Re: Separate cache folders for undigest mirrors

[Indigo <pointofavailability@xxxxxxxxx>]

After chatting with Gokhleyah on IRC, it seems the problem with config
files for new users has been solved, and with a bit more
consideration, there doesn't seem to be a need for /root to be kept in
the /home directory -- however, it would still be good to have some
way of adding persistent files such as /etc/network.conf that would
override the defaults present in a read-only filesystem, or including
other files and directories such as the addition of /opt.  I don't
know the best way to achieve this, but being able to reboot a liveCD
while maintaining specific changes in global settings is definitely
desirable....



On Tue, Dec 14, 2010 at 4:19 PM, Indigo <pointofavailability@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Correction -- /etc/skel would actually have become the new /root
> folder to be copied to /home/root where /root would be linked.  This
> would allow for booting without a home= option, as it would contain
> the basic defaults, and could still be run on a machine without any
> writable media available.  Any thoughts on this whole idea are very
> much welcome.
>
> On Tue, Dec 14, 2010 at 4:02 PM, Indigo <pointofavailability@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>> Let's remember the importance of keeping the permissions right for the
>> root user.  A regular user should not have the ability to change
>> settings in /etc or alter /var/cache -- I do like the idea of using
>> the home= boot option, though.  My idea is this:  lets make a
>> /home/root folder and just symlink /root to it.  In the /home/root
>> folder, we can have a cache directory, as well as the slitaz directory
>> (only a root user should be able to generate a new iso from the
>> existing filesystem, anyway) -- the permissions could remain
>> root:root, and this could facilitate a writable place for changes in
>> the root filesystem.  By this, I mean that the root user could make a
>> custom /etc/network.conf, or whatever, and have it persistent for the
>> next boot.  We could do away with /etc/skel also, as I suggested
>> before, and have one place for customizations that wouldn't affect
>> $user directories or the rootfs... this would mean that a user could
>> reboot into a completely different flavor, or custom package list, and
>> not lose display settings or wireless configs.
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Dec 14, 2010 at 3:00 PM, Christopher Rogers
>> <slaxemulator@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>>>The goal of home= boot option is precisely to use an external devide
>>>>instead of having a home in RAM, so I don't see how it will make grow
>>>>the RAM requirement to 2GB. It's the exact opposite : Having the cache
>>>>folder on /home will avoid keeping all downloaded packages in RAM ! and
>>>>will avoid re-download them at each session. And you can mount
>>>>absolutely what you want as home (i.e: liveCD+home on hdd; usb+home
>>>>from an encrypted file; etc).
>>>
>>> I was talking when you were said that the livecd could be 700mb. (Like puppy
>>> linux multisession or something.) This is without the home= option. Even
>>> with home= option your still not going to have your custom packages that you
>>> installed to system. Also since its only saving to home folder everything
>>> else is still in RAM. You will not save /etc folder. You will not save any
>>> other folder other than /home.
>>>
>>>> I also use my modular-slitaz that has changes boot option. This saves
>>>> everything that is not from the livecd into changes folder on my hard
>>>> drive.
>>>> The home= boot option you also don't have system settings from /etc folder
>>>> too.
>>>>
>>>> With the way sitaz works the make a full 700mb cd would take over 2gb of
>>>> ram
>>>> just for the filesystem. This is cause everything is uncompressed from
>>>> initramfs file into ram. Also this would cause slitaz to be slow to boot
>>>> and
>>>> buidl the iso.
>>>
>>> I said in the quote uncompressed 700mb cd/rootfs.gz = OVER 2GB.  I was not
>>> talking about home= option in 3rd paragraph.
>>>
>>> I hope this helps.
>>>
>>> PS I can talk to you better in irc then email. Sorry about my confusion..
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Tue, Dec 14, 2010 at 10:37 PM, GoKhlaYeh <gokhlayeh@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> On Tue, 14 Dec 2010 20:44:55 +0000
>>>> Christopher Rogers <slaxemulator@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> > The /home/slitaz folder is a bad idea since most development folders on
>>>> > tank
>>>> > go there. That could cause confinct with there being to many folders
>>>> > there.
>>>>
>>>> As you know, I made some changes recently in tazpkg. Before that,
>>>> tazpkg copied packages info files from local repository
>>>> (/home/slitaz/$release/packages) into the /var/lib/tazpkg; and copied
>>>> packages from local repository to cache dir (/var/cache/tazpkg). Now,
>>>> it uses symlinks instead; so virtually cache and local repository **are
>>>> already merged**. It doesn't complexify anything and save a lot of
>>>> ressources. Then, about undigest : as you push the m5sum verification
>>>> in tazpkg, here's whats going on : if names overlaps, it replace the
>>>> symlink to a repository (lets
>>>> say /home/slitaz/cooking/packages/pkg.tazpkg) by a symlink to the
>>>> desired one (i.e. : /home/slitaz/undigest/packages/pkg.tazpkg). So once
>>>> again, all run as cache dir and local repo are merged actually; and
>>>> it's precisely based on tank directory structure = no problem here,
>>>> even with multiple repositories using the same cache. I was talking
>>>> about desirable changes to make things better, because there's really
>>>> no problem with actual behavior. About info files : the side-effect of
>>>> using symlink is that tazpkg recharge is needed only once time; then
>>>> info files linked from local repository are always up-to-date :)
>>>>
>>>> > Also this would require a rewrite of most tools that look at CACHE_DIR
>>>> > path.
>>>> So : tazpkg, as the only other occurence to CACHE_DIR in SliTaz tools
>>>> is a line in tazlito which try to link packages from cache directory to
>>>> the local directory...
>>>>
>>>> > I also use my modular-slitaz that has changes boot option. This saves
>>>> > everything that is not from the livecd into changes folder on my hard
>>>> > drive.
>>>> > The home= boot option you also don't have system settings from /etc
>>>> > folder
>>>> > too.
>>>> >
>>>> > With the way sitaz works the make a full 700mb cd would take over 2gb of
>>>> > ram
>>>> > just for the filesystem. This is cause everything is uncompressed from
>>>> > initramfs file into ram. Also this would cause slitaz to be slow to boot
>>>> > and
>>>> > buidl the iso.
>>>>
>>>> The goal of home= boot option is precisely to use an external devide
>>>> instead of having a home in RAM, so I don't see how it will make grow
>>>> the RAM requirement to 2GB. It's the exact opposite : Having the cache
>>>> folder on /home will avoid keeping all downloaded packages in RAM ! and
>>>> will avoid re-download them at each session. And you can mount
>>>> absolutely what you want as home (i.e: liveCD+home on hdd; usb+home
>>>> from an encrypted file; etc).
>>>>
>>>> > I just think its better to use the /var/cache/tazpkg/undigest/$repo path
>>>> > for
>>>> > undigest for now. We should just work on make home= boot option work
>>>> > more
>>>> > like changes boot option in modular-slitaz.
>>>>
>>>> I don't see the point about home= boot option. I disagree with your
>>>> criticals but obviously you can proceed to this change if you want to.
>>>> Hoverwhere, I think having the cache on a peristent home will be a
>>>> great improvement and I intend to code this someday.
>>>>
>>>> Peace,
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> GoKhlaYeh <gokhlayeh@xxxxxxxxxx>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> ---
>>>> SliTaz GNU/Linux Mailing list - http://www.slitaz.org/
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>

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