Re: Re: Sysinstall is still inadequate after all of these years

On Sat, Jul 5, 2008 at 7:59 AM, Mike Makonnen <mtm_at_wubethiopia.com> wrote:
> Also, the installer's job should only be to install a useable system. Post-installation chores like configuration,
>  adding/removing users, etc should be done by another application. You shouldn't need the installer once
> you've installed the OS.

Hear, hear!  To be honest, this is the only bit about the current
sysinstall that I really dislike:  the fact that it can be used for
post-installation configuration and package installation.  This causes
no end of trouble for newbies, who seem to view sysinstall as "The One
True System Admin Tool" and try to use it for configuring/installing
everything.  Too many times, on various BSD forums, I've had to walk
people through cleaning up /etc/rc.conf and showing them how to
correctly install/configure things (using standard FreeBSD tools),
since they used sysinstall for everything.

IMO, the installer should allow you to partition the disk(s), format
the partition(s), install the OS, configure a user, and reboot the
system.  Anything beyond that should be handled by the OS tools, from
within the installed and running OS.

The tricky part will be getting the disk slicing, slice partitioning,
and filesystem formatting to work reliably, with all the power of
FreeBSD's GEOM modules, and ZFS.

-- 
Freddie Cash
fjwcash_at_gmail.com