05-05-2012, 12:36 PM
A Graphical Live-CD Installer for BOSS GNU/Linux
e-Governance_Paper_7. LI4B-A Graphical Live CD installer for BOSS GNU-Linux.pdf (Size: 254.91 KB / Downloads: 82)
Introduction
Bharat Operating System Solution (BOSS) is a GNU/Linux distribution developed by CDAC for enhancing the use of Free/Open Source Software in the country. Made specifically for the Indian environment, it consists of a pleasing environment coupled with Indian Language support and other packages that are most relevant for use in the government and educational domains. BOSS GNU/Linux has had eight releases so far including both Server & Desktop editions. The latest release of BOSS GNU/Linux is BOSS GNU/Linux version 3.1 (Tejas). CDAC Noida is functioning as a Primary Resource Centre for BOSS GNU/Linux. The BOSS Team at Noida has been working towards developing a live installer for BOSS GNU/Linux – LI4B. Currently BOSS GNU/Linux has separate Live CD and installable versions. A user who wishes to install BOSS GNU/Linux after having booted into the Live CD must reboot into the installer from the BOSS GNU/Linux boot screen. Apart from this, the current installation uses a customized version of Debian’s installer d-i. d-i uses a cdebconf based installation mechanism which takes anywhere between 30 minutes to 1 hour to complete the installation depending on the hardware configuration. LI4B has speeded up the installation process and also enhanced user friendliness. It allows the user to install BOSS GNU/Linux from within the Live CD. This paper describes in detail the design and architecture of LI4B. This paper is divided into the following Sections. Section 2 describes the current BOSS GNU/Linux installer. Section 3 describes design of LI4B. Section 4 provides a comparison between the time taken for installation using the standard BOSS GNU/Linux and LI4B. Section 5 consists of the conclusion and future work.
2. Background Installation Steps of the existing BOSS GNU/Linux Installer
BOSS GNU/Linux is derived from Debian [1] GNU/Linux. Debian is a versatile Linux distribution made up entirely of Free & Open Source Software. It is amongst the earliest distributions and is renowned for its stability and security. It also has one of the largest repositories of software packages comprising of both desktop and server related software. BOSS GNU/Linux inherits these strengths of Debian and adds to it by integrating ’s expertise in localization and FOSS development. BOSS GNU/Linux uses a customized version of the Debian's installer d-i. The customized installer includes support for Indian Languages such as Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Malayalam, Punjabi and Tamil. Apart from language support, to automate and install certain additional packages it also uses a customized preseed file.
Design
Functioning from within a live environment allows LI4B to let the user boot up and use BOSS GNU/Linux before installing it. A Live CD functions within a live environment wherein the entire Operating System works out of RAM. This allows user to use BOSS GNU/Linux without making any changes to their existing software. All the applications that will be available post installation are present in the live environment and the user can try them out before performing the actual installation. Since the user already has experienced using BOSS GNU/Linux using the Live CD he/she is more at home with the OS while installing than when booting straight into the installer. Another advantage is that this also ensures that the device drivers required to run BOSS GNU/Linux on the user’s hardware are available, thereby drastically reducing the chances of the user having trouble booting into BOSS GNU/Linux post installation due to device driver related issues.