[Gllug] Redhat / Debian / X reversion

[Pete Ryland]

On Sat, Jun 07, 2003 at 01:47:02PM +0100, James de Lurker wrote:
> On Sat, 7 Jun 2003 10:40:59 +0100 (BST) Chris Bell wrote:
> >On Fri 06 Jun, Mike Brodbelt wrote:
> >>......................................................... I migrated off
> >>RedHat because I found that I was sending ever more time backporting rpms
> >>to no-longer supported versions of RedHat, because I didn't have the
> >>time to follow every major version upgrade on my servers.
> 
> Even at "enthusiast" level, unemployed, maintaining only personal Linux
> systems rather than any commercial admin: I'm headed in this direction.

Worth spending a day or two looking into at least IMO. :-)

> At least with RedHat installation I just turn off stuff I'm not currently
> using, tidy up cron jobs, and know that I only need to take on complicated
> applications at a detailed level as I use them. One at a time.

As the other guys have said, simply don't select extra packages at initial
install.  Then install/configure extra packages one at a time using apt-get.

> It took me nearly 1 1/2 weeks to suss out specifics of an inn setup in a
> RedHat environment to get it working and thoroughly configured.  It isn't
> something that I would _ever_ do at install time, that's for sure.

I've never installed inn on debian, but one of the nice features of debian
is that a package will be configured and running by the time it's finished
"apt-get install"ing.  It's my firm opinion that it is much easier to tweak
a running config to what you want than to build one from scratch.  Even if
you do start from scratch, you've at least a running config to compare to.

> Tripwire won't be a choice for Debian I presume - so what does the team
> recommend as a viable alternative here?

IIRC, tripwire runs fine on debian (although I haven't used it for some
time).  Why would it not?

>    Is it possible to setup Debian installation so that you get a complete
> audit trail of what you have done throughout this process? Having to take
> manual notes of everything and not being able to skip stuff to setup as
> a one-off later is something that I'm not happy about. Some programmers'
> idea of what I must do during an installation process is OK by me, but an
> enforced process with limited bail out choices does not appeal to me one
> iota. It is a big deterrent, and percieved as hubris / patronising.

The screens that are presented to you can also (optionally) be emailed to
you as well or instead.

Also, read up on the dpkg-reconfigure command.  Actually, in general, debian
documentation is very comprehensive, so it might be worth reading or at
least skimming some of it.

> Later RedHat installers do provide a template kickstart file, and lists
> of installed rpms / installer choices.
> 
> What comparable installed package/selection info is created by Debian's
> installer(s)?

"dpkg --get-selections" and "dpkg --set-selections" are probably what you're
after.  There's also FAI (http://tuovi.cern.ch/~ajt/docs/fai_demo.html)
which is more like kickstart.  Again, it's all in the documentation.  :-)

HTH,
Pete

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