http://www.phys.ethz.ch/~franklin/Projects/dphys3/FAQ
author Neil Franklin, last modification 2006.12.01
copyright ETH Zuerich Physics Departement, use under either BSD or GPL license


Frequently* Asked Questions (FAQ) for the dphys3 project

* not really frequent, but that is what such files are called


Q: Why are you building an installer?

A: - Because we dont like baby-sitting install programs (its boring)
   - Because we want an exactly repeatable install (no random differences)
   - Because we want an fast re-install (after HD replacement or break in)
   - Because this already worked great for our Debian woody 3.0 (dphys2)
       and Debian potato 2.2 (dphys) installs


Q: Why not use FAI (Fully Automated Install)

A: - I looked at it and came to the conclusion that it is too complicated. It
     also fits our existing style badly (retraining, etc)
   - FAI seems to be an top-down thinkers way (it comes from an CS group)
     while dphys2/3 is an bottom-up thinkers design (comes from admins)
   - The world can do with an choice of automated installers. This one intends
     to be the simple end of things. If this project had not already had its
     dphys name, I would have called it SAI (Simple Automated Installer)
   - We now have experience with our older dphys2, and want keep its style
     and all the configs we have built up based on it and the system it makes
   - With the new Debian installers preseed feature this way is even easier,
     we just need to generate preseeded disks, and fix up a few things
     (OK, those were famous last words ... :-))


Q: Why is this called dphys3

A: It replaces our existing dphys2, and is sufficiently different to not be
   numbered 2.1. Differences is mainly that the new Debian d-i installer
   allows preseeding the debconf database, so we can use that instead of making
   our own dbootstrap replacement and debconf-preload


Q: Why are dphys/dphys2/dphys3 called that, anyway?

A: It stands for Debian Powered Hosts Yet Simple, and that is an backronym,
   from D-PHYS (Departement of PHYSics)


Q: Where can I get code?

A: The newest (read: in edit, sometimes not functional) from:
   http://www.phys.ethz.ch/~franklin/Projects/dphys3/ or as .tar.gz as:
   http://www.phys.ethz.ch/~franklin/Projects/dphys3.tar.gz

   Various milestones/releases (read: archives, working) from:
   http://www.phys.ethz.ch/~franklin/Projects/dphys3-<date>/ or as .tar.gz as:
   http://www.phys.ethz.ch/~franklin/Projects/dphys3-<date>.tar.gz
     where last milestone/release is <date>=20061201