On Mon, Apr 29, 2024, at 8:17 AM, Peter Boy wrote:
Folks,
We distribute a distribution medium called „Everything“ at
https://alt.fedoraproject.org/ and various subpages. This provides
several (mutually exclusive) installation options, in addition to all
desktop spins and labs also a "Fedora Server Edition". There are
several problems with this:
1.
The installation falsely claims to install "Fedora Server Edition" and
reports accordingly when booting. However, the default values install a
desktop environment, so that our Fedora Server Edition comes with btrfs
and a large /home subvolume, among other things. This violates pretty
much all of the lower technical specifications for the Fedora Server
Edition.
Desktops don't have their own net installer images. Therefore it was decided that the
"everything" netinstaller would use the desktop default file system because it
was more likely desktop users would use the default, where Server folks would most likely
use the Server specific netinstaller or they'd check (and modify if desired) the
storage configuration.
The way the installer works, the default file system is set on the specific installation
media - not tied to a particular package set. I have no idea if this could be changed, or
what would be involved to change it - it's an installer team question.
2.
There are always users who download the "Everything" medium instead of
the various edition-specific media. They rely on the "Fedora Server
Edition" label and then complain that nothing works as it should and as
it is described in our documentation.
OK but does your documentation steer them toward the Server specific net installer? If you
have, then you've done all you can. You can't reduce human behaviors to zero - you
can only do your best to steer them in the direction you want to go in.
3.
Funnily enough, a "wild collection" of groups is offered as sub-options
for the server installation, ranging from various graphical user
interfaces to special configurations such as video editing. All of this
certainly has no place on a "Fedora Server Edition".
*shrug*
A consequence of having downloaded the "everything" net installer?
5.
And even worse, a major provider of rentable ROOT servers (Hetzner),
which has just managed to bring Fedora back into its supported OS
options, uses "Everything" because it's the best for customers. And
thus produces user disappointment at a critical point. This thwarts our
efforts to make Fedora Server Edition available on other platforms.
I agree that Server WG expects a different storage layout in its Technical Specification
doc, from what the "Everything" net installer produces.
However, you realize that any provider or downstream can simply use kickstart to configure
storage however they want, and then choose to install the Fedora Server Edition
environment?
The storage configuration default is not really what makes for Fedora Server Edition -
it's just a preselection. A user, provider, downstream picking some other
configuration doesn't make it NOT Fedora Server Edition.
--
Chris Murphy