From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Jun 13 19:47:23 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 17B26106566B; Sat, 13 Jun 2009 19:47:23 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from sullrich@gmail.com) Received: from mail-ew0-f212.google.com (mail-ew0-f212.google.com [209.85.219.212]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6C5098FC0C; Sat, 13 Jun 2009 19:47:21 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from sullrich@gmail.com) Received: by ewy8 with SMTP id 8so3264694ewy.43 for ; Sat, 13 Jun 2009 12:47:21 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:mime-version:received:in-reply-to:references :from:date:message-id:subject:to:cc:content-type :content-transfer-encoding; bh=7GfkTkTaTGdx+OyGnYT1XIx02q9zy1YwvZ8i73M3loc=; b=D6CK0IgipLT8Xzju5zvsaqUFrtzMeuSvgvAc3kcy1aYzhsRKRdOJSOI2/rcp2i3kTO gfpVGxe1iHCrX4eqKStIM7/gt9uP1UQc+6m7l4BaUPdW4Ps1snPcLSh74lZ5BWy/NaKS o4fJTZDFppwpY56a8xFJTU112OyrmsL+bx2ro= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=mime-version:in-reply-to:references:from:date:message-id:subject:to :cc:content-type:content-transfer-encoding; b=EbglC77J0H3P1u7FOxyfCFWAEtVv9FwzEqS3tUdrx3cl8H2mQpS7o68uJz3ViI/glK YTaoqqaoHRsjT92z8fVGccOIGJ8Oi8alUXbT7Oskm0fdBz81JL29/gCozldRE4au6O4I bNe3YY2dUtRgTbDZnsnhddk8EwCJ5cNLkze94= MIME-Version: 1.0 Received: by 10.210.80.17 with SMTP id d17mr5982207ebb.57.1244922441200; Sat, 13 Jun 2009 12:47:21 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: References: <4A2E84DC.1010900@unsane.co.uk> From: Scott Ullrich Date: Sat, 13 Jun 2009 15:47:01 -0400 Message-ID: To: Dan Naumov Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org, freebsd-current@freebsd.org, Vincent Hoffman Subject: Re: sysinstall, GJOURNAL and ZFS X-BeenThere: freebsd-current@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-current List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 13 Jun 2009 19:47:23 -0000 On Fri, Jun 12, 2009 at 6:07 PM, Dan Naumov wrote: > As promised, I took a go at this new BSDInstaller, I wrote down some > of my thoughts. Since I don't know if this is the kind of feedback you > are looking for, here is just a part of it. As you can probably guess > from it, I deal with usability issues in software applications a lot, > hence my point of view, but obviously I can find my way around a UNIX > without much issues. Thanks!! > > FreeBSD-20090608-1522-8.0-CURRENT image was used: > ============================================= > Initial BOOT: > The boot goes as planned, but the user is dropped off to a login > prompt. There is no direct indication for the user regarding how to > proceed. Adding a note just before the login prompt saying something > like "login as "root" with an empty password" would be nice. Again, as > soon the user does log on, there is no indication as to how to launch > the actual installer. This, as well as the previous problem could be > solved by presenting the user with a simple menu screen, like this: > > Welcome to FreeBSD, choose your option: > 1: Launch the FreeBSD installer > 2: Drop to an emergency rescue shell That is one part that I have not touched on as of yet. DragonFly has a "installer" account that launches the BSDI but I am not too sure if thats how we should visit this or not? > This would eleminate the actual need to log in as well, we could just > autologin as root for both options. > > Initial options in the actual installer: > option: the names in a long list don't actually > tell the user anything regarding how does any of the fonts look. Would > it be possible to have a small sample preview next to each presented > font option? > option: again, the screen map options do not > really explain the user what he should be choosing. A short > description of every option is needed at the very least. > option: ditto, same thing. Good ideas. Any chance you can add them to the wiki? > Another approach to this altogether could be a serious of questions > like: "What country do you live in? What language is your keyboard?" > providing multiple options for an answer for each question. After a > series of questions, the installer could just automatically pick up > most sane defaults based on the answers given by the user and finally > ask "Does the fonts on the screen look alright to you? Try typing in > here, do the expect characters appear as they should?" and if the user > is unsatisfied, he can be dropped to the kinds of a big selection list > which is used by the installer right now. > >