[SATLUG] RE: Decision-based ISOs

[Thomas King]

>
>Perhaps Knoppix may have something to offer here.  I see a few problems
>with it but you may find it interesting.
>
>To create a custom Knoppix distro you:
>A) Copy the root filesystem from the CD to a place on your hard drive.
>B)  chroot into that new directory tree.
>C)  Use the Debian tools (apt, aptitude, whatever...) to
>add/remove/upgrade packages
>D)  Exit the chroot environment and
>E)  Run the scripts to create the ISO image from the directory tree.
>
>I think that it would be possible to do this in an automated fashion as
>long as you don't have any problems during C or E.
>Regards,
>Greg

That sounds like what I'm thinking of, but for the user it is all done 
outside of the local environment. Whether the scripting merely pulls in the 
packages from the server or uses Debian tools, that would have to be up to 
the person who puts it together. Sounds like it'd work, though.

Guess the question now remains why would I want to do this. Granted, 
something like this would mean going beyond simply serving up ISOs from a 
server since it would require processing beyond normal FTP. Beyond it being 
impratical because of the server cost and the labor required to write the 
scripting (I have no experience in scripting) and refining the process, this 
is simply an idea to bring more choice and a different way of distributing 
GNU/Linux. Why not go to an established distro? heh, ask that of the 
hundreds of upstarts you can find on distrowatch and probably the answer was 
they were either not happy with what choice they had or they simply wanted 
to do it.

Perhaps this is best pursued in an academic setting so it won't be bound by 
normal business concerns since there are free resources that can be used 
then struck when the experiment is over. If the SAC learning lab can set up 
a cluster just to learn how, I might be naive in thinking this could be done 
for the same reason. :)

Thanks for the input. Now to learn how. heh
Tom

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