Hi,
I am maintaining a systemd, Debian-based Linux distribution (Kicksecure)
and am considering moving to mkosi as the "base image creation tool".
It seems mkosi is a fine OS image builder. With systemd-repart, you even
solved the resizing of partitions at the first boot, which is magic.
Suppose a Linux distribution is providing an OS image that can be
written to USB. Maybe soon, even to a CD/DVD. [1]
Suppose that OS image is supposed to be able to act as an installer, so
the user can use it to install it on an internal hard drive.
Is something like Kickstart or Calamares still required? It seems (at
least Calamares, whose code I am reading) is kind of "yet another OS
image builder". It doesn't build an image but instead writes to a hard
drive. However, I find it problematic that a lot of code (creating
partition tables, creating file systems, making bootable) is duplicated. [2]
Do you have any suggestions?
Did you envision replacing installers, or do you already have tools for
that?
Cheers,
Patrick
[1] https://github.com/systemd/systemd/issues/28798
[2] But what about installer questions, customization such as time zone,
keyboard layout? I think the crucial question for an installer is the
target drive, and that's it. Perhaps partitioning and file system
choices, but that is more for geeks. How about time zone, keyboard
layout? Valid points. But I think those would be better handled through
a first-boot GUI wizard.
