Talk:Installation alternatives

Parted resize command
Parted resize command has been removed since version 2.4. Currently there are no prior version in the Gentoo repository. Should we remove the whole "Building parted to resize partition" section? I just need some feedback before making such a disruptive edit. Fturco (talk) 18:32, 21 May 2017 (UTC)
 * Parted just renamed resize to resizepart. I don't see why there floppy disk involvement, this part largely outdated. Rewrote section for more recent version. --Winterheart (talk) 20:35, 22 June 2020 (UTC)

Netboot PXE
Happy New Year!

The LiveCD patch is still working over the years; only a 3-line displacement from the original! :D I used it today to install on my PC when the USB stick failed to get into the kernel insides. My experience with this wiki section inspired some changes.

The LiveCD patcher has universal script that can support different PXE implementations. I abstracted it out so you can run the base LiveCD patcher for whatever flavor of PXE you're trying to support. After the base patch, sections are broken up by flavor of PXE ala Grub and iPXE for starters.

The CD Patcher now ensures you have root privileges via the "base-installed" coreutils `id -u` rather than half-successfully executing the script and failing awkwardly if not root (eg via sudo).

Script status reports rather than line-by-line program echoing are friendlier as a general user script I think. It can be confusing reading the output sometimes because of the `-e` flag in the bash shebang (#!/bin/bash -xe). I thought about replacing that behavior with status reports that printed as the script progressed, but I will not risk insulting the original programmer.

The sections have been reordered so that the user first learns how to emerge the tftp server (and learn how to configure it) before sending files to the tftproot.

There's more work to be done on explaining the TFTP server setup. It's rather bare.

Same goes for the DHCP server setup.

iPXE section needs coverage but I "peaked" before getting to it. The alternative iPXE-without-server setup will be an approachable section for beginners of PXE who can't accomplish the relatively complicated setup PXE requires. For instance, a user could host the images on a HTTP server (even over the WWW), and boot iPXE directly to them without need for self-run TFTP and DHCP servers.

Is it known whether the LiveCD patcher works with the LiveDVD? Please update wiki with the answer.

\0/ Larry wishes you lots of love for 2018! \0/

Larry loves Gentoo (Linux)

_______________________ Have you mooed today? ---         \   ^__^           \  (oo)\_______ (__)\      )\/\\                ||w |                ||     || Bazz (talk) 01:03, 1 January 2018 (UTC)

Remove patch and simplify scripts?
I would like to change the whole Netboot section, no actual patching is needed, only combine gentoo.igz and image.squashfs (with cpio header) and it is bootable as is, and at the same time remove initial NFS mention. My suggestion is something like:

Also trying to keep iPXE script up2date. Currently trying to work on and get releng team to distribute the needed files so it can be loaded over http - but it is on a "as time permits" basis. I have some PoCs up on github (and local server) using iPXE, not sure if it is ok to "promote" that? and then there is also netboot.xyz that now should have working support for Gentoo using same method.

--NiKiZe (talk) 15:34, 19 July 2021 (UTC)

Above tested with iPXE and PXELINUX in pcbios mode, grub pains me, non bootable in pcbios mode, and efi gives "error: timeout reading 'combined.igz'". This is probably all issues that could be solved by using recent versions of the programs. IMO iPXE using http is the best approach here, working in both pcbios and efi mode, downside being signing of EFI, but kernel is not signed anyway. --NiKiZe (talk) 13:41, 23 July 2021 (UTC)

pxe-craft-initrd-kernel script needs updating
The bash script given for generating kernel and initrd files from the minimal install ISO image is out of date.

Specifically, in the patching section wherever you've got

if [ /dev/nfs != "$REAL_ROOT" ] && [ sgimips != "$LOOPTYPE" ] && [ 1 != "$aufs" ]; then

Instead it needs to read

if [ /dev/nfs != "$REAL_ROOT" ] && [ sgimips != "$LOOPTYPE" ] && [ 1 != "$aufs" ] && [ 1 != "$overlayfs" ]; then

After making that change, the script worked for me.

While you're at it, suggest changing the usage output toward the beginning to reflect the intended name of the file. --Jlhubbs (talk) 20:46, 18 July 2018 (UTC)