From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Apr 26 17:29:03 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 88277106564A for ; Sun, 26 Apr 2009 17:29:03 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from keramida@ceid.upatras.gr) Received: from poseidon.ceid.upatras.gr (poseidon.ceid.upatras.gr [150.140.141.169]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0098E8FC18 for ; Sun, 26 Apr 2009 17:29:02 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from keramida@ceid.upatras.gr) Received: from mail.ceid.upatras.gr (unknown [10.1.0.143]) by poseidon.ceid.upatras.gr (Postfix) with ESMTP id E58BDEB4C9D; Sun, 26 Apr 2009 20:29:00 +0300 (EEST) Received: from localhost (europa.ceid.upatras.gr [127.0.0.1]) by mail.ceid.upatras.gr (Postfix) with ESMTP id C0FEC4509B; Sun, 26 Apr 2009 20:29:00 +0300 (EEST) X-Virus-Scanned: amavisd-new at ceid.upatras.gr Received: from mail.ceid.upatras.gr ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (europa.ceid.upatras.gr [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with ESMTP id vUnHApTfnOhM; Sun, 26 Apr 2009 20:29:00 +0300 (EEST) Received: from kobe.laptop (adsl28-228.kln.forthnet.gr [77.49.155.228]) by mail.ceid.upatras.gr (Postfix) with ESMTP id 63AC54503F; Sun, 26 Apr 2009 20:29:00 +0300 (EEST) Received: from kobe.laptop (kobe.laptop [127.0.0.1]) by kobe.laptop (8.14.3/8.14.3) with ESMTP id n3QHSwuX048376; Sun, 26 Apr 2009 20:28:58 +0300 (EEST) (envelope-from keramida@ceid.upatras.gr) Received: (from keramida@localhost) by kobe.laptop (8.14.3/8.14.3/Submit) id n3QHStTt048375; Sun, 26 Apr 2009 20:28:55 +0300 (EEST) (envelope-from keramida@ceid.upatras.gr) From: Giorgos Keramidas To: Erik Trulsson References: <20090426001855.GA89151@owl.midgard.homeip.net> Date: Sun, 26 Apr 2009 20:28:55 +0300 In-Reply-To: <20090426001855.GA89151@owl.midgard.homeip.net> (Erik Trulsson's message of "Sun, 26 Apr 2009 02:18:55 +0200") Message-ID: <87zle3mii0.fsf@kobe.laptop> User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/23.0.92 (berkeley-unix) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Cc: Tim Judd , FreeBSD Questions Mailing List Subject: Re: Modern FreeBSD Installer? X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 26 Apr 2009 17:29:03 -0000 On Sun, 26 Apr 2009 02:18:55 +0200, Erik Trulsson 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.