My Build System

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This is totally out of date. It represents what I was using at the end of the Dillo 0.8 cycle, but no longer represents what I have available today.

I use three different computers to build RPMs for Dillo. My main computer handles the current Red Hat release, a few others, and a number of distributions installed under User-Mode Linux and mach. A second computer serves as a system for experimentation and for Linux distributions that I can't easily set up under UML. A third handles PowerPC distributions.

Ghostwheel

My main computer at home is an AMD Sempron 2800+ with 512 MB of RAM and more hard drive space than I know what to do with. This system has been upgraded piece by piece since 1994. It started out as a 486-based Compaq running Windows 3.1, and is now on its fourth case, fifth or sixth processor and motherboard, and fifth or sixth hard drive (each one bigger than the last, of course!) I've been using Red Hat Linux since version 5.1, dual-booting with Windows 95/98 for several years before going all-Linux in 2001, and I now use Fedora Core as my main operating system. For building RPMs, I used to multiboot into several other Linux distributions installed on other partitions. Since then I've set up several distributions running under User-Mode Linux. UML allows me to set up virtual Linux systems that run on top of my main OS. This saves me a lot of rebooting, and cuts down the risk of damaging partitions while installing.

I've also started experimenting with mach and mock, two similar tools geared toward building packages for various distributions. Both create a directory tree filled with the “target” distribution's files and use chroot to run, effectively, as that distribution. This has an advantage over UML because it is running directly on the processor instead of emulated, and compiling in UML is very slow.

• Installed Linux Distributions
  • Fedora Core 5 (main OS)
  • Red Hat 7.3
• UML Virtual Systems
  • Conectiva 8
  • Mandrake 8.1
  • Mandrake 8.2
  • Red Hat 6.2
  • Red Hat 7.1
  • Red Hat 7.2
  • Red Hat 8.0
  • Red Hat 9
• Mach/Mock build roots
  • Fedora Core 1
  • Fedora Core 2
  • Fedora Core 3
  • Red Hat 7.3
  • Red Hat 9

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RedShirt

After installing Conectiva 8 on my main computer partly trashed my partition table, I decided I needed a computer I could afford to mess up. I cobbled together a new system out of old parts from past upgrades, a few discards from work (CPU) and family (CD-ROM), and $43 of parts from Fry's (a case and a floppy drive). The result wasn't terribly impressive, but it was enough, and I've since rebuilt it with parts left over from the last time I upgraded Ghostwheel. Now it's an Athlon 1200 with 512 MB of RAM.

The mix of installed operating systems changes frequently and includes Linux distributions for building RPMs and (from time to time) other operating systems I'm trying out. Here's what I've got at the moment:

• Currently Installed Operating Systems
  • CentOS 3
  • CentOS 4
  • Conectiva Linux 9
  • Fedora Core Linux 2
  • Mandrake Linux 9.2
  • Mandrake Linux 10.0
  • Mandrake Linux 10.1
  • SuSE Linux 9.1
  • SuSE Linux 9.2
  • SuSE Linux 10.0

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Mikhail

My wife and I share a PowerBook which we bought from Terra Soft Solutions, the company behind Yellow Dog Linux and an Apple reseller. It came with Mac OS X and Yellow Dog Linux 3, although it spends most of its time on Mac OS. It's not an experimental machine, so I will not be adding any more operating systems to it, just upgrading the ones it has. Fortunately, mach has profiles for earlier versions of Yellow Dog, so I should be able to continue to build packages for older releases.

• Installed Operating Systems
  • Mac OS X 10.4
  • Yellow Dog Linux 4.0
• Mach build roots
  • Yellow Dog Linux 3

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