Re: Trying to install current from a memory stick and then a DVD and got a new and strange installer.

Nathan Whitehorn wrote:
> On 07/24/11 18:03, Ron McDowell wrote:
>> Nathan Whitehorn wrote:
>>> On 07/24/11 16:29, eculp wrote:
>>>> I have been hearing about a new installer but I obviously have not 
>>>> payed enough attention, I am afraid. I started running freebsd at 
>>>> 2.0 and never really had a problem with understanding the 
>>>> installation program.  There is always a first time, I guess.
>>>>
>>>> ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/snapshots/201105/
>>>>
>>>> When booting I seem to get a screen that makes me remember 
>>>> installer screens of the 1980s.  (They were not exactly intuitive.)
>>>>
>>>> I somehow got the idea that the new installer was graphic.  Maybe 
>>>> something like PCBsd that is not bad at all.  I use it on all our 
>>>> employees computers.  Actually, after seeing this, I would love to 
>>>> have the old installer back.  Is their an option for that?
>>>>
>>>> Does this new ASCII installer have a "how to" with a bit of 
>>>> information on the flow of the installation.
>>>>
>>>> Thanks,
>>>
>>> Can you please describe what you didn't like about it, and what you 
>>> would prefer be changed? "Reminiscent of the 1980s" is not really 
>>> helpful, especially given that the new installer in fact looks very 
>>> much like sysinstall, which you seemed to like.
>>> -Nathan
>>>
>>
>> I'll have to agree with the original poster.  I have no problem with 
>> the look and feel of the new installer, but when functionality that 
>> WAS there is now gone, that's a problem.  My two, make that three, 
>> biggest gripes are:
>>
>> 1) no "back" button/selection/mechanism on each screen.   Rebooting 
>> because I fat-fingered something on the previous screen is, well, 
>> unacceptable.
>
> This is why almost all screens have a "cancel" button. You can also 
> restart the installer by control-C at any time without rebooting. 
> Providing an actual back button is quite tricky and not necessarily 
> always well defined in behavior, since the installed system will then 
> be in an inconsistent state at which previous steps cannot necessarily 
> be repeated. For those steps where that is not true, they can be 
> reentered from the menu at the end in case of fat-fingering.

22 screens require user input in a basic install [on my box, taking the 
default choices]. Only 7 have a 'cancel' button, which puts you back one 
screen, most likely to a screen you can't escape from.  ctl-c to restart 
is about a half-step up from rebooting.  How about a note at the start 
stating that you will be able to make changes later before committing to 
the install?

>
>> 2) no "minimal" install.  Most of my installs are single- or few-task 
>> servers where I need a base os and a couple ports.
>
> I'm not sure what you mean by this. You can install just a kernel and 
> the base system by deselecting the ports tree, games, and docs when 
> you select which system components to install.

I see now that this is outside of the "install" program's scope...in 9.0 
the number of distributions has been shrunk, so the install program has 
to work with what's available to it.

>
>> 3) I see no "post-install" uses on the new one.  Sysinstall could be 
>> used on an up-and-running system to do everything from adding a user 
>> to changing a nameserver and more.
>>
>
> This is deliberate. This particular feature of sysinstall made it 
> almost unmaintainable, especially as those features slowly bitrotted. 
> We have very good system configuration utilities already

vi-ing /etc/resolv.conf is a configuration utility?

> -- there is no need to duplicate them in the installer, especially 
> when it makes maintaining and improving that installer more difficult.

Fire up sysinstall on a system.  Hit 'C'.  Where else can a beginner go 
to find all this good stuff in one spot?  I agree it doesn't need to be 
part of the install program, but it does need to be part of the OS.

> -Nathan

One new thing I noticed is the new install does not eject the CD at the 
end before rebooting.  I've seen systems where 'eject' didn't do 
anything...but it never caused a problem either.  Please consider adding 
that.


-- 
Ron McDowell
San Antonio TX