Rubyx (linux distro created using ruby) - Bootstrap volunteers required

ruby-talk
1

Rubyx is almost ready to go public :slight_smile:
The servers are in place, domains acquired, howtos written…

I would like to get some bootstrap testing done first though.

What I need are volunteers who have

  1. Broadband or better
  2. A machine with a recent Redhat/Mandrake/Debian/Gentoo/Other distro and some
    spare Gbs to build a rubyx distro into
  3. Some spare cpu cyles for an (overnight?) download and build cycle

Thats it; I don’t need you to test the distro itself (although you’d be
welcome to try it), just test whether it will bootstrap itself from your
current distro.

It would take only a few minutes to download the script and start the test
going, so wouldn’t take much of your time. Some number of hours later, you
can tell me whether or not it worked, and perhaps email me some logs if it
failed.

If you can help, email me and I’ll send you some instructions.

Thanks!

Andrew Walrond

PS
Rubyx is a real simple to install/maintain distro which builds everything from
source using a very simple script written in ruby. It has a ruby based init
system, and supports a growing package library including the very latest
Gnome, Kde, Linux 2.4.x and 2.6.x etc etc.

It was originally developed to run the backend servers of a massive-
multiplayer game (the development of which is my day job) but has somewhat
grown over time to become a viable desktop os.

2

I’m here to be used and abused, ever since the post on ./ I’ve put aside a
spare machine in the R & D part of the office for this moment. =)

Just point me in the direction or send me a link. I’ll be on it first thing
tommorrow am.

Zach

···

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3

Andrew Walrond wrote:

What I need are volunteers who have

  1. Broadband or better
  2. A machine with a recent Redhat/Mandrake/Debian/Gentoo/Other distro and some
    spare Gbs to build a rubyx distro into
  3. Some spare cpu cyles for an (overnight?) download and build cycle

I can offer all of those, and I’d happily volunteer in testing it. Send
some instructions and I’ll try :slight_smile:

Kind regards,
Dennis Oelkers

···

–
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TU-Berlin | EN-Gebaeude, K042 | Telefon: 030-314-25029

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4

Well the slashdot thing was for the ROS project, a much grander endeavour than
rubyx, but perhaps not yet as well developed.

But if you’re not too disappointed, I could still use the testing :slight_smile:

···

On Sunday 01 Feb 2004 10:25 pm, Zach Dennis wrote:

I’m here to be used and abused, ever since the post on ./ I’ve put aside a
spare machine in the R & D part of the office for this moment. =)

5

Well the slashdot thing was for the ROS project, a much grander endeavour
than
rubyx, but perhaps not yet as well developed.

Well if they’re not ready yet for testing, but you are, then hell I support
the Ruby cause period. Let me know what to do. :wink:

Zach

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6

ROS is in the planning state… ATM all my resources goes into the regexp
engine. :slight_smile:

···

On Mon, 02 Feb 2004 07:55:46 +0900, Andrew Walrond wrote:

On Sunday 01 Feb 2004 10:25 pm, Zach Dennis wrote:

I’m here to be used and abused, ever since the post on ./ I’ve put aside a
spare machine in the R & D part of the office for this moment. =)

Well the slashdot thing was for the ROS project, a much grander endeavour than
rubyx, but perhaps not yet as well developed.

–
Simon Strandgaard

7

  1. Download and install a stable ruby snapshot newer than 2004-01-14
    (Rubyx hits some bugs in ruby 1.8.1 which have been fixed in recent stable
    snapshots)

  2. Register, download and install bitkeeper from
    http://www.bitmover.com/cgi-bin/download.cgi

  3. Clone a local copy of rubyx
    bk clone bk://bk.rubyx.org/rubyx
    cd rubyx
    bk -r co

  4. Make sure you have unrar installed and in your path. (All rubyx sources are
    maximally rar compressed to reduce download time. Its better even than bz2)

  5. Take a look around. rubyx is the main deal, init is the ruby init script
    and the package build instructions are in packages/.

Now if you run ‘./rubyx’ you should see something like:

Rubyx andrew@atlas|rubyx|20040201205716|03969

--rd/root-dir          path
--cf/configure         group|package <attrib 'setting'> ...
--in/install           group|package ...
--up/upgrade           group|package ...
--re/reinstall         group|package ...
--un/uninstall         group|package ...
--cl/clean

--tp/target-processor  <cpu>

--bj/build-jobs        <###>
--mj/make-jobs         <###>
--sp/source-path       path

--rf/read-file         filename
--ef/expand-file       filename

--md/make-devices
--nd/no-download
--nb/no-build
--nk/no-keep
--io/include-options
--rt/run-tests
--di/distributed
--sd/strip-debug
--vb/verbose

--qg/query-group       <pattern>
--qp/query-package     <pattern>

--cd/check-dependancies

Now you’ll need an empty partition (or just a directory if you like) to
bootstrap rubyx into. 2Gb should be ample. Eg /my/rubyx/rootdir

Next, pick a rubyx supported vanilla kernel (2.4.20-24, 2.6.0-1) and create
a .config file for it (unpack the source then do make menuconfig). If you’re
already running a supported kernel, just take a copy of your current .config
file. Eg linux-2.4.24.config

Ok, we’re almost ready to start the bootstrap. Here is the commandline; I’ve
split it over several lines for clarity, but they should all be one line when
you run it. You can also use the short options for brevity (see above)

./rubyx
–root-dir /my/rubyx/rootdir
–configure linux version 2.4.24 config --read-file linux-2.4.20.config
–target-processor pentium3
–build-jobs 1
–make-jobs 2
–make-devices
–install All

The first line says where to bootstrap the distro.
The second line chooses linux 2.4.24 and reads your .config file
–target-processor selects a cpu. ‘./rubyx --tp’ will show you a list
–build-jobs sets the maximum number of packages that will be built in
parallel. 1 is good for a slow machine with limited ram. Increase to taste :slight_smile:
–make-jobs option selects the max number of make threads allowed on each
package build (like doing make -j#). 2 is a good minimum.
–make-devices will populate the /dev directory. You don’t need to do this if
you would be using devfs or udev
–install All installs all available packages. Note the capital ‘A’ in All.
individual packages start with lower case (eg samba). Groups start with a
Capital (eg All Net, Disk, Server, Workstation, Development)

Try it. You’ll get an error with some instructions on howto setup a bitkeeper
authority file. You’ll only have to do this once

Try it again. This time, all being well, a full blooded rubyx distro will
begin to take shape. If not, well, thats why I wanted some testing :slight_smile:

Andrew