-free" and/or "contrib" to be available to the system. So, it seems that there is no need in principle to use an unofficial installer just to be presented with the option to enable "contrib". One piece of work that would need to be done to the Debian Installer to enable it to download, compile and run ZFS before partitioning the HDD/SSD, is for the "Configure the package manager" step to be moved to an earlier point in the installation process. Let me explain. In my Jessie NetInst CD, the "Configure the package manager" step occurs *after* the Debian Installer has partitioned the drive and installed Debian to it: too late to make a difference, from the perspective of enabling ZFS root! I would suggest that the "Configure the package manager" step should be placed immediately *before* the "Detect disks" step. This means the "Configure the package manager" step would have to be modified. Rather than straight away writing to /etc/apt/sources.list and handing over to the following step (as it currently seems to do), it would instead: - record the user's selections to memory; - enable guided and manual ZFS options to become available in the "Partition disks" step (but only if the user chose to enable "contrib"); and - write the user's selections to /etc/apt/sources.list *after* the target drive has been formatted and populated. Additionally, of course, the Debian Installer would need to have code incorporated to perform the download-compile-run steps for ZFS. I can see that these are not trivial changes, but I also can see no reason in principle why they should not be made to the Debian Installer at some point during the Stretch lifecycle. Even if they end up taking many months to bring up to release quality, they would be very valuable additions to the Debian Installer. I would be very grateful if the "wontfix" label could be removed from this feature request. Thanks again to both of you; and Ben, I really did mean no offence to you by mentioning Moglen. I'm sorry if that came across as supercilious. I really was just trying to explain the basis of my understanding. [1] https://www.debian.org/releases/stable/amd64/ch06s03.html.en#partman-auto [2] https://www.debian.org/releases/stable/amd64/ch06s03.html.en#partman-manual [3] AFAIK, native ZFS encryption with Linux is not stable enough to make sense for a stable distribution. Until it is, ZFS-on-LUKS seems to be the best substitute. [4] https://www.debian.org/releases/stable/amd64/ch06s03.html.en#apt-setup