[vbox-dev] IPS package

Wed Apr 2 22:33:05 UTC 2014

BTW, I just upgraded the documentation on github so it's more
descriptive, with example of running the script and also running an
upgrade: 

https://github.com/tgouverneur/VBox-SVR2IPS 

Let me know,

--Thomas 

Le 2014-04-02 22:45, Thomas Gouverneur a écrit : 

> Klaus,

> 
> The current script I've been working on is doing exactly what you
describe. I'm adding a run-once service into SMF. 
> 
> I also add an
/opt/VirtualBox/VERSION file with the package's version string inside
it. 
> 
> When run-once SMF service start, it checks this file against
its latests known version and if that doesn't match, a postinstall +
driver cleaning is ran. 
> 
> How can I work with you guys to know
what's potentially currently missing and how you'd like it to be
implemented? 
> 
> Also, what is your possibilities at Oracle to make an
IPS repository available? 
> 
> I'd really like to get things moving in
the good direction there, IPS is really an improvement to me and I guess
also to a lot of other virtualbox users. 
> 
> If needed, we can have a
call together to discuss this further off-list... let me know. 
> 
>
--Thomas 
> 
> Le 2014-04-02 17:52, Klaus Espenlaub a écrit : 
> 
>> Hi
Thomas,
>> 
>> On 02.04.2014 14:45, Thomas Gouverneur wrote:
>> 
>>>
Ram, As far as I'm aware, there's no way to automatise it, although I
find it better than nothing to benefit from the IPS packaging rather
than the SVR one. On another side, we can still display a big fat
warning when the user is trying to install/upgrade with the instructions
to get this done the proper way.
>> 
>> If I'm not completely behind
this isn't possible with IPS, as one of its 
>> design decisions was
that a package install/upgrade/uninstall cannot 
>> ever block to ask
for input or provide any output besides requesting a 
>> reboot. I don't
think anyone seriously considers reboots to be an option 
>> (it's a
problem, not a solution).
>> 
>> To reach a good usability a VirtualBox
IPS needs to be able to reliably 
>> trigger some activity for ALL of
the following situations: 
>> postinstall/postupgrade/postuninstall (and
it'd be nice to have 
>> preinstall/preupgrade/preuninistall for doing
some truly vital 
>> cleanups). Would it be possible to use a variable
component in the SMF 
>> run-once service name like the package version
to trigger activities for 
>> upgrades (only necessary for the case of
upgrading a live system)? 
>> Anything automatable in a build process is
fine with us. Trust me, we're 
>> not afraid of complex implementations
:)
>> 
>> If these activities aren't possible then the only way would be
to detect 
>> a driver/application version mismatch when some VirtualBox
application 
>> is started, and this is where we get into the very bad
user experience 
>> region: this is generally done by non-root users,
who don't have the 
>> privileges to rectify the problem and have to ask
the admin to complete 
>> the manual part of the upgrade.
>> 
>> I
briefly thought about doing a "dummy IPS" package, i.e. one which 
>>
simply dumps the PKG file into some location, and use the run-once 
>>
service to do the PKG install, but honestly this is several orders of

>> magnitude too ugly to be acceptable.
>> 
>>> What do you think?
Could this be integrated?
>> 
>> We're not against IPS packaging, we'd
be gladly providing IPS packages 
>> tailored for Solaris 11 ourselves
if only there would be a good solution 
>> in sight which is user
friendly. So far we couldn't find any way to 
>> create an IPS package
with an acceptable user experience, and that's why 
>> we stick to the
PKG stuff which has the necessary hooks.
>> 
>> The IPS package has
quite some potential (directly installing the 
>> package as part of
autoinstall, skipping the useless 32 bit binaries, 
>> skipping
irrelevant drivers like the streams based bridging support, 
>> i.e.
reducing the package size significantly)...
>> 
>> Klaus
>>
vbox-dev at virtualbox.org
https://www.virtualbox.org/mailman/listinfo/vbox-dev [3]
> 
> -- 
>
--Thomas
> 
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>
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-- 
--Thomas

Links:
------
[1] https://github.com/tgouverneur/VBox-SVR2IPS
[2]
http://mdma.igh.cnrs.fr/vbox/en/catalog.shtml?show_all_versions=1&amp;action=Refresh
[3]
https://www.virtualbox.org/mailman/listinfo/vbox-dev
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