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

[Vadim Goncharov]

Hi Freddie Cash! 

On Mon, 25 Jul 2011 10:36:59 -0700; Freddie Cash wrote about 'Re: Trying to install current from a memory stick and then a DVD and got a new and strange installer.':

>>> Thank goodness. The worst thing about sysinstall was that it tried to be a
>>> Swiss Army knife doing everything, yet not doing any one thing well. It made
>>> a royal mess of rc.conf if you tried to use it to configure a system.
>>> Usually the first time someone mentions they use it for post-install
>>> configuration, the recommendation is to stop doing that! An os installer
>>> should do just that: install the os and nothing else.
>>>
>>
>> I tend to disagree with this. For people unfamiliar with FreeBSD using it
>> as a systems administration tool can be really useful, at least until they
>> understand where all the various configuration files are and how they work.
>>  Having recently switched to opensuse from Ubuntu I know I find the YaST
>> tool incredibly useful, and probably wouldn't have continued using SuSE if
>> it hadn't been there. Its installer mode is one of the better installers
>> I've come across, and lets you fine-tune the configuration.
>>

> The difference is that YaST was designed from the get-go to be both a system
> management tool and a software installation tool and a system installation
> tool.  Sysinstall was not, and sysinstall used as a post-install management
> tool the past couple of years has caused more issues for newbies than it's
> "solved".

> If nothing else happened to sysinstall but all the post-install crud was
> removed from it, it would be improved a thousand-fold.

> Since no one has stepped up to fix the issues with the post-install
> management facets of sysinstall, it's only natural to remove those bits.

The bad tool is better than absence of the tool. The sysinstall could at least
something similar to YaST. The primary purpose is people unfamiliar with
FreeBSD, of course. And for experiences - even YaST sucks in many aspects.

> And, since no one wants to create a new TUI management tool, there's no
> reason to burden the bsdinstall devs with it.

Sure, no reason to burden with creation, but already existing couldbe adapted
a little. E.g. disk partitioning was cutted to sade from sysinstall, the same
could be done with parts of sysinstall, until something better is delivered.

> Let's make an installation tool.  Later, we can worry about a TUI management
> tool, if it's really needed.

The point is not a full-blown TUI tool like YaST but rather a regress in
comparison with sysinstall. A something minimal must be present, not worse
in features than something already existed. When "later" a userbase of FreeBSD
will shrink due to installer issues, it will be much harder to regain it than
to prevent it today.

-- 
WBR, Vadim Goncharov. ICQ#166852181       mailto:vadim_nuclight at mail.ru
[Moderator of RU.ANTI-ECOLOGY][FreeBSD][http://antigreen.org][LJ:/nuclight]