Etch and the desktop environment task

[Petter Reinholdtsen]

[Gustavo Franco]
> Sure, i wasn't discarding insserv or its usage. I just pointed out
> the tasksel status.

Right.  Yes, I believe we might be tool late for tasksel, as more
testing is needed before I dare make it the default.  Besides, it
insserv need to provide an implementation for update-rc.d to really
take over init.d and friends properly.

We can always add it to .disk/base_include on the CD if we want it to
be installed by default. :)

> Ok, btw my related blog post is below for reference:
> http://stratusandtheswirl.blogspot.com/2006/05/in-2-minutes-you-can.html#links

Interesting number.  17 second saved (16%) is quite a lot.  More then
I had expected.  But then again your boot process starting at 2:29 is
quite long.


> Sad but true. :( Btw, do we have any fallback in mind for desktop
> users in Etch? Eg.: Enable parallel booting just if the users
> install "desktop environment" task through some way.

I am sure we can implement something like that using a d-i udeb, if
the default packages fail to include it.

> Either way, that would be good cut the boot times for Etch even if
> won't use parallel booting by default. We can do that in many
> different ways, right now, with some already being discussed in
> -devel.

Yes.  I hope the student project will document most of them, and their
relative impact, for us to verify which of the changes can be
implemented in time for etch.

> It's up to the SoC student work on the project that he sent to
> Google, and it's up to us deliver a better Etch and include his work
> in Etch+1 if not possible right now, IMHO.

Sure.  But part of his project is trying to get the changes into
Debian proper (using BTS bugs and documentation), so I hope he will
succeed in getting at least some of his findings implemented in Debian
in time for etch, and at least for etch+1.

People in ubuntu seem to plan a complete rewrite and replacing
sysvinit, cron, at, inetd, etc with a completely new system.  Perhaps
that will happen in Debian too.  Not sure.  My priority is keeping the
changes to individual packages small and low risk, while improving the
overall boot experience. :)

Friendly,
-- 
Petter Reinholdtsen