There *are*, I believe, ways to cheat, aren't there? (I haven't been employed by the BIG TLA for some years... but I'm also not gonna whisper the name that used to get my hands smacked by a ruler.) By using an emulator of some kind to run your environment on a PC (or get that less-than-approved-name emulator working on a Raspberry Pi... hmmm???)...
You can always set up a PC running a native (not naive) Linux (obviously requiring oodles of DASD) somewhere within the corporate network that can act as a "local" repository for all of the needed Ubuntu .deb files and use it... (And then you'll find plenty of others wanting to siphon from your repository.) Now on to a more philosophical bent (and, yes, at my job I occasionally use "Senior Systems Engineer and Stand-Up Philosopher" in my signature block): Building vs Cloning: Cloning is an example of expediency and is (ahem) less than repeatable (unless the build process on the "Golden Master" is fully automated... though keeping the descendants of this cloned master up-to-date can be a bit of a challenge. Building each system, even if fully automagic, can be well-documented as a process, thus fulfilling ISO-9000 and CMMI while also ensuring any generated keys (for SSL/SSH/whatnot) get generated anew... and full connectivity to repositories is assured on a per-system basis. Mind you, if your organization is understaffed enough to force a more "reactive" (rather than proactive and "process aware") stance, cloning may be required in order to satisfy the need for expedient turnaround. -soup On Wed, May 11, 2016 at 7:13 AM, Michael MacIsaac <[email protected]> wrote: > Hello linux-390 list, > > I'm working on an Ubuntu on z paper, and have an observation and a couple > of questions. > > The observation: The other day I was trying to get my new Raspberry Pi 3 > going (in case I don't get enough of computers at work I can now play with > them at home :)). I've been impressed with Ubuntu on z so I chose that > option for RPi3. The next day I needed to find where Ubuntu on z could be > downloaded for the paper. I followed a link and saw the Raspberry Pi 3 > download. I had a deja-vu moment and assumed I was on the wrong Web page. > But of course I wasn't. The s390x kernel was right there at the bottom of > the list. Then I thought "Wow the same system that runs on a $40 > system-on-a-board also runs on a million dollar mainframe!" It would seem > that's pretty much the entire spectrum. And to think Linus Torvalds > initially wrote the Linux kernel with the thought that it would only ever > run on his i386. > > Now to the questions. > > 1) There is an issue where some organizations do not allow mainframe access > to the Internet, nor by proxy server. I had the first issue, but was > eventually able to get proxy access. The install ISO image has a small > subset of the packages necessary, but many more are needed and appear to > only be on the Internet. My question is: "Will there be additional ISO > image(s) available so organizations can create a local repo?" Or, is there > a documented process for pulling a mirror so as to create a local repo? > I'd like to document something along these lines. > > 2) In the "Clone vs. Build" debate, I have always gravitated to the Clone > side - that is - Install a Linux, customize it, then shut it down and call > it the "golden image" from which to copy. Others argue that building is > better, a la Kickstart and Autoyast, in that you then have an observable > set of steps at how you arrived at Linux systems. I understand both sides. > I've already documented one simple cloning approach. My question is - has > anyone done Kickstart on zUbuntu, and if so, could you share some details? > If so, I could add it to the paper. Either on-list or off is fine. > > Thanks all. > > -Mike MacIsaac > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For LINUX-390 subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO LINUX-390 or > visit > http://www.marist.edu/htbin/wlvindex?LINUX-390 > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For more information on Linux on System z, visit > http://wiki.linuxvm.org/ > -- John R. Campbell Speaker to Machines souperb at gmail dot com MacOS X proved it was easier to make Unix user-friendly than to fix Windows "It doesn't matter how well-crafted a system is to eliminate errors; Regardless of any and all checks and balances in place, all systems will fail because, somewhere, there is meat in the loop." - me ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For LINUX-390 subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO LINUX-390 or visit http://www.marist.edu/htbin/wlvindex?LINUX-390 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For more information on Linux on System z, visit http://wiki.linuxvm.org/
