ADP Anaconda Patches, 7/9/2009 Edition

["Alford, Seth" <Seth_Alford adp com>]

The ADP Anaconda Patches, 7/9/2009 Edition

$Id: README /main/10 2009/07/10 00:12:59 alfords Exp $
Copyright (c) 2001-2009 Automatic Data Processing Inc.  


NOTICE:

This is a README which describes a series of anaconda patches
which ADP is redistributing.

We are publishing this software to fulfill the requirements of
the GPL.  This software is offered with NO WARRANTY and NO
SUPPORT of any kind.

If you are reading this and you are not an ADP employee, see
subsection 1.2, "Licensing, Intended Audience, and a Note for
Non-ADP Readers", below.


CHANGELOG:

6/30/2009

Completely rewrote this README from a previous version.  I
deleted a lot of extraneous information, including syslinux
changes, and some suggestions for how to debug anaconda.  The
syslinux changes are described in a separate posting I made to
the syslinux mailing list.  Other features or debugging
techniques are described in documentation from RedHat.  I also
included information specific to individual patches with those
specific patches, rather than having all that documentation here.
That makes this README much shorter.  Since it's shorter, people
might actually read it.  Since this is a complete rewrite, I
restarted the CHANGELOG.


TABLE OF CONTENTS:

1.  INTRODUCTION
	1.1  What is this?
	1.2  Licensing, Intended Audience, and a Note for Non-ADP
	     Readers
	1.3  What ADP Needed versus Anaconda's Capabilities

2.  HELPFUL RESOURCES
	2.1  What to Read
	2.2  Preparing for Anaconda Development


1.  INTRODUCTION

1.1  What is this?

Some years ago, ADP modified the anaconda which came with RedHat
7.0, and, later, RedHat 8.0.  To comply with the GPL, we
redistributed changes that we made to those versions of anaconda.
To explain what we did, we wrote a large README which we posted
with the modifications.

ADP has now modified the anaconda which came with CentOS 5.3.
The newer version of anaconda is more powerful than the older
versions.  The newer anaconda is much closer to what ADP needs.
But, we still had to modify anaconda itself to get it to do what
we wanted.

We're now sharing those modifications.  That's so that:

  1.  We fulfill the requirements of the GPL
  2.  Our modifications might be picked up and included in the
      base code.  That way we don't have to make the same
      modifications again, later.

Also, rather than produce a single large README, I split up the
information between this smaller README and each patch.

1.2  Licensing, Intended Audience, and a Note for Non-ADP Readers

An intended audience for this README are developers at ADP, who
might have to further modify anaconda in the future.  Note that I
said "might".  ADP makes no promise that ADP will make any
further modifications to this software.  As I said above, this
software is offered with NO WARRANTY and NO SUPPORT of any kind.
A secondary intended audience for this README are people who are
not at ADP.

We could have written two versions of this README file: one for
ADP readers, and one for non-ADP readers.  But, we did not want
to have to maintain internal and external versions of this README
and/or the accompanying software.  Hence these patches may
contain some references to non-GPL'd software, or ADP's build
environment, which are "independent and separate works" under
section 2 of the GPL, and therefore not covered by the GPL.
THEREFORE, WE ARE NOT PUBLISHING ANYTHING ELSE UNDER THE GPL,
INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO:

	* files which do not appear in the patches,
	* ADP's proprietary backup and restore software,
	* our build environment,
	* other ADP proprietary software referenced or included
	  by this README, including but not limited to DSDA.

That means:

	* this README may contain some references which won't make
	  sense to non-ADP readers.  These include, but are not
	  limited to, our build environment, and build process.
	  We don't provide explanation for these references,
	  either.
	* other parts of anaconda, as modified, may also be
	  non-functional.
	* some readers may find themselves saying, "yes, I
	  know about that already."  Other readers may say, "I
	  don't understand that reference, it must be an
	  ADP-ism."


1.3  What ADP Needed versus Anaconda's Capabilities

For ADP's purposes, anaconda, even with a customized kickstart
file, lacked several features, including:

* simplified messages for the user
* completely automatic partitioning on a variety of disk
  configurations, and support for some specific-to-ADP disk
  partitioning requirements
* support for tape restore
* --userinput flag to pre and post install scripts
* -s flag passed to pre and post install scripts when running on
  a serial console
* support for a restore install type


2.  HELPFUL RESOURCES

2.1  What to Read

Here is an incomplete list of resources that I think will help
you in learning how to modify anaconda and kickstart:

* Beazley's _Python Essential Reference_.  Remember, anaconda is
  written in Python.  Check which version of Python comes with
  your version of anaconda.  Make sure that your version of
  Beazley addresses a matching version of Python.  Otherwise, you
  may find yourself trying to take advantage of a new Python
  feature that doesn't exist in your environment.  Or, you might
  find you are puzzled by a Python feature in one of the anaconda
  sources that Beazley does not explain.

* The RedHat Enterprise Linux Installation Guide, available at
  http://www.redhat.com/docs/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/5/html/Installation_Guide/index.html

* The kickstart-list and anaconda-dev mailing lists.  You can join at
  www.redhat.com.  The list archives are located there, too.

* Most importantly, read Chris Lumens' pykickstart documentation.
  You should be able to get this by installing the pykickstart
  rpm then looking in
  /usr/share/doc/pykickstart*/programmers-guide .


2.2  Preparing for Anaconda Development

Install at least the python, python-devel, pykickstart, anaconda,
and anaconda-runtime packages and their dependencies on your
Linux development system.


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