[Freedombox-discuss] Sunday US-morning/euro-afternoon hacker session in #freedombox on irc.oftc.net

[Jonas Smedegaard]

On Thu, Feb 17, 2011 at 11:52:03AM +0100, Michiel de Jong wrote:
>On Thu, Feb 17, 2011 at 11:27 AM, Jonas Smedegaard <dr at jones.dk> wrote:
>
>> The keyword here is "transition": Yes, I could look at whatever 
>> mashup you'd thrown together and be inspired by that in a recreation 
>> from scratch myself using different tools for a Debian Pure Blend.  
>> But I don't want to recreate from scratch.
>>
>
>Fair enough! So when the live experimentation leads to something worth 
>sharing, i'll learn how to put it into live-builder. It's this one, 
>right? http://live.debian.net/devel/live-build/

Oh, yes - sory - not live-builder but live-build.

What I suggest is this:

   aptitude install live-build

Or this:

   git clone https://github.com/tranduyhung/LiveCD.git

...and then publish as a similar git any results/drafts you feel worthy 
of sharing.


>It also sounds like useful in itself, because you could put it on a USB 
>stick for your plugserver (or other old piece of hardware you have 
>lying around) to boot from, and people could experiment with it at 
>home, and propose changes and additions based on something that we can 
>version and use as a focal point for discussion.

Yes, live-build is useful in and of itself too. :-)

All of the other approaches - VM snapshot, FAI, live-backup etc. also 
have great uses, but it seems (admittedly having worked with this 
approach only briefly so far) that live-build both is easy to get widely 
useful results (try also install live-magic and play with that!) while 
allowing for tuning at the core rather at the top.


>So using live-builder, the result will be easy to reuse for the Pure 
>Blend?

Yes, no guarantee but there is good potential for smooth transition.

Let me try clarify with an example: You want to install a webserver 
serving a single website from /srv/web/.

An obvious first attempt is to a) tell live-build to include package 
"apache2" and b) override file /etc/apache2/sites-available/0_default 
with your custom copy.

This is hacking "on top": You brutally override parts provided by Debian 
package. Problem is that when apache later is updated with a security 
fix for that same file, it won't know if you want to preserve your older 
hack, replace with new default file, or perhaps do a new customization. 
So it asks - not you, but the user running your Freedombox - who will 
sure get confused by a question of "do you want to preserve old changes" 
from what she assumed was an integral system.

(also, on a FreedomBox you don't ever want questions raised, even if 
sensible, but that is another issue)

A better approach is to look at what mechanisms for customization a 
package provides, because such mechanisms is quite likely to be 
supported also in future releases of same package.  Specifically, 
"apache2" provides the scripts "a2ensite" and "a2dissite". So second 
attempt would be to a) tell live-build to include package "apache2", b) 
add file /etc/apache2/sites-available/mysite, and c) tell live-build to 
execute "a2dissite default && a2ensite mysite" after package install.

A later iteration would involve creating a custom "mysite" package 
containing the mysite file, depending on apache2 and invoke the scripts 
as a packaging script, reducing live-build to just install this custom 
package.

Turning that into a Debian Pure Blend would involve a) adopting the 
"mysite" package officially into Debian, and b) convince the maintainers 
of the "tasksel" package to include a menu option "Freedombox" which 
would install "mysite".


Live-build provides numerous hooks at different stages of the build 
process.  You can throw large ugly chunks at it for a fast result, or 
you can apply more delicate hints more suitable for global consumption 
not only by Freedombox users but by _all_ Freedom* users of Debian.


  - Jonas

-- 
  * Jonas Smedegaard - idealist & Internet-arkitekt
  * Tlf.: +45 40843136  Website: http://dr.jones.dk/

  [x] quote me freely  [ ] ask before reusing  [ ] keep private
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