JNode installer

Hi,
I think that JNode should have at least a minimal installation:
boot-loader, kernel and modules, drivers for the hardware detected, base libraries (including TCP/IP and NIC support), and init scripts. And the Shell (local and if possible remote, like SSH).
And a Text Editor, like NANO. And a Web Download command, like WGET.
Then the the other minimal management tools, for:
hardware detection and configuration, NIC, disk, user, logger, scheduler.
But what is really important is the Installer Service which is the Tool that retrieves the various packages for the system and install/update/remove them, so any other packages could be installed later (having an Internet connection or having the mirrored in the Live-CD).
The Graphics GUI could be an optional part, but please without dozen of unvanted Games (found in many Linuxes ...) or older Demos.
Only after this the other parts ...

Again, I think that other OS (Gentoo Linux, FreeBSD etc) should inspire us. Fedora Linux is interesting (GUI setup very easy, etc) but in my opinion has a problem: a normal installation (with X11 and related tools) is about 1 / 1.5 GB with a lot of unvoided packages.

Take a look at the Gentoo Linux/x86 Handbook (fully manually) is difficult, but contains all that is really needed to install a Minimal System. Remember that less Software installed means less bugs in the entire System ... as FreeBSD tell us.

All this could be another kernel to load in the JNode Live-CD (installer or something similar). And at the moment all this process could be hand-maded except for the kernel and the base libraries.
In a later Stage we can think to have the Installer from the Live-CD with GUI ... mhhh but so wouldn't it be better to have the same installer (Console-based) with a GUI-Mode ? With Charva is it possible ? SuSE Linux has something similar (YAST2) but one version works in Console mode and another in GUI, with two different programs to mantain ... I'm sure that JNode could be better also in this.

What do you think ?

Bye,
Sandro

Hi,

I believe that JNode should only have an installer for the most basic part of the OS, namely the bootloader & the kernel. After that, no installer should be needed. It should just figure out stuff for itself and ask the users for anything it needs. So this should be in de code, not in an installer.

For applications, we should really avoid having installers. A good packaging system with dynamic retrieval (maybe caching on local system) is much better, because that way we can avoid the installer troubles found today on OS's like windows, linux, ...

So it should be install free, except for the kernel which cannot be done in any other way. For that, let's use grub on x86 machines.

Ewout

Hi,

The Ant target for NT bootloader can be a starting point for this.

OK, it's not a very usefull/'easy to use' installer for an end user : not easily configurable, no GUI interface.

For other windows (95/98), I think we need to do some things to modify the boot menu but don't see exactly what to do.

For Linux, we can probably use/modify the LILO boot menu in combination with the grub menu.

For the GUI, what about using an installer like these ones :
- IzPack
- VAInstall
- and what about a JNLP/Webstart installer with lopica (I have just discovered it on sf)

Fabien