Re: SEUL: Re: Trial or no trial

[Thomas Molesworth <thomas@bass.almac.co.uk>]

On Mon, 30 Jun 1997, Erik Walthinsen wrote:

--cut--
> Point taken.  A testing group should also be formed, initially to work with 
> users to determine what they want, eventually to organize 
> alpha/beta/prerelease testing of SEUL so we know if we got it right.

Just one comment on the test version: until the basic SEUL system is working
REALLY well, it would be helpful to keep the system as compact as possible.
Keeping up during alpha/beta/prerelease stages would require downloading via
FTP, and for some people (=me) FTP costs money :-(

A system of patches would help, rather than downloading the full system for
each version (this would also save time, and help to pinpoint changes).

> This is true.  From a philosophical point of view, I hate the idea of Linux 
> residing under M$'s FAT.  It puts huge performance constraints on the system, 
> and from the user's point of view it makes SEUL look inferior to M$, instead 
> of a superior replacement.

I'll post a report on the performance issues, but I agree that it doesn't
help to have Linux relying on MS. It might be possible to adjust the
partition table around the loopback file; any suggestions?

> Here's what I propose for the 'trial' install:
> 
> 1) User gets CD, want to try it out.
> 2) User puts CD in drive, gets nifty splash screen and goes through installer 
> prep stuff to determine what kind of hardware they have and install they want.
> 3) Installer builds small (<10MB) image on disk, with loadlin and a kernel.
> 4) User boots Linux via the Start button:
> 4.1) loadlin loads kernel, points it at disk image
> 4.2) disk image starts up with bare minimums
> 4.3) disk image finds CD, mounts it, and starts symlinking in basics
> 4.4) user installs packages via live filesystem or mountable RPMs
> 5) User reboots, goes back to Win95, tries Linux again later, gets the same 
> stuff again because the disk image contains /etc, /var, and /home.
> 6) User *hates* SEUL (bad user! <smack!>), clicks uninstall, disk image goes 
> away.

Sounds good to me. Is there a way to have, for example, /etc/syslog.conf
linked to /cdrom/live/etc/syslog.conf, until /etc/syslog.conf is altered,
when /cdrom/live/etc/syslog.conf is then copied to /etc/syslog.conf?
Something like the "copy-on-write" memory page system.

--
Thomas Molesworth            (thomas@bass.almac.co.uk)

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