Debian Live support for Consfigurator

[Sean Whitton]

Hello,

I've added support for building Debian Live ISOs to Consfigurator, the
new configuration management and OS installation system I've been
working on.  It looks something like this to use:

    (localhd
     (disk:debian-live-iso-built. nil "/srv/live/live.iso"
       (os:debian-stable "bullseye" :amd64)

       (apt:mirror "http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian")
       (apt:standard-sources.list)
       (apt:installed "live-config" "initramfs-tools"
                      "task-english" "some-useful-package")

       (timezone:configured "America/Phoenix")
       (on-change (etc-default:set "keyboard" "XKBLAYOUT" "gb")
         (cmd:single "update-initramfs" "-u"))
       (locale:selected-for "en_GB.UTF-8" "LANG" "LANGUAGE")))

Here, 'localhd' is shorthand for becoming root and applying properties
to localhost.  Hopefully it is clear what the rest of the lines mean.
The main value propositions over live-wrapper are

- customising the contents of the chroot using declarative configuration
  management rather than shell scripting (in some cases you can replace
  live-config too)

- automatic image rebuilds when, and only when, the contents of the
  chroot actually changes -- Consfigurator has a protocol for
  propagating information about whether it had to make any changes to
  bring reality in line with the stated configuration of hosts -- this
  makes it easy to maintain and update customised live images on your
  laptop

- doesn't use the deprecated vmdebootstrap.

I've only implemented a straightforward ISOLINUX boot option for now,
because I am not myself at all familiar with the Debian installer and
the intricacies of multiboot ISOs.  But all that could be added.  Or
Consfigurator could replace just the vmdebootstrap & shell script parts
of live-wrapper, if that's wanted; I could help slot it in.

I can't upload this work to unstable yet because a new dependency is
stuck in NEW; my development version in git should be usable if you
would like to try it out:
<https://spwhitton.name/tech/code/consfigurator/>
install the deps of cl-consfigurator in sid + this new library:
<https://salsa.debian.org/common-lisp-team/agnostic-lizard>

-- 
Sean Whitton
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