[Server-devel] Who wrote http://wiki.laptop.org/go/XS_Install_Server?

[John Watlington]

On Jan 30, 2012, at 12:40 PM, George Hunt wrote:

> Hi everyone,
> 
> I'm new to this list. 
> 
> I met Tony Anderson in Haiti, and again at the San Francisco OLPC Summit in late 2011. He prevailed upon me to spend some time trying to figure out how to rebase XS on a more recent Fedora Core.
> 
> I just recently used pungi to gather together FC16 rpms into an iso using the kickstart file that came with XS-0.6.  What was 550MB in FC9 has grown to 775MB in FC16.  My initial goal was to create a CD image, that can be installed in the traditional way. But going forward, even if we can pare things down and fit in 690MB this time, perhaps we need a better strategy.
> 
> I came across comments in the XS wiki  to the effect that USB installs don't always work, suggesting that a CD installation was more reliable.  
> 
> Then I discovered this page (which I had missed before) which displayed a level of knowledge, and perspective, which I would like to tap.
> 
> Can anyone own up to being the author, or point to him/her?

Here is the relevant email thread, including the author's email and
his hindsight:

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Tim Moody <timmoody at sympatico.ca>
> Date: April 29, 2011 9:15:42 AM EDT
> To: "Sridhar Dhanapalan" <sridhar at laptop.org.au>
> Cc: server-devel at lists.laptop.org
> Subject: Re: [Server-devel] XS Install Server
> 
> Looks like I could benefit from your kickstart file(s).  I didn't install 
> from USB because a) my machines are old and don't boot from USB and b) I 
> thought a server would scale better for large implementations, but clearly 
> USB is much more portable if your model is to install in the field.  In any 
> event, both of our approaches drive off the kickstart file.  I'd be happy to 
> lend a hand if there's something you can parcel out.  How do you validate 
> the XS install?  I don't actually have an XO, so I run SOAS in VirtualBox, 
> which is not a very thorough test.
> 
> --------------------------------------------------
> From: "Sridhar Dhanapalan" <sridhar at laptop.org.au>
> Sent: Friday, April 29, 2011 1:57 AM
> To: "Tim Moody" <timmoody at sympatico.ca>
> Cc: <server-devel at lists.laptop.org>
> Subject: Re: [Server-devel] XS Install Server
> 
>> On 29 April 2011 15:43, Sridhar Dhanapalan <sridhar at laptop.org.au> wrote:
>>> On 9 April 2011 03:16, Tim Moody <timmoody at sympatico.ca> wrote:
>>>> I have been experimenting for quite awhile with an install server based 
>>>> on
>>>> cobbler and have finally written it up here
>>>> http://wiki.laptop.org/go/XS_Install_Server.
>>>> 
>>>> If you have more than a few servers to install and want to automate the
>>>> process
>>>> 
>>>> or you want to add some library content automatically, you may find this 
>>>> of
>>>> interest.
>>> 
>>> Interesting work!
>>> 
>>> The approach we have taken with our XS-AU is to configure the
>>> installation via kickstart files and install from USB.
>>> 
>>> http://dev.laptop.org.au/projects/xs-au/wiki
>> 
>> I should also add that I think we have already achieved some of your
>> goals. Looking at your "Future" list at
>> http://wiki.laptop.org/go/XS_Install_Server#Future:
>> 
>> * "Create two separate distros, one for FC and the other for XS and
>> declare them in the kickstart file to separate the XS packages from
>> Fedora"
>> 
>> The XS-AU is a modular set of packages on top of Fedora 11:
>> http://dev.laptop.org.au/projects/xs-au/wiki/Install_on_an_existing_Fedora_installation
>> 
>> * "Upgrade Fedora to latest version"
>> 
>> Once we release our version 1.0 (based on Fedora 11), we can probably
>> move to Fedora 13 with minimal effort. Fedora 14 will be trickier, as
>> it has been upgraded to Python 2.7.
>> 
>> * "Create separate kickstart files for full install,
>> networking/gateway only install, services only install"
>> 
>> Our installation is completely kickstart-driven, so we are most of the
>> way there.
>> 
>> We have other improvements in the pipeline as well.
>> 
>> We'd be happy to work with anyone interested in getting involved.
>> 
>> Sridhar
>