Hello, all
Before installing Debian, I would like to know if the following
is possible, and suggest it to the developers if not.
Finding out the exact minimum set of applications one need takes
long time, and no two sets will be equal. Installation, on the
other hand, should go as fast and smooth as possible.
What I see available today is either a boring, non stoppable manual
selection during install, or several days of tweaking afterwards
before the machine is customized as you want.
For this reason, I would like to create a custom list of all and
only the deb packages I need completely BEFORE installation, using
some CGI frontend. In other words, I would like to say to this program:
I want the Gimp, Koffice, Window Maker, bash, gcc, perl, apache,
gnuplot....
and it should sort out all the dependencies, i.e. find the minimum
set of packages needed, including libraries and such, tell the disk
space needed and allow list editing.
When the list is ready, I would save it on a floppy, and the
installation program should only ask me to put the floppy in.
Again, this web based thing should be APPLICATION centric, and maintain
state between sessions, i.e. allow me to interrupt, study some more
HOWTOs,
and complete/edit the list hours or days after.
At this point, let it allow HW selection also, i.e. let's have
it ask which graphic/sound/modem/network cards you have and include
only the necessary files/drivers to use them.
What do you think? Is it doable?
It would be possible to create 2.2 CDs with this feature included?
Ciao,
Marco Fioretti
