[App_rpt-users] AllStarLink Install process.

[Steve Zingman]

This is nuts!

  Loren contacted me directly at 18:30 Saturday night, to tell me "Hey! 
You might want to add this before the installation of the certificates.. 
apt-get install ca-certificates <- With out this you can't download it 
on a fresh system.. (Just found out today)" When I get a report like 
this I try to recreate the issue. I could not recreate her problem. I 
suggested she do a apt-get upgrade since the cert should be up to date. 
This did not help. She then reported another error when trying to do a 
apt-get install allstarlink. I decided it was time to spin up a fresh VM 
to see if I could recreate here problem. I run a VMware ESX cluster at 
work, so it's easy for me to spin up a VM. I did a fresh install of 
Debian 8, 64 bit, added the repository and performed the apt-get install 
allstarlink. It did not report any errors and the install worked. Just 
in case I ran a second test this time doing a 32bit install. Again, no 
problem.

  At 19:30 She told me "you can install proxmox on a main machine use 
the linux container rather than a VM" "container is better than a vm 
though as far as resource and cpu latency that is.." Ah, she is running 
on a container. I do use VMs in production and they are a great tool to 
test things like a ISO install. I can roll back quickly and do not have 
problems installing from stock Linux ISOs. Since ASL requires DAHDI, a 
kernel module has to be built. I said I have to question the ability of 
a container to install a kernel module. Google turned up a number of 
hits and possible solutions.

  At this point Loren had moved on to installing from the ISO. I posted 
the ISO in July. The file is a .tar.gz file. Pretty standard for most 
operating systems. Could it have been a zip? Yes. I did not see much 
difference. Inside of the compressed file are a couple of readme files, 
the ISO and a text file containing the MD5 of the ISO file. I may be 
wrong, but this is pretty good insurance that the ISO you get is what I 
posted. At about 20:00 Loren reported that the ISO install was stuck on  
Reading State information. I went to the download site, downloaded 
<http://dvswitch.org/files/AllStarLink/allstar-firmware-8.7.1-amd64-i386-netinst.tar.gz> 
This is the file I posted in July. I used 7zip oin Windows to extract 
the ISO and used that ISO to test install 32 bit and 64 bit. Both worked 
as expected. Loren then told me "the files are saved as a tar and its a 
tar inside of a tar no matter how many times i unzip it it shows this 
way" I tried to explain that a .tar.gz file is a gzipped tar file. I 
tried to explain the the MD5 in the text file needed to match the MD5 of 
the ISO file. I went so far as to send her a screen shot from my Window 
7 machine showing 7zip and the contents of the file. it's now almost 
22:00.  She told me "Those file sizes are incorrect for what i have 
here.. I also use 7 zip to unpack files.." Also, "I suggest probably 
just pulling the iso now especially since its not working correctly" 
Really? Quite a few people have used the exact same download. I can't 
recreate here problem and it's time to head for bed.

  At 08:00 the next morning Loren posts "I have downloaded the iso image 
on now 7 seperate machines looking to get a non corrupted iso image for 
allstar" OK, I've had enough.

  The ISO is built from the Debian NetInstall ISO. As with the the 
Debian ISO, parts of the install are on the ISO and parts are downloaded 
from the Internet. In our case, with this version of the ISO, the source 
code is downloaded and installed. The ISO installer as gone through a 
number of changes to try to address issues people have encountered. I 
can not test on every piece of hardware or platform. I have to rely on 
repeatable reports. The apt-get install and the ASL repository are the 
first step in moving away from installing from source. With the 
repository as bugs are found and enhancements added, I can push out a 
change and the user can do a simple apt-get upgrade. The RaspberryPi 
version is now built this way and the next version of the ISO will be 
built the same way. The current source code will always be be in github 
and available to anyone who wants to install from source or customize 
it. It's open source and always will be.

  Is software perfect? No, is the install method perfect? No. It is a 
work in progress. Do the scripts need work? Absolutely. I have to admit, 
I don't spend enough time on the hand holding scripts. I know I should. 
I am spending most of my time in the install itself. I feel if ASL 
itself is installed and running that is a good part of the battle. In a 
private e-mail Loren complained about the nodesetup script. It's a 
legacy script and it does suck! I invite Loren to step up and fix it.

  A side note to Loren, I have gone out of my way a number of time to 
help you. I setup a account on your old provider so I could help you 
install ASL. Since your last post on the list you have sent me 4 e-mails 
directly. Please stop. I have enough work on my plate. If you have a 
question, post on the list. Someone will help you out. This is peer to 
peer support after all.

  In closing, if you expect perfection, do it yourself. All the source 
code is posted. Bugs, warts and all. We welcome pull requests.

  73, Steve N4IRS