Linked by Thom Holwerda on Tue 29th Jan 2008 23:10 UTC, submitted by friendly.daemon@googlemail.com
FreeBSD "In December 2003, I wrote a script for remotely upgrading a linux system to FreeBSD. I gave it a catchy name ('Depenguinator', inspired by the 'Antichickenator' in Baldur's Gate), announced it on a FreeBSD mailing list and on Slashdot, and before long it was famous. Unfortunately, it didn't take long for changes in the layout of FreeBSD releases to make the Depenguination script stop working; so for the past three years I have been receiving emails asking me to update it to work with newer FreeBSD releases." And now it's back.
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Wow
by OStourist (1.76) on Tue 29th Jan 2008 23:29 UTC
OStourist
Member since:
2007-06-19
Fans: 0

This is so geeky it made my day ;)

But I'm still not sure of exactly what it would be used
for...can we run FreeBSD in a virtual image
like a virtual machine(Vmware) does?
And how does it make BSD installation easier?
We do have DesktopBSD for that as well of course.

RE: Wow
by Oliver (3.08) on Tue 29th Jan 2008 23:44 UTC in reply to "Wow"
Oliver Member since:
2006-07-15
Fans: 5

This has nothing to do with DesktopBSD or the desktop per se,

"This is a method to convert a Linux system to FreeBSD remotely. Colin tested the script using Ubuntu 7.10. I have a few Red Hat 8.0 systems and one or more Fedora Core 4 systems that I would like to convert to FreeBSD 7.0."

http://taosecurity.blogspot.com/2008/01/from-linux-to-freebsd-with....

v Comment by tarpit
by tarpit (1.62) on Tue 29th Jan 2008 23:50 UTC
RE: Comment by tarpit
by Oliver (3.08) on Tue 29th Jan 2008 23:53 UTC in reply to "Comment by tarpit"
Oliver Member since:
2006-07-15
Fans: 5

There is no underdog, just a massive lack of any knowledge.

Can't get the purpose of it
by devurandom (2.68) on Wed 30th Jan 2008 00:44 UTC
devurandom
Member since:
2005-07-06
Fans: 0

From the depinguinator page:

After waiting for the system to reboot, SSH back in; FreeBSD is now running in a memory disk; so now you can slice, partition, and create file systems on the hard drive(s) and install FreeBSD however you wish.

So it doesn't actually install FreeBSD. It runs a live FreeBSD system from where you can install.

How is it different from booting the FreeBSD install cd?

RE: Can't get the purpose of it
by nullpt (3.44) on Wed 30th Jan 2008 00:52 UTC in reply to "Can't get the purpose of it"
nullpt Member since:
2006-10-20
Fans: 1

You can do it 30000 miles away with no hands on ;)

RE[2]: Can't get the purpose of it
by usr0 (2.24) on Wed 30th Jan 2008 00:56 UTC in reply to "RE: Can't get the purpose of it"
usr0 Member since:
2006-10-27
Fans: 1

You can do it 30000 miles away with no hands on ;)


To be that far away is not possible on earth ;)

RE[3]: Can't get the purpose of it
by leech (3.88) on Wed 30th Jan 2008 01:38 UTC in reply to "RE[2]: Can't get the purpose of it"
leech Member since:
2006-01-10
Fans: 1

That just means that NASA can install FreeBSD over Linux on their robots on Mars if they feel so inclined ;)

RE[4]: Can't get the purpose of it
by elsewhere (4.76) on Wed 30th Jan 2008 05:38 UTC in reply to "RE[3]: Can't get the purpose of it"
elsewhere Member since:
2005-07-13
Fans: 16

That just means that NASA can install FreeBSD over Linux on their robots on Mars if they feel so inclined ;)


I'm not normally one to add gratuitous comments, but I have to say ++ here. I like a laugh. ;)

RE[3]: Can't get the purpose of it
by CodeMonkey (2.6) on Wed 30th Jan 2008 01:51 UTC in reply to "RE[2]: Can't get the purpose of it"
CodeMonkey Member since:
2005-09-22
Fans: 0

"You can do it 30000 miles away with no hands on ;)
To be that far away is not possible on earth ;) "

Perhaps not as the crow flies, but as the packets route 30k miles is much more achievable. ;-)

RE[2]: Can't get the purpose of it
by Googol (2.6) on Wed 30th Jan 2008 10:00 UTC in reply to "RE: Can't get the purpose of it"
Googol Member since:
2006-11-24
Fans: 1

No, you can't.

RE: Can't get the purpose of it
by Oliver (3.08) on Wed 30th Jan 2008 09:44 UTC in reply to "Can't get the purpose of it"
Oliver Member since:
2006-07-15
Fans: 5

Take your live cd and try it remotely =)

a catchy title
by roger64 (1.96) on Wed 30th Jan 2008 02:08 UTC
roger64
Member since:
2006-08-15
Fans: 0

the name is very nice, even funny.

other things, well why not....

But the real thing to build is the "dewindowsgator"

RE: a catchy title
by broken_symlink (2.72) on Wed 30th Jan 2008 02:35 UTC in reply to "a catchy title"
broken_symlink Member since:
2005-07-06
Fans: 0

I didn't realize we would need a "gator" to install another os over windows! ;-D

v Broken for 3 years ...
by Moulinneuf (3.08) on Wed 30th Jan 2008 05:30 UTC
RE: Broken for 3 years ...
by BluenoseJake (3.04) on Wed 30th Jan 2008 14:38 UTC in reply to "Broken for 3 years ..."
BluenoseJake Member since:
2005-08-11
Fans: 7

Why should the core developers maintain something they didn't write, and are not interested in. They are concerned with writing FreeBSD.

It's the same as Ubuntu not supporting Automatix, It's useful, but it's also dangerous. If I was the FreeBSd devs, I would not support a 3rd party installation script, they have their own installer to support.

RE[2]: Broken for 3 years ...
by mwndk (1.11) on Wed 30th Jan 2008 17:03 UTC in reply to "RE: Broken for 3 years ..."
mwndk Member since:
2005-07-27
Fans: 0

You should not waste your time in commenting comments where the commenter obviously does not get the point.

But this news is more or less a flamebait by it self, but it is one damn cool flamebait.

RE[3]: Broken for 3 years ...
by BluenoseJake (3.04) on Wed 30th Jan 2008 17:23 UTC in reply to "RE[2]: Broken for 3 years ..."
BluenoseJake Member since:
2005-08-11
Fans: 7

You should not waste your time in commenting comments where the commenter obviously does not get the point.

But this news is more or less a flamebait by it self, but it is one damn cool flamebait.


I had some time to waste....

RE[2]: Broken for 3 years ...
by Oliver (3.08) on Wed 30th Jan 2008 18:11 UTC in reply to "RE: Broken for 3 years ..."
Oliver Member since:
2006-07-15
Fans: 5

Just for the record, the author of this script is a long time FreeBSD developer.

RE[3]: Broken for 3 years ...
by BluenoseJake (3.04) on Wed 30th Jan 2008 18:56 UTC in reply to "RE[2]: Broken for 3 years ..."
BluenoseJake Member since:
2005-08-11
Fans: 7

That doesn't mean that FreeBSD.org wants to be responsible for, and support such a hack, even if it is a very cool hack (and it is)

v RE[4]: Broken for 3 years ...
by Moulinneuf (3.08) on Thu 31st Jan 2008 16:11 UTC in reply to "RE[3]: Broken for 3 years ..."
RE[4]: Broken for 3 years ...
by Oliver (3.08) on Thu 31st Jan 2008 16:34 UTC in reply to "RE[3]: Broken for 3 years ..."
Oliver Member since:
2006-07-15
Fans: 5

Of course not, but that isn't the topic. But apart from that, most of his "hacks" are in FreeBSD now ;-)

Edited 2008-01-31 16:35 UTC

How well does it work?
by irbis (2.72) on Wed 30th Jan 2008 08:23 UTC
irbis
Member since:
2005-07-08
Fans: 0

Has anybody tested this thing? So does it actually work without too many errors and headaches? Anyway, I'm sure it would be wiser to just do a clean install of FreeeBSD and then maybe move some files and some configurations from Linux by hand. But Depenguinator looks like an an interesting experiment nevertheless.

RE: How well does it work?
by Oliver (3.08) on Wed 30th Jan 2008 09:42 UTC in reply to "How well does it work?"
Oliver Member since:
2006-07-15
Fans: 5

It worked back in 2003 and it works today.

Purpose
by nullpt (3.44) on Wed 30th Jan 2008 12:26 UTC
nullpt
Member since:
2006-10-20
Fans: 1

Basically this piece of software is very useful when your ISP doesn't install freebsd or charges you extra to get someone to install freebsd on your server. Or simply when some friend asks you to exorcise some tuxie at his place and you don't want to get your geek butt out of home.

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