Modern FreeBSD Installer?

[Jerry McAllister]

On Mon, Apr 27, 2009 at 02:28:53AM -0500, Gary Gatten wrote:

> I'm trying to ignore this thread, but as an infrequent installer, I think it would be nice for those of us with limited experience to have a context sensitive help to explain the various install options, such as: what it is/does, how much disk space, how many/which dependancies, estimated install time, etc. I don't care if its TUI or GUI - just something to help me make the various selections at install time.  With my luck such a thing is already there and I just don't know about it, but thought I'd throw it out.

I would go for this.   I have done hundreds of installations and still
find times that I want more information in the middle of things.  That
is especially true if I try to add some packages at install time.

But, I agree that we must not give up on a 'text based' installer that
is the most generally usable, even if some other options might be made
available.    The text based installer could also be massaged a bit
to make it a little easier to understand as well, without losing its
functionality.

Read Jordan Hubbard's white paper whose URL was posted a few days ago.  
It clarifies things a lot.   
      http://people.freebsd.org/~jkh/package-and-install.txt

Probably even more could be said, but that gives an essential frame
of reference.

////jerry



> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: owner-freebsd-questions at freebsd.org <owner-freebsd-questions at freebsd.org>
> To: Mehmet Erol Sanliturk <m.e.sanliturk at gmail.com>
> Cc: Tim Judd <tajudd at gmail.com>; FreeBSD Questions Mailing List <freebsd-questions at freebsd.org>
> Sent: Sun Apr 26 19:00:07 2009
> Subject: Re: Modern FreeBSD Installer?
> 
> On Sun, 26 Apr 2009 14:52:56 -0400, Mehmet Erol Sanliturk <m.e.sanliturk at gmail.com> wrote:
> > 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 .) .
> 
> That's why there should be at least the option of a text-mode install
> (and it should probably be the default, as Polytropon wrote).  I also
> hate it when an installer fails to autodetect my video adapter and ends
> up showing me a useless blank screen or, even worse, an equally useless
> 'out of range' monitor message!
> 
> _______________________________________________
> freebsd-questions at freebsd.org mailing list
> http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions
> To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-questions-unsubscribe at freebsd.org"
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> <font size="1">
> <div style='border:none;border-bottom:double windowtext 2.25pt;padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in'>
> </div>
> "This email is intended to be reviewed by only the intended recipient
>  and may contain information that is privileged and/or confidential.
>  If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that
>  any review, use, dissemination, disclosure or copying of this email
>  and its attachments, if any, is strictly prohibited.  If you have
>  received this email in error, please immediately notify the sender by
>  return email and delete this email from your system."
> </font>
> 

> _______________________________________________
> freebsd-questions at freebsd.org mailing list
> http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions
> To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-questions-unsubscribe at freebsd.org"