[OmniOS-discuss] Kayak for ISO and USB now in Beta (with source to review)

[Dan McDonald]

Hello everyone!

Over the past few weeks I've been hammering on a problem:  What to do about installation in a Python2.7 and Loader world?  The existing OmniOS installer, a derivative of old OpenSolaris "caiman", managed the Python2.7 jump, but failed miserably in my efforts to tame it for Loader.  After my first year at OmniTI, I would joke about "ahh, we'll just wait until Kayak on ISO for that...".  Kayak is, of course, our PXE installer, that was brought up by Theo & Eric in the early days of OmniOS.

So I gave up on Caiman, and started down "Kayak for ISO".  It was suprisingly straightforward, if mildly annoying.  I've done some awful hacks to get this up and running, but it is a smooth enough experience for a user, and it allows faster media generation for an OmniOS release.  Please note it is still in Beta... I expect to hear from people as I have during the earlier trials.

First, the code.  For those who like webrevs vs. the current kayak repo:

	http://kebe.com/~danmcd/webrevs/kayak-iso/

For those who like git repos:

	https://github.com/danmcd/kayak-iso/

And finally, for those who just like media:

	http://kebe.com/~danmcd/webrevs/r151021-kayak.iso

	http://kebe.com/~danmcd/webrevs/r151021-kayak.usb-dd

Checksums:

md5 (r151021-kayak.iso) = 2469df1deec9a78ead797f66a3246cbe
sha1 (r151021-kayak.iso) = 9ec0dc1aa2db1b811ea654b723de052df2cde404
sha256 (r151021-kayak.iso) = c4f26268659dae6a9dd1ce3fd66804049478606f71cc6286735e4b8b3017f9ab
md5 (r151021-kayak.usb-dd) = 0e38778d78a993fcf9ed525e20fac6bf
sha1 (r151021-kayak.usb-dd) = 08552a9ba939fd1be69c2e40eea33fe3425095aa
sha256 (r151021-kayak.usb-dd) = c954f3b696d729865d7d41e5a395697d34c6487fd748a8060911f3af54e59dc5


That media will install the latest OmniOS bloody (omnios-master-650595c) straight with loader.

Highlights include:

- Ability to create mirrored rpools.

- Ability to let the user create a custom rpool, and then have the installer finish the job.

- No more pesky function keys.

- Any device diskinfo(1M) can see will show up on the installation menu, modulo some corner-cases below.

- Improved (but not full improvement) abilities not only for blkdev devices, but for virtualized environment installations.

Known issues:

- Some vioblk disks appear twice.  See Prakash Surya's earlier note on this list about it.

- The keyboard setting doesn't stick on the installed image.  You need to run "kbd -s" manually post-installation.

Please let me know what you think!

Thanks,
Dan