One of the biggest improvements I'd like to see in the installer in
general, including the netboot installer, is the ability to easily install
a newer version than the ISO was created for. I know it can be done
manually with debootstrap, and such, but being able to "self-update" the
entire installation process to a newer version would mean being able to
keep using the CD for a long period of time, instead of only getting a
single use out of it in many cases.



On Mon, Mar 21, 2016 at 10:09 PM Boruch Baum <boruch_baum@???> wrote:

> On 03/21/2016 09:50 PM, Adam Borowski wrote:
> > On Mon, Mar 21, 2016 at 05:19:33PM -0400, Boruch Baum wrote:
> >> 1] For a day-to-day changing alpha release it makes plenty of sense to
> >> keep the initial download as small as possible, since so much is
> >> expected to change as part of the development process.
> >>
> >> 2] OTOH, a developer wants to encourage people to test the install and
> >> the release often, so it makes sense to have an initial iso download
> >> packed with the stable and large software packages that aren't central
> >> to the what the distribution is innovating. Any time a user runs a
> >> second test, she incurs a bandwidth burden of an entire new install.
> >>
> >> 3] One complicated solution would be to not destroy
> >> /var/cache/apt/archive on the target when re-installing. It could be
> >> done by having the installer suggest to mount that folder on its own
> >> partition, and then have the installer refer to it at the download
> stage.
> >
> > Trusting /var/cache/apt/archive on the target would risk way too many
> modes
> > of breakage, let's not go there.
> >
> > If you're doing frequent installs, you'd better install apt-cacher-ng (or
> > one of its competitors) on a box on the local network, and use that
> whenever
> > asked for a mirror.
> >
> > The apt source will then be:
> > deb http://$YOUR_CACHE_BOX:3142/ftp.$COUNTRY.debian.org/debian/
> > or
> > deb http://$YOUR_CACHE_BOX:3142/packages.devuan.org/merged
> >
> > This way you download any package, binary or source, at most once.
> >
>
> Good. But the point was to have that function folded into the installer,
> with a fallback for a network download, in a manner simple for the
> largest group of testers to use. Your suggestion seems to me in practice
> to require of the user many more manual steps before, during, and after
> each install. I've never used the technique, but you seem to also be
> saying that it requires extra hardware, in the form of a local network
> and a second box to host apt-cacher-ng.
>
> Come to think of it, I challenge your starting point contention: "would
> risk way too many modes of breakage", so let's do go there, if only for
> a bit. What are all those "too many modes" and how bad are the risks?
> What's the worst downside, worse than a failed keysign check?
>
> --
> hkp://keys.gnupg.net
> CA45 09B5 5351 7C11 A9D1 7286 0036 9E45 1595 8BC0
>
> _______________________________________________
> Dng mailing list
> Dng@???
> https://mailinglists.dyne.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/dng
>