Porteus installer testers apply within

[brokenman]

This is the basic idea for the Porteus installer. I stopped all coding just before the install takes place so you can play with it and let me know what you think. Please have a look and let me know of any ideas you come up with for features, or something i should change. I think this is an important application and want to get it perfect so please give your input. Also need a name ... i think 'pinstaller' is something related to palmOS. 'Porteus Installer' is the current name however it lacks imagination.

http://www.mediafire.com/?69suq03qycohz

Available in 32bit and 64bit. I have included the library required for the gtk windows to run so it should work on any version of Porteus.

Thanks and look forward to some ideas.

[fanthom]

looking very attractive!
here are some screens for people who wants to give it a shot:



my suggestions:
- pinstaller should be launched by ktsuss and not kdesu (same syntax: ktsuss "application arg1 arg2"
- first column in main widnow should say "Device" instead of "File system"
- seems that application is monitoring only /mnt/sdxY folder while it should /media for removable devices (my usb key was not discovered
by pinstaller when auto-mounted in /media, 'refresh' button didn't work till i re-mounted it manually in /mnt)
- 'mount partition' function doesn't work
- 'Type' column should indicate partitions as "internal" and "removable" instead of "fixed" and "USB"
- 'cheatcodes' windows should advice the users that multiple cheats must be separated with a 'space'

to implement:
- sample grub and lilo menus (as a text file) for people who want to just copy porteus files on a partition and use their existing 3rd party boot loader.
here is the LILO menu for each porteus booting option

Code: Select all

# kde
image=/mnt/sdb1/boot/vmlinuz
initrd=/mnt/sdb1/boot/initrd.xz
label= "KDE"
vga=791
append = "changes=/porteus"

# lxde
image=/mnt/sdb1/boot/vmlinuz
initrd=/mnt/sdb1/boot/initrd.xz
label= "LXDE"
vga=791
append = "lxde changes=/porteus"

# fresh
image=/mnt/sdb1/boot/vmlinuz
initrd=/mnt/sdb1/boot/initrd.xz
label= "Always_Fresh"
append = "nomagic"

# cp2ram
image=/mnt/sdb1/boot/vmlinuz
initrd=/mnt/sdb1/boot/initrd.xz
label= "Copy_To_RAM"
vga=791
append = "copy2ram"

# startx
image=/mnt/sdb1/boot/vmlinuz
initrd=/mnt/sdb1/boot/initrd.xz
label= "VESA_mode"
append = "autoexec=vesa-mode changes=/porteus"

# text
image=/mnt/sdb1/boot/vmlinuz
initrd=/mnt/sdb1/boot/initrd.xz
label="Text_mode"
append = "autoexec=telinit~3"

# pxe
image=/mnt/sdb1/boot/vmlinuz
initrd=/mnt/sdb1/boot/initrd.xz
label= "PXE_server"
append = "autoexec=pxe-boot"

here is sample for grub legacy:

Code: Select all

title KDE
kernel (hd0,3)/boot/vmlinuz vga=0x314 changes=/porteus
initrd (hd0,3)/boot/initrd.xz

title LXDE
kernel (hd0,3)/boot/vmlinuz vga=0x314 lxde changes=/porteus
initrd (hd0,3)/boot/initrd.xz

title Always Fresh
kernel (hd0,3)/boot/vmlinuz nomagic
initrd (hd0,3)/boot/initrd.xz

title Copy To Ram
kernel (hd0,3)/boot/vmlinuz vga=0x314 copy2ram
initrd (hd0,3)/boot/initrd.xz

title VESA Mode
kernel (hd0,3)/boot/vmlinuz autoexec=vesa-mode changes=/porteus
initrd (hd0,3)/boot/initrd.xz

title Text Mode
kernel (hd0,3)/boot/vmlinuz autoexec=telinit~3
initrd (hd0,3)/boot/initrd.xz

title PXE Server
kernel (hd0,3)/boot/vmlinuz autoexec=pxe-boot
initrd (hd0,3)/boot/initrd.xz

anyone with same menus for Grub 2 and Grub4DOS ?

this is it from my side for now.

great job brokenman!

[Hamza]

Beautiful application! 8)



@brokenman,
Why in LXDE, it display normally and not in KDE4 ??
This screenshot was made from a VirtualBox Machine running Porteus v1.1 RC2 x86_64 as guest OS.

Nice works!

[brokenman]

Thanks.

@ Hamza ... i have given a little more space to the table to remove vertical scrolls. Thanks.

@ Fanthom ... i've made those changes and will include the grub and lilo configs. Good idea.

/media is also monitored now. Mount should now work, i was using /sys/block which led to a looping symlink. Using blkid now instead .. much cleaner.

OK so i am including a button to open up a partition tool thing. Here is my problem.

64bit has GUI partition manager that comes with it but 32bit has nothing like that. Do i introduce something to 32bit (could be around 8Mb ... but we have space) and then use the included partition manager for each edition ... or do i write a partition manager from scratch and build it into pinstaller?

[fanthom]

if this is not a hassle then i would go with internal partitioning tool as independent from upstream apps and easier for controlling from pinstaller.

here are porteus entries which should be added to grub4dos menu:

Code: Select all

    title KDE
    kernel (hd1,0)/boot/vmlinuz vga=791 changes=/porteus
    initrd (hd1,0)/boot/initrd.xz
    boot

    title LXDE
    kernel (hd1,0)/boot/vmlinuz vga=791 lxde changes=/porteus
    initrd (hd1,0)/boot/initrd.xz
    boot

    title Always Fresh
    kernel (hd1,0)/boot/vmlinuz nomagic
    initrd (hd1,0)/boot/initrd.xz
    boot

    title Copy To Ram
    kernel (hd1,0)/boot/vmlinuz vga=791 copy2ram
    initrd (hd1,0)/boot/initrd.xz
    boot

    title VESA Mode
    kernel (hd1,0)/boot/vmlinuz autoexec=vesa-mode changes=/porteus
    initrd (hd1,0)/boot/initrd.xz
    boot

    title Text Mode
    kernel (hd1,0)/boot/vmlinuz autoexec=telinit~3
    initrd (hd1,0)/boot/initrd.xz
    boot

    title PXE Server
    kernel (hd1,0)/boot/vmlinuz autoexec=pxe-boot
    initrd (hd1,0)/boot/initrd.xz
    boot

[Hamza]

What about this Partition/Disk Manager ?

Is it possible to have the same application for both applications, especially for developers ?

What about "Porteus InstallDisk" as name?

[brokenman]

QTparted and Gparted require other dependencies. As time goes on and someone stops maintaining something it coul dlead to problems. I think fanthom is right in this respect ... it we keep it in house we have more control. I will start writing a partition manager (separate from pinstaller) that it can call.

This means an extra program for 32bit .... and some extra late nights learning the ins and outs of partition management.

[MasterSplinter]

I tested PInstaller on Porteus v1.1, and it requires 300Mb minimum. My goal is to get it under 256Mb.

Feature request:
Selective package option to reduce install size

[Hamza]

Technically..this is possible to mount an ISO with rw permission. So, this may be added, but don't know how to do this.

[brokenman]

Selective package option to reduce install size

Great idea! Will look at implementing this in next release. The script i sent you should get you around the 300Mb limit.

Technically..this is possible to mount an ISO with rw permission

I'd love to know how.

[Hamza]

I'd love to know how.

Mount an ISO image on rw mode

[brokenman]

Exactly my point! An ISO is a 'read only' file system by nature. The answer in that link was to mount as 'read only' and copy the files elsewhere for editing. This is certainly not mounting as rw. I wish we could do it ... but i know of no way.