From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Dec 2 19:19:13 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id DE7B316A4CE for ; Thu, 2 Dec 2004 19:19:13 +0000 (GMT) Received: from rproxy.gmail.com (rproxy.gmail.com [64.233.170.193]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7808743D2D for ; Thu, 2 Dec 2004 19:19:13 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from kjelderg@gmail.com) Received: by rproxy.gmail.com with SMTP id a36so835402rnf for ; Thu, 02 Dec 2004 11:19:13 -0800 (PST) DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws; s=beta; d=gmail.com; h=received:message-id:date:from:reply-to:to:subject:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:references; b=BAApe33Ht0oVS/lheV0xufhZhJWlldLeFBj9n7h1bKf49pWBpstdG9Xx7zaUVL06SeWyfji2c6N9aizJ3yjUTw4wWpPfCdrv5zITCgCV6uvmRpcnWS8iV7EBSVV+eLSMkox9ATzYQe5uSCKiUbRsn+PuYmSlWz1OyUOYCX6LOc4= Received: by 10.38.150.72 with SMTP id x72mr972049rnd; Thu, 02 Dec 2004 11:19:12 -0800 (PST) Received: by 10.38.15.38 with HTTP; Thu, 2 Dec 2004 11:19:12 -0800 (PST) Message-ID: Date: Thu, 2 Dec 2004 19:19:12 +0000 From: Eric Kjeldergaard To: current@freebsd.org In-Reply-To: <20041202190337.GY79646@cirb503493.alcatel.com.au> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit References: <41AE3F80.1000506@freebsd.org> <41AE55D7.8020709@freebsd.org> <41AEA4B8.6080508@acm.org> <20041202075530.3b33db1b.flynn@energyhq.es.eu.org> <20041202190337.GY79646@cirb503493.alcatel.com.au> Subject: Re: My project wish-list for the next 12 months X-BeenThere: freebsd-current@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list Reply-To: Eric Kjeldergaard List-Id: Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-current List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 02 Dec 2004 19:19:14 -0000 > Agreed. But I don't think performance is the issue with X. As I see > it, there are several major problems with building an X installer: > 1) It quite common in the server arena for machines not to have any > graphics head and X is incompatible with serial terminals. > 2) You need to configure the X server to support your video adapter, > mouse, keyboard and screen. Remember, the "standard" basic VGA > interface doesn't necessarily exist outside the PC world. There > are enough problems with keyboards (see one of Scott's other wishes) > without wanting to add mice, screens and video adapters. > 3) /stand is ~2.7M on i386. A minimal X environment is going to be > 50-70MB. This means 50-70MB less packages on CD1. > 4) X is a RAM hog by sysinstall standards. The minimum RAM requirements > will go up significantly. Whilst this shouldn't worry current > generation hardware, it will make installing FreeBSD on older hardware > (486 and P1) very difficult. I want to preface by saying that I certainly don't think a GUI installer should replace what FreeBSD ships with now. Having said that: It has been suggested in the past, and may as well be suggested again now, that a liveCD installer be created. I know that amongst desktop/first-time users this would be a welcome addition. I also realise that it isn't FreeBSD's main market (though it is a major consideration). This sort of project could be done with somewhat less knowledge (I think) than sysinstall itself, and would have many classes of systems that simply by nature of being a liveCD it wouldn't have to worry about (I think of headless servers and 486s). Just thought I would toss the idea out to see what people thought of it at this point (as I've not heard much about it for a while, and it seems that many of them were getting ready for 5-STABLE). -- If I write a signature, my emails will appear more personalised.