Michael Fox wrote:
I've also thought about this, idea is to plug a flash into a customers machine and say "there you go", now just format your hard-drive.Guys,
Anyone had experience in producing a linux system that would run from compact flash (say 128mb or 256mb compact flash card) that we could use to say make a machine as a fileserver with samba, webmin etc...
I know we have similar stuff around that makes a system a firewall like smoothwall etc, but I was thinking it might be nice to make a system that runs from compact flash that would allow you to boot from and then format some drives to be used as samba storage. Or even raid 0,1 those drives etc..
Maybe with time we could code in some nice web pages to manage minus webmin, but who knows.. I just want to do something with a machine and thought this would be a good idea.
Anyone got pointers to read or want to help.
I think to setup a system to run from flash is quite easy.
I would start by installing a minimum debian on a disk, adding just the things I want, and then dd that partition to the flash, then just boot from flash.
I started playing with it but really didnt like the performace of a flash, it writes like a rocket when it starts and then slows down badly, when it starts getting full.
Also read somewhere that a flash does have limited read writes, its a big number but I think if something like the swap and cache in on a flash it wont take too long to hit those limits.
Now all of a sudden it has to start getting really clever. So it must boot as a safe system, if it detects a formatted disk it must move working files to it, and then there is the question of hardware detection and kernel rebuilding. To get it to work on identicle machines is one thing, but to now get smart enough to detect the right network card, on board sound etc, its hard work, starting to build another distribution.
Even then, if you a machine supplier, it may be possible to do this, ie boot from a safe kernel on a flash, detect the harddrive, format it and build a kernel on it, then reboot and "say there you go".
I researched a little, but so far it seems to be Linux's best kept secret. The key to this whole thing is hardware detection and rebuilding a kernel.
The rebuilding a kernel I think is easy, especially if you supply the machines and you know its going to be say one of 3 network cards.
But the hardware detection process itself is a mystery to me. I havnt found one good article on how a distribution automates that process.
I think yes it can be a good idea, but I think the flash must be a "safe kernel" which builds a kernel on the machines hard-drive, figure out how to do the hardware detection, and its going to be very nice.
Walk into a customer, plug a flash in, reboot, wait a while, say "now your server is cool... invoice is in the mail".
What dreams are made of.
Just finding a little utility to detect hardware and build the kernel automatically, thats what I think it comes down to.
I think to cater for anything a customer may want, the answer is wait for flash to get larger, just stick debian or whatever on it.
But to cater for a specific thing like Samba servers or Mail servers, on machines you supply... be very nice, and easy, once hardware detection is out the way.
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