Modern FreeBSD Installer?

[Mehmet Erol Sanliturk]

On Sun, Apr 26, 2009 at 1:28 PM, Giorgos Keramidas <keramida at ceid.upatras.gr
> wrote:

> On Sun, 26 Apr 2009 02:18:55 +0200, Erik Trulsson <ertr1013 at student.uu.se>
> wrote:
> > Better would be to check (somehow) for the presence of a keyboard and
> > a screen.  If those are not present forget about X.  If they are
> > present then the user at least has a possibility of using X.
>
> Deferring to the user all the decisions that are impossible to make with
> a reasonable chance of doing the Right Thing for everyone seems ok too.
>
> Solaris has been shipping for quite some time with an installer that can
> run on serial consoles, an installer that can launch a simple
> terminal-based session under X11, and an installer that can launch a
> Java GUI version in all its bloated glory.
>
> The decision of which installer to launch is left to the user who sits
> on the boot console, who is presented with a simple menu like:
>
>    +-------------------------------------------------------+
>    |                                                       |
>    |  Please select installation type (default = 3): _     |
>    |                                                       |
>    |       1. Text-only console installation.              |
>    |                                                       |
>    |       2. Terminal based GUI installation.             |
>    |                                                       |
>    |       3. Dialog driven GUI installation.              |
>    |                                                       |
>    +-------------------------------------------------------+
>
> There is also a timeout that launches the user-friendly GUI dialogs
> after a few seconds.
>
> I think this is a reasonable approach to the problem of which
> installation mode to launch.  The default is `user friendly', there is a
> timeout so the installer won't get stuck forever in the prompt, and
> there is still an option for a plain console-based installation for
> everyone who wants to go that way.
>
> _
>


Last week I have installed Solaris 10 ( 2008-10 ) on a PC ( x86 ) having an
Intel main board  . It did not recognize Philips 220WS LCD ( 1680 x 1050 )
monitor and selected itself a text-mode install and also booted in text mode
.

I moved its hard disk to a PC with an Asus main board having an attached
CRT Philips 109B6  (  maximum resolution : 1920 x  1440 )   monitor .
Since  boards were different , Solaris 10 could not
boot . I started an upgrade installation . During that time it become
necessary to leave PC for a while assuming that installation will wait .
With its count down and start by itself in its GUI mode . it started to
install automatically .
At the end , the install become useless because its default detections were
not what parts were there ( I think it used previously detected parts
without checking the present parts except monitor and perhaps some others ,
I do not know exactly .) .

For such reasons , personally , I hate

(1) auto-start installations .
(2) auto-detect parts without asking correctness of detection when its
conclusion is not verifiable
     by the installers
     ( for example
     (ADSL router modem is not detected correctly even its network card is
detected
       and  installation continued with assumption that there is no such a
device .  )
     ( erroneously detection of monitor resolutions and using a default
resolution which is not usable
       due to mismatch to display characteristics of the monitor )  ... )

With respect to experiences gained continuously installing operating systems
, my idea about FreeBSD sysinstal is that it is an excellent installation
system developed by very conscious persons  which they know what to do very
well .

The points I suggested for improvements are toward to make it easy for the
beginners . For a computing system , to satisfy needs of both beginners and
expert users is not a very easy task . Making a part easy for a group may
make it difficult for other group  .  Using defaults is not always correct
due to hardware detection difficulties .

My inclination is toward the beginners as much as possible because   this
approach  will  enlarge  FreeBSD user group  .


In reality , design of a user interface is within subject areas of Ergonomy
, Human-Computer Interaction , and User Interface Design which there are
plenty amount of researches about those subjects , and many scientific
journals and books .

When I was in University a research assistant was working toward a PhD in
Ergonomy by researching user interface software design principles to reduce
the human errors during control of a system ( for example , effects of menu
depths ) .


Thank you very much .

Mehmet Erol Sanliturk