Re: gtkfb and debian-installer

[Owen Taylor <otaylor redhat com>]

Michael Cardenas <mbc debian org> writes:

> Hello all. 
> 
> I am trying to make udebs of gtkfb for the debian-installer, because I
> have written a gtk frontend for d-i, which will require gtk, and the
> debian-installer team thinks that gtkfb will be the best solution.  
> 
> I have been following this whitepaper to make gtkfb:
> 
> http://www.redhat.com/devnet/articles/gtkfb-whitepaper/size.html
> 
> Apparently, gtkfb requires special compile options for glib, pango,
> and gtk. I have a mostly working udeb for glib, but the pango compile
> is giving me some problems. Specifically, I have added these configure
> options: --enable-debug=no --with-included-modules=yes and after this
> compile line:

Note that there is no actual requirement to use --with-included-modules=yes
with linux-fb, unless you need a standalone binary, which
you probably don't for your installer.

I might suggest, however, just biting the bullet and using an
X server and GTK+ for X.

Why?

 - More actively maintained and complete version of GTK+

 - You don't need to maintain separate GTK+/Pango packages that
   are very different from the main distribution.

 - You already need to be able to run an X server on all 
   hardware you support; why worry about whether you can 
   run the fb driver on all this hardware.

That's what we do for the Red Hat installer, anyways. Yes, it
will be a bit heavier, but you aren't going to be able to
fit an interesting installer onto a floppy anyways; even
leaving aside the GUI, kernel/modules/utilities for raid/etc
are going to make it impractical.

Regards,
                                        Owen