[plug] Distro Day !!!

[indy at THE-TECH.MIT.EDU]

Hey Bill,


I need to get back to you with comments on your Gentoo article,
but since you are most certainly the local Gentto expert I'd like
to hit you up to organise the installation of the Gentoo test machine
for our LinMagAu feature. As Scott noted, we're not
sure when we'll get the first test machines, but it'd be really great if
we started on Gentoo first for obvious reasons.


many thanks,


Indy.


On Thu, Jul 03, 2003 at 07:47:49AM +0800, William Kenworthy wrote:
> For gentoo, if you can get the box specs ahead of time, you could
> pre-compile the packages in a chroot, or local session on another gentoo
> machine - the stage 3 install then becomes similar to RedHat etc, with
> just a local kernel compile needed on the day.  If the software specs
> include X, you are going to be lucky to get a machine in time otherwise
> ...
> 
> The native gentoo binary install is generic i386 and is intended to be
> gone back over and recompiled.  But you can pre-compile the packages on
> another machine and replace the generic packages.  Binary installs are
> so you can get a machine up and running fast, but you lose most of the
> gentoo advantages.  The pre-compiled package method is used for secure
> servers where you dont have compilers etc on the destination machine.
> 
> Another time saver is having all the tarballs local first: I have them
> and can burn a few CD's, or transfer from my laptop if needed - my modem
> is not up to transferring that many files in less than a month or so!
> 
> And lastly, a gentoo buildfarm  using ccache and distcc and a few
> helpful souls (i.e., machines with ccache and distcc) is also a
> possibility, but you do need a basic system first, the gains up until
> that point are doubtful on a modern system.
> 
> BillK
> 
> 
> On Thu, 2003-07-03 at 06:46, Garry wrote:
> > I'm happy to do the Debian and Mandrake boxen. I'll use Knoppix to make the Debian really painless.. The Gentoo is a new one on me, but if Matt and Scott are happy to have the box compiling in the corner I _should_ be able to work out how to get it going.. Give my geeky Belgian friend Joris some fun too I suspect..
> > 
> > Could we have an idea when the machines will be available? Will they require assembly, or will they come ready-to-fly?
> > 
> > Getting to the Hilton LinuxIT shop is easy enough, but being bus dependent I can't pick up these boxes..
> > 
> > Regards Garry
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > > We are looking for..
> > > 
> > > 1)      A couple of folks to put up their hands to do the pre installation
> > > so that the day of testing, can actually be testing :)
> > > Scott says:
> > > People involved in setting it up will have FULL access to LinuxIT before
> > > the day and all the help we can provide except where we have to help our
> > > clients.:
> -- 
> William Kenworthy <billk at iinet.net.au>

-- 
Indranath Neogy
<indy at the-tech.mit.edu>