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From: Paul Richards <paul>
Message-Id: <199502070102.RAA27730@freefall.cdrom.com>
Subject: Re: sup: Ok, I'm gonna do it.
To: jgreco@brasil.moneng.mei.com (Joe Greco)
Date: Mon, 6 Feb 1995 17:02:58 -0800 (PST)
Cc: syssgm@devetir.qld.gov.au, hackers@FreeBSD.org, jdc@crab.xinside.com
In-Reply-To: <9502061154.AA14470@brasil.moneng.mei.com> from "Joe Greco" at Feb 6, 95 05:54:34 am
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In reply to Joe Greco who said
> I, for one, appreciate the desire for a nicer install.  However, as one of
> the folks out here who must deal with older, donated, begged, or borrowed
> equipment, I think it would be safe to say that I would oppose any changes
> that locked us into requiring a VGA card/etc.  I sorta-like sorta-dislike
> the 2.0 dialog-based install - it can potentially be run over a serial line,
> but still requires a cons25/pc3/whatever term type in order to function
> correctly (maybe this is as easy to fix as allowing TERM type to be set?)...

Kind of. There's not much space on the install floppy for a full termcap
but there's a choice of cons25 and vt100 built into the sysisntall code
whic should cover nearly every case.

> 
> Sun punted on this problem by running their ASCII install from within a
> window.  Maybe it would be possible for us to go one step further:  provide
> an install that was smart enough to work either way?  If the hardware can
> support X, fine, run X, and install can use GUI widgets and the like.  If
> the hardware can't, run an ASCII install.  Maybe it doesn't even have to be
> pretty like the 2.0 install - just gathers the same data that the GUI would
> be obtaining from the user.
> 

I've got solutions to this problem but you won't see them for 2.1 and
plans for 2.2 aren't even being considered yet.

-- 
  Paul Richards, FreeBSD core team member. 
  Phone: +44 1222 874000 x6646 (work), +44 1222 457651 (home)
  Dept. Mechanical Engineering, University of Wales, College Cardiff.
  Internet: paul@FreeBSD.org,  JANET(UK): RICHARDSDP@CARDIFF.AC.UK