Mailinglist Archive: opensuse-factory (1564 mails)

[David Hall <drhall@xxxxxx>]

On Thu, Nov 10, 2011 at 2:21 PM, Brian K. White <brian@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On 11/10/2011 1:41 PM, David Hall wrote:
> > On Nov 9, 2011, at 12:36 AM, "Brian K. White"<brian@xxxxxxxxx>  wrote:
> >
> > > I get all any user needs to get.
> > > If the distribution sucks, it sucks.
> > > You can't tell a user who pops the cd in, tries to use the system, and
> > > encounters all those problems, that it's their fault.
> > >
> > > Those branding packages *break some systems*.
> > >
> > > I also taboo them because I CAN NOT have grub loading gfxboot and I CAN
> > > NOT have the kernel trying to switch into graphical console modes, and I CAN
> > > NOT have any xdm-alike trying to start up at all. I can not have these
> > > things happen even the very first time so I can't let the installer install
> > > whatever and then go in and adjust config files to disable the problem
> > > actions. I will not be able to go in and do anything at all the instant any
> > > of those things happens the very first time. So I have to prevent them from
> > > even being installed in the first place during initial install, that way
> > > even if I miss one of the several manual things I have to do during
> > > text-only installs, and say, the menu.lst is left with the gfxboot line in
> > > it and uncommented, if it's not installed the line becomes harmless since
> > > the file isn't actually there and the console doesn't get killed and I can
> > > resume the install without having to boot the install media from the network
> > > to use it as a repair pla
>
> tform.
> > > When I remove the gfxboot, splashy and bootsplash packages, the branding
> > > packages "require" them, so the branding packages end up going too.
> > >
> > > It not our fault for needing to prevent these things, it's the distros
> > > fault for being so thoughtlessly assembled that we have to go through such
> > > contortions just to get installed.
> > >
> > > Either that or suse should just stop all pretense of being a suitable OS
> > > for servers.
> >
> > During install, if you choose minimal server install, it seems to do what
> > you want.  Or you can choose minimal X and then uncheck gfxboot, splashy,
> > and bootsplash.
> >
> > I find opensuse to work perfectly for my servers, especially with the ease
> > of pulling in OBS packages that I build specially for my needs.
> >
> > -David
>
> I install rather a lot of systems, remotely, text-only serial console and
> ssh. I know what it does and doesn't do. Unless something changed very
> recently in 12.1 because I haven't touched that yet, when you select the
> minimal text-only system, it still installs gfxboot, and the kernel is
> configured to switch to a graphical console mode. I have to fight the
> installer to prevent it from installing gfxboot, and I have to go around
> behind yasts's back and edit menu.lst manually, in another ssh session,
> after yast has finished writing the bootloader, but before allowing yast to
> exit, because when it exits the installer immediately reboots the system.
> Or, I have to pxe-boot the system to the installer again, don't run yast
> this time, use the shell to manually assemble the mdraid array and mount it,
> or mount the usb thumb drive whatever that box is booting from, manually
> edit menu.lst, umount and reboot and allow it to boot from the local disks
> and resume the install 2nd stage.
>
> There are multiple dialogs in the bootloader screens in yast that look like
> they offer a way to do this all from within the installer nicely. There is
> an input line for the message file which contains the gfxboot file. Ok yay
> just clear that out, simple. Wrong. Yast just puts it back in there no
> matter what.

Maybe there is something that acts differently in remote installation,
but I just downloaded the opensuse 12.1 RC2 (Build 25) DVD, ran it in
virtualbox, chose "Minimal Server Selection (Text Mode)", and it did
not install gfxboot, bootsplash, or splashy.  If you find something
different happens when installing remotely, then it should be
investigated.
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