Re: [seul-edu] Re: ISO project--a different approach

[Cameron Miller <cdmiller@adams.edu>]

Doug Loss wrote:
> 
> You mistook my meaning.  When I say, "distro-neutral,"  I don't mean least
> common denominator.  Instead, I mean that whatever we do must be easily
> installable on any Linux distro.  Connectiva has created Synaptic
> <http://distro.conectiva.com.br/projetos/46/> as a front end to APT; along
> with their apt4rpm <http://apt4rpm.sourceforge.net/>, that would give us a
> graphical installer that would work with either DEBs or RPMs.  If we
> package each app as both a DEB and an RPM, then distros can take our work
> and bundle it with their installers of choice.  But with something like
> this our ISO can be downloaded and easily installed on an existing Linux
> system.
> 
> We never intended to create our own distro!  Boy, that's the last thing I
> want to do--add yet another distro to the mix.
> 
> --

The easiest way to remain "distro-neutral" would be to include 
statically linked binary tarballs which install to /usr/local/.

If possible it would be nice to include the necessary setup files to 
create packages in source tarballs as well, like the spec files for RPM 
creation.

A static linked binary is really the lowest common denominator. RPM and 
DEB packages sometimes break between differing Linux distro's and even 
between different Linux distro versions.  One can run into numerous 
shared library dependency problems.  (Official debian packages usually 
solve dependency problems).

- cameron

-- 
- cameron miller
- UNIX Systems Administrator
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- cdmiller@adams.edu