Re: Moving Linux Installation OFF Virtual Machine and Into Real World ???

From	"25B.Z969" <25B.Z969@noda.net>
Newsgroups	comp.os.linux.misc
Subject	Re: Moving Linux Installation OFF Virtual Machine and Into Real World ???
Date	2022-08-13 00:48 -0400
Organization	Aioe.org NNTP Server
Message-ID	<td7aen$15ui$1@gioia.aioe.org> (permalink)
References	<eqGdnUmhFNW5Q2j_nZ2dnUU7-T3NnZ2d@earthlink.com> <slrntfbofo.1ks82.BitTwister@wb.home.test>

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On 8/12/22 1:15 AM, Bit Twister wrote:
> On Fri, 12 Aug 2022 00:59:15 -0400, 25B.Z969 wrote:
>> I often test OS distros by installing them on VMs - KVM or
>> Virtualbox.
>>
>> Thing is, while playing with them I often make a LOT of useful
>> tweaks, load a lot of software, get it working REALLY WELL.
>> Half the time I can't remember all the tweaks,
> 
> So write what you do/did in an admin diary.

   A what ???  :-)

>> the other half
>> of the time so MUCH time was spent getting it right I just
>> don't want to do it all over again.
> 
> That is what automation is for.
> You either let the computer work you or make the computer work for you.
> 
> So what will you do when your "Production" install no longer works
> after an upgrade or whatever?

   I don't get THAT crazy - but I do keep backups of the
   working scripts, config.files and such. However moving
   all of that to a new installation is a pain, and I'm
   just a bit lazy ... ok, OLD ...

> I used to document every change until it dawned on me to write
> scripts to do the changes for me.

   Not a bad idea ... but then you've STILL "documented",
   inside the scripts.

> I can now do clean installs run my scripts and have everything as I
> want it.

   Ought to work fairly well, but for EVERY tweak ?
   I tend to hammer at these issues until I get a
   setup that does what I want ... but I often do
   the tweaking so fast, with so many trial variants,
   that remembering everything - even to write it in
   a script - can be difficult.

   There are two kinds of programmers. If the bosses
   need it *eventually* there were some other guys,
   who'll spend months carefully diagramming it all
   out. If they needed it working by Monday morning
   then I was the guy. Once I get going I can kinda
   build and hold the whole equation in my head,
   it all evolves almost in a fractal fashion. I'm
   now a little old for that, not the same old energy
   and hyper-focus. But I had my day and purpose.

   The boss comes in on Thursday, wants a digital-
   signage app for next Tuesday - pref with a usable
   web interface for setting up the slide decks,
   something that could be taken off to a conference
   on Wednesday, preferably for free. Sorry, the
   LibreOffice stuff hung-up after an hour and didn't
   have the necessary flexibility. PowerPoint needs
   something like an actual, bulky, Win-PC. So ... I wrote
   one - a lot of redundant PHP code because I hadn't
   written PHP in awhile. Lazarus for the actual
   display app. Timed slides, sub-slides within the
   main slides, fades or cuts, onboard storage - but
   everything initially stored, resized, on the NAS,
   multi-media via evoking MPG player. Runs on an rPi
   velcro-ed to the back of a big-screen. Mostly for now
   it sits in the lobby to entertain people waiting for
   appointments, but occasionally gets taken to meetings
   and such. She had it by Tuesday. OK, I actually
   wrote it twice - first in Py3+TK and then Lazarus.
   Polished-out a third of the code a week later.

   That's kinda what I'm good for - weird apps needed
   in a fairly short timeframe. Might require soldering
   chips together for sensor boards. If you want a hyper-
   deep high-priced medical-practice organizer/biller
   with the pretty GTK/Qt interfaces and Java, that's
   what the Other Guys are better for ... but you're
   gonna wait a year or two.

   But the big customer who says "Can I port my MediSoft
   database to your system ?" ... guess who gets to
   write that kind of module by Tuesday ?

   And I got paid as much as the "software engineers"
   too ... good retirement pkg, occasional consulting ...

   Charlie will confirm - find the small/medium-sized
   places and it'll always be INTERESTING - you'll never
   "work" another day in your life.

   ANYway ... I want the best path for moving common VMs
   off into the non-virtual universe. VMs have their place,
   but they have more weird issues too. The WORST aspect
   of VMs is that cheap places love to put ALL those eggs
   in ONE hardware basket - and then you get a hole in
   that basket one day ..........

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