OpenSolaris Text-Based Installer
Preliminary Text Install Images
Preliminary Text Install Images based on b131 are available. Please see release notes at:
http://hub.opensolaris.org/bin/view/Project+caiman/Text+Install+b131+Notes
UI Design
Text Install UI Specification and Mockup Screenshots
UI and Code Review Comments
Design Notes
Requirements and Scope
Text Install Media Options
Text Install Meeting Minutes 7/10/09
Text Installer Programming Language
Project Documents
Text Install Functional Spec, v3
Design Document v1.5(PDF)
Design Document v1.5(ODT)
UML Diagrams
Documentation
Text Installer Online Help, Alpha Draft
Code Review
An initial code review has been posted to:
http://cr.opensolaris.org/kemitche/text_v1/
Slides from code walkthrough:
Slides (pdf)
Slides (odp)
Project Gate & Build Instructions
All code for the text installer has been moved to a mercurial repository on opensolaris.org. The gate can be cloned by running:
hg clone ssh://anon@hg.opensolaris.org/hg/caiman/text_installer
For those interested in seeing the UI "in-action," rather than trying to code review by solely poring through the source code, below you will find instructions for building the gate, and running the UI directly from your workspace.
As you might guess, running 'installer' code on a live system can be VERY RISKY, and carries the risk of data loss and/or system corruption. While the text installer UI currently has an available flag for running in "no install mode" (meaning, theoretically, no permanent changes are propagated to the system), the installer is still in development, and there is always the possibility of bugs that negate such protections. Please do NOT follow these instructions on any system which has data you're not willing to risk the chance of losing.
Now that you've been warned, here are the instructions:
(Note: $WS = the directory where you cloned the text installer gate to).
- Build the gate following the standard instructions for building slim_source, as indicated under $WS/usr/src/README. Note that, in addition to the packages required for slim_source, SUNWgnu-gettext is also required.
- cp $WS/proto/root_<arch>/usr/lib/python2.4/vendor-packages/osol_install/libzoneinfo.so $WS/usr/src/cmd/text-install/osol_install
- cp $WS/proto/root_<arch>/usr/lib/python2.4/vendor-packages/osol_install/tgt.so $WS/usr/src/cmd/text-install/osol_install
- cd $WS/usr/src/cmd/text-install
- export PYTHONPATH=`pwd`
- python osol_install/text_install/text-install.py -n
Note: This last command must be run with root privileges. Also note the presence of the '-n' flag, which indicates 'dry-run' or 'no-install' mode. Again, no claims are being made that this code is yet 'release quality' or 'bug free,' so run these commands with the utmost caution.
Summer 2009 CSM Prototype
The Text Installer prototype was implemented by the Colorado School of Mines students Danny Pearson, Mark Godwin, Ryan Holden, Thea Gab. Here is the CSM Initial Prototype Project Summary. Also, the students gave a presentation about their work on the Text Installer at one of the Front Range OpenSolaris User Group meetings.
Resources
- Mailing list: caiman-discuss
- Browse: caiman-discuss archives
Old Documents
Design Document v1.4(PDF)
Design Document v1.4(ODT)
Text Install Functional Spec, v1
Text Install Functional Spec, v2
