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View Poll Results: Do you find this as a agreeable standard for the iLiad? | |||
Yes | 27 | 87.10% | |
No | 4 | 12.90% | |
Voters: 31. You may not vote on this poll |
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04-29-2007, 12:16 PM | #31 |
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Until now, the greatest concern in this thread has been the fact that what happens when the card is removed.
I propose the following solution (inspired in the GoboSandbox that GoboLinux uses for package installation), that would make the database part of the card, and enable users to swap cards (and not reinstalling when you upgrade the firmware): 1. Don't use ipkg directly to install packages, but a script that wraps calls to ipkg so they're done in a sandbox, to ensure that (1) no part of the root filesystem is touched (2) all files are located in the card, (3) the package database is also in the card, and (4) sync is called after the package installation 2. The script would prepare a tmpfs with the desired structure, with a copy of ipkg and its libs, and several "mount --bind" to specific directories of the card (for /usr/local and for the pkg database), and a mount --bind to the durectory holding the pkg file 3. Then the script would call "chroot /tmp/sandbox /bin/ipkg install ..." to install the package, then do a sync 4. Finally, unmount all the "mount --bind"ed directories and the tmpfs filesystem. And that would be all. The copy of ipkg and its libs could be optimized doing a hard link of all the required files to a directory in the rootfs and mount --bind that, then it's only a matter of doing the neccessary symlinks in the tmpfs. What do you think about it? The only catch is that users would need to execute once a shell script to install in the rootfs all the needed components (and update er_registry...). Nevertheless, this is somewhat convoluted, at least compared to the way of packaging programs in simple tarballs (again, please, go to gobolinux website and see how it's done there... http://www.gobolinux.org ). I speak a lot of gobo, but it's because is one of the two distros I use and know (the other one is Debian). Last edited by Antartica; 04-29-2007 at 12:26 PM. Reason: minor correction |
04-30-2007, 06:13 AM | #32 | |
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I'm certainly not trying to throw gasoline on the flames here, as I think this is a problem worth solving and I think (because I'm an optimist) that it is solvable. Let's just think it through a bit more. |
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04-30-2007, 06:41 AM | #33 |
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If you upgrade Ubuntu or Debian, all your installed packages need to be reinstalled. Thanks to the Debian packaging system (aptitude/apt-get/dpkg), the upgrades will not randomly overwrite your config files but ask you what to do (skip/overwrite/edit). Does ipkg have a similar system in place?
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04-30-2007, 07:40 AM | #34 | |
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As for the other question, yes, ipkg has a similar system in place ("ipkg update" "ipkg upgrade"). I've done that on OpenWRT systems to upgrade from one WhiteRusian version to the next without problems, and respected my additional installed packages. Background: OpenWRT is another of the distributions for embedded systems that use ipkg, this one geared to linksys routers (WRT54GL, ...) and workalikes. |
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04-30-2007, 08:20 AM | #35 | |
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To be precise: This is the mail reader I'm using: Code:
>ls -l `which pine` -rwxr-xr-x 1 root staff 9034445 2005-02-12 10:44 /usr/local/bin/pine Actually, this is one of the reasons I love Debian in particular. When I talk to a poor chap who has to reinstall all his apps because he upgrades to Vista, or because he bought a new computer, or a new harddisk, or has a sluggish system because he installed to many stuff, I can lean back with a fat grin and say "Well, I never have to reinstall my stuff, because I use the good Linux". Last edited by ali; 04-30-2007 at 08:27 AM. |
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04-30-2007, 08:38 AM | #36 | |
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04-30-2007, 08:39 AM | #37 | |
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04-30-2007, 08:40 AM | #38 | |
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04-30-2007, 08:44 AM | #39 | |
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04-30-2007, 09:05 AM | #40 | |
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I'm running debian testing since around 2004 and keeping it up-to-date using dist-upgrade, so my system went through multiple debian releases. And it very rarely happens that I have to update 3rd-party software manually, be it manually installed debs, stuff from 3d-party repositories or self-compiled software. I certainly do not "reinstall" anything. Thinking of it, I have to run "vmware-config.pl" after a kernel upgrade and run module-assistant for the wlan module. Is that "reinstalling"? |
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04-30-2007, 09:06 AM | #41 |
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In hindsight, I should have probably said "upgrade embedded firmware" instead of operating system...I know I have to reinstall all the packages when I upgrade my Nokia 770.
But perhaps a chrooted sandbox may be a better idea. It does seem like an awful lot of work though... Maybe something simpler? /mnt/settings remains unchanged throughout an upgrade right? Why not put the symlinks there? |
04-30-2007, 09:44 AM | #42 | ||
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04-30-2007, 09:49 AM | #43 | |
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04-30-2007, 10:05 AM | #44 |
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Slighty OT: This site runs on Debian. But because the transition from Sarge -> Etch involved too many changes (i.e. updated packages with different config files), we decided to take the opportunity and configure a brand new server with Etch. The Wiki has been already moved, and in a couple of days we'll be able to move the forum as well.
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04-30-2007, 01:34 PM | #45 | |
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Code:
#!/bin/sh # Prepare the sandbox mkdir /tmp/sandbox mount -t tmpfs - /tmp/sandbox mkdir -p /tmp/sandbox/usr/local /tmp/sandbox/bin /tmp/sandbox/lib /tmp/sandbox/card /tmp/sandbox/free cp /bin/ipkg /tmp/sandbox/bin cp /usr/lib/libipkg.so.0 /lib/libgcc_s.so.1 /lib/libc.so.0 /lib/ld-uClibc.so.0 /tmp/sandbox/lib mount --bind /media/cf/ /tmp/sandbox/card cd /tmp/sandbox/usr/local for i in lib bin etc var share include home; do ln -s /card/_local/$i . done ln -s /card/Programs programs mount --bind /mnt/free/ /tmp/sandbox/free # call ipkg chroot /tmp/sandbox /bin/ipkg install /free/$1 # umount the sandbox umount /tmp/sandbox/free umount /tmp/sandbox/card umount /tmp/sandbox So, coding it is not the difficult part. But... is it too convoluted? Last edited by Antartica; 04-30-2007 at 01:39 PM. Reason: little fixes on the sample script |
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