Removal of sysinstall from HEAD and lack of a post-install configuration tool

[Ron McDowell]

Doug Barton wrote:
> The story so far ...
>
> sysinstall was removed from HEAD in October. I (and others) objected on
> the basis that at this time there is no replacement for the post-install
> configuration role that sysinstall played. More sysinstall components
> were then removed. Then the old version of libdialog (which sysinstall
> used) was removed. Thus at this point it's not possible to easily
> restore sysinstall.
>
> So my question is, how much do you care? Is lack of that functionality
> in HEAD something that we care about?
>
>
> Doug
>   

We have around 90 web servers running 8.2p5 right now [and yes, I did 
update the lot on Christmas Eve but that's a different story] and they 
will not be upgraded to 9.0 until/unless the post-install functionality 
that was lost by the removal of sysinstall is reintegrated in some way.  
I also complained about it and was told in effect, "too bad."  Everyone 
who commented said sysinstall caused more problems than it solved, 
although I've been using it for any system changes I needed that it was 
capable of doing for as long back as I can remember, and my first 
FreeBSD box was v2.2.

I think removing any functionality that was in a previous release 
without providing an equal-or-better alternative is a bad idea, and that 
needs to be considered more carefully in the future.

So this is not just a +1 vote, it's a +90.

-- 
Ron McDowell
San Antonio TX