Re: boot banner project

On Fri, Apr 29, 2005 at 01:34:55AM -0700, /dev/null wrote:
> > 2.  Total rewrite of sysinstall to be like Red Hat's Anaconda (graphical)
> For ppl that have never installed FBSD b4 I think a GUI installer is a
> must. But personally, the *only* thing I would change in the current
> installer is better cursor handling. OK maybe I would also add a refresh
> button - I hate it when the screen gets trashed from some console message.

Have you looked at http://www.bsdinstaller.org/ ?

I've only looked at the web site, haven't tried it. But it looks like a cool
idea: separating out the installer functionality from the user interface, so
that you can easily plug in new interfaces (they have a CGI frontend
already). It might save re-inventing the wheel.

> > 3.  FreeBSD Update (ala Red hat update / Windows update)
> It's already available in the 5x series (and late 4?). It's called
> portaudit and is the *BEST* implimentation for any OS I have ever used.
> A "must have" for any FBSD user. Look in the ports/security section of
> your local installation.

According to pkg-descr:

"portaudit provides a system to check if installed ports are listed in a 
 database of published security vulnerabilities.

 After installation it will update this security database automatically and 
 include its reports in the output of the daily security run."

This doesn't sound like an updater of any sort. There's "portupgrade", but
of course that only handles software in the ports collection, not the O/S
itself.

I would like to be able to do a safe binary-only upgrade of the base FreeBSD
O/S. For it to be safe, it has to be able to *remove* things which were in
the old distribution but not in the new one. The current upgrade process
just untars the new distribution on top of whatever you have, and usually
leaves a mess behind to clean up.

This works with RPM-based O/Ses because each part of the O/S is itself a
package, and thus the package database records which files it contians.
Making the whole FreeBSD base system consist of 'packages' rather than just
plain tarballs might be one approach. It would also usefully record which
distribution sets you chose to install originally, which is information that
is also lost currently.

Oh, and I want the 'mergemaster' functionality to be available in a binary
upgrade too.

> > 4.  GUI Kernel configurator

That wouldn't add any value for me. I moved from Linux to FreeBSD several
years ago, and one of the things I prefer about FreeBSD is that the kernel
configuration and build process is *so* straightforward. Single text file to
edit; that's it.

> > 5.  GUI port manager (add / delete ports)
> There are a few incarnations of this(ese) already available depending of
> your windowmanager/ console choice.

As I'm sure you know, sysinstall has this functionality already. sysinstall
isn't pretty, but it kind-of works. The biggest problem I find when newbie
FreeBSD users are trying it is having to remember to hit "Tab" to get to the
right places. Especially screens like this:

     [_X_]  Selection 1
     [ X ]  Selection 2
     [   ]  Selection 3

        [  OK  ]   [ Cancel ]

People think they can just hit Enter to select 'OK', but actually it toggles
Selection 1 off. Maybe that's the same point you made about "improved cursor
handling".

> > 6.  Other Small System enhancements
> >
> > If you want maybe we could create a group who's purpose is to create
> > system enhancements......let's come up with some projects work on them
> > and see if they are willing to commit them ........  think about it.

I remember reading an article by Jordan Hubbard a couple of years ago
explaining the deficiencies of the current installation/upgrade system, and
suggesting what features a next generation system should have. Anybody
remember where it was?

Regards,

Brian.