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  Get bluewall now!

^ DESCRIPTION

Bluewall is a GNU/Linux distribution based on Debian SID and pkgsrc. It aims to create a complete pkgsrc-based GNU/Linux distribution.

^ DOWNLOAD

o bluewall-1.2.2-lite.iso (ftp) (http) ( 93MB 'md5sum 37a05047c1a3f644d60937ef9fbdb117 'date 20060528)

o bluewall-1.2.1-lite.iso ( 109MB 'md5sum 2345a1a37e1d23288387e24f849e82d7 'date 20060214)

o bluewall-1.2-lite.iso ( 129MB 'md5sum 12385c2b1f28e22e13fe7a3fb668b385 )
.. binary package list: debian pkgsrc

o bluewall-1.2.iso ( 643MB 'md5sum 39e626039da77560d635242559e5e4a0 )
.. binary package list: debian pkgsrc pkgsrc(cd-rom)

o bluewall-1.1.iso ( 198MB 'md5sum 5ba7c8161b2e950d09f757bfb6964bef )

^ NEWS

2006-05-28 : Bluewall 1.2.2 released
This new release updates the debian base to the current day, fixes some awk problems with pkgsrc. Now uses the kernel 2.6.16.18 and comes with a new interesting tool called "bwctl" that allows you to create and manage system profiles. send-pr has been added to the base system and some /dev/input perms have been fixed.

2006-03-30 : New website design

2006-03-18 : Fixups for the latest pkgsrc
A bug was found in the latest cvs pkgsrc branch. This bug makes 'bmake plist' to create an empty work/.PLIST file, so, all your packages will be registered with no contained files. This workaround will be done on the next release of bluewall. To fix this you will need to do this:
# apt-get install original-awk
# echo TOOLS_PLATFORM.awk=/usr/bin/original-awk >> /etc/mk.conf

2006-02-14 : bluewall 1.2.1 released!
Some interesting fixups has been done on this release. Some things are now automatically done at startup. rc.subr support has been added (to boot pkgsrc apps at startup). kernel 2.4 support has been removed and the base system is now cleaner than before. Installation process documentation added. (See 'Changelog' FMI (included in the iso)).

2006-02-05 : bluewall 1.2 released!
After some long time, a new bluewall has been released. This is a transient release, after the maintainer change this version tries to be a testing release, but feel free to report bugs! This new version updates the base debian to SID aka Debian unstable, also integrates the current CVS tree and some (541) i386-binary pkgsrc packages like Gnome, 2.12.2, Gimp 2.2.10, Xorg 6.8.1...

^ SCREENSHOTS


^ INSTALLATION

(1) Prepare the distro (normally automatically done by the startup process)
 $ mount /dev/hdd /mnt/cdrom
 $ ln -s /mnt/cdrom/modules/2.6.* /lib/modules
(2) Installing the new system on your hardisk.
 $ fdisk /dev/hda                             
 $ mkfs.* /dev/hda2                           
 $ mount /dev/hda2 /mnt/root
 $ cd /mnt/root             
 $ tar xzvfp /mnt/cdrom/bluewall/bluewall-*.tar.gz
 $ sync                                           
(3) Configure your system.
 $ mount -o bind /proc /mnt/root/proc
 $ cd /mnt/root/ && chroot .         
 $ vi /etc/fstab                     
 $ vi /boot/grub/menu.lst   
 $ grub-install /dev/hda 
(4) Reboot
 $ ^D # get out the chroot environ.
 $ umount -f /mnt/root/proc /mnt/root /mnt/cdrom
 $ reboot    

^ PKGSRC

To install binary packages:
 $ export PKG_PATH=/mnt/cdrom/packages/
 $ pkg_add vim xorg* icewm aterm perl
To pull the pkgsrc tree: (about 400MB)
 $ CVSROOT=:pserver:anoncvs@anoncvs.NetBSD.org:/cvsroot
 $ cvs login
 $ cd /usr
 $ cvs -z3 co -P pkgsrc
To get the work-in-progress tree: (about 50MB)
 $ export CVSROOT=:pserver:anonymous@pkgsrc-wip.cvs.sf.net:/cvsroot/pkgsrc-wip
 $ cd /usr/pkgsrc && cvs login
 $ cvs -z3 co -P wip
To update the pkgsrc tree:
 $ cd /usr/pkgsrc && cvs -q -z3 up -dP
To build packages from pkgsrc
 $ pkgfind -x emacs
 editors/emacs: GNU editing macros (editor)
 $ cd /usr/pkgsrc/editors/emacs
 $ bmake install
 $ bmake clean
Check for vulnerable packages
 $ download-vulnerability-list
 $ audit-packages
 $ apt-get install apt-listbugs
Check for outdated packages
 $ pkg_chk -u -q
 $ apt-get update && apt-get dist-upgrade
Cleanup your base system
 $ apt-get clean
 $ apt-get remove `deborphan` # repeat this step 2 o 3 times.
 $ dpkg --purge `dpkg -la | grep "^rc"| awk '{print $2 }'`
Upgrading software
 $ cd /usr/pkgsrc/editors/joe
 $ bmake replace
  or
 $ bmake update
There are more esotheric ways to upgrade your software in pkgsrc. FMI Please read the doc/pkgsrc.txt documentation from the pkgsrc tree, or just click here!

^ BWCTL

bwctl is a tool that comes with bluewall and allows you to create and manage system profiles.

Using bwctl you can create a system snapshot into a file (storing system configuration, partitions, installed packages, created users, groups, network, kernel, X, etc). This profile can be stored on a network server allowing you to clone a system on N freshly installed systems.

BTW you can only install certain parts of the profile:
  • disks and partitions (fstab + fdisk -l)
  • kernel, modules and configuration (config.gz)
  • installed packages (pkgsrc and debian)
  • system configuration (users, groups, passwords, ...)
  • services configuration (postfix, apache, ...)
  • pre and postinstall user-defined scripts
  • embedded pkgsrc binary packages
Desired actions for profiles are:
  • install : installs missing packages
  • clone : clones the profile to the current system
  • profile : generate a profile from the current system
  • diff : diffs the current system against the profile
  • view : prints information about the profile
  • xconfig : generates a default x config file to stdout

^ LOCALIZATION

You'll probably be interested to have your system localized for your timezone/language. Follow these steps to get your system in spanish:
# Keymap for console
$ ln -fs /usr/share/keymaps/i386/qwerty/es.kmap.gz /etc/console/boottime.kmap.gz

# Zone info
$ ln -fs /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Andorra /etc/localtime

# Locales
$ apt-get install locales user-es
$ castellanizar
$ dpkg-reconfigure locales # select your locales, and deselect the rest.

^ PLANS

o Port to ppc and amd64.
o Create a public GIT repository to serve the distro build scripts.
o Create a tool to manage system profiles to store and restore from scratch. (DONE) o Public HTTP repository for pkgsrc-gnu-linux binary packages.(Volunteers needed)
o Dual x86/ppc iso.
o Mirrors/emule/bittorrent iso images.
o Drop the debian dependency to create a 100% pkgsrc distro.
o pkgsrc-bootstrap into a debian package

^ URLS

o pkgsrc - The NetBSD Packages Collection.
o pkgsrc.se - Freshports-like portal for pkgrc.
o debian - Debian GNU/Linux.
o linuxbase - LBS : Linux Base System.
o apt-get - Command line frontend for Debian packages.
o pancake's blog - My blog :P

^ CONTACT

Feel free to join the mailing list.

o bluewall mailing list o bluewall mailing list archives



Help is welcome!   

--pancake