From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Jan 11 14:29:41 2007 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 386DD16A40F for ; Thu, 11 Jan 2007 14:29:41 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from olli@lurza.secnetix.de) Received: from lurza.secnetix.de (lurza.secnetix.de [83.120.8.8]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9C87113C43E for ; Thu, 11 Jan 2007 14:29:40 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from olli@lurza.secnetix.de) Received: from lurza.secnetix.de (vqlwxk@localhost [127.0.0.1]) by lurza.secnetix.de (8.13.4/8.13.4) with ESMTP id l0BETJMX096129; Thu, 11 Jan 2007 15:29:24 +0100 (CET) (envelope-from oliver.fromme@secnetix.de) Received: (from olli@localhost) by lurza.secnetix.de (8.13.4/8.13.1/Submit) id l0BETJ1t096128; Thu, 11 Jan 2007 15:29:19 +0100 (CET) (envelope-from olli) Date: Thu, 11 Jan 2007 15:29:19 +0100 (CET) Message-Id: <200701111429.l0BETJ1t096128@lurza.secnetix.de> From: Oliver Fromme To: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG, niek@bigfoot.com In-Reply-To: <45A628CF.5020504@bigfoot.com> X-Newsgroups: list.freebsd-questions User-Agent: tin/1.8.2-20060425 ("Shillay") (UNIX) (FreeBSD/4.11-STABLE (i386)) X-Greylist: Sender IP whitelisted, not delayed by milter-greylist-2.1.2 (lurza.secnetix.de [127.0.0.1]); Thu, 11 Jan 2007 15:29:25 +0100 (CET) Cc: Subject: Re: Why is sysinstall considered end-of-life? X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list Reply-To: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG, niek@bigfoot.com List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 11 Jan 2007 14:29:41 -0000 Niek wrote: > Ted Mittelstaedt wrote: > > > > > > > 3) The largest complaint about sysinstall is that it's not graphical. The > > > problem is that a graphical installation program has some -severe- > > > constraints on it. First, it has to work in ALL instances. That means, > > > 640x480x16 colors VGA screen. You have a lot of people out there > > > installing on systems that have, for example, monitors with inadequate > > > horizontal/vertical frequency ranges and very capabable video cards, > > > unless you force the X-server to use the original VGA resolution, it's > > > going to overdrive those monitors and the user is going to see a black > > > screen when the installation program comes up. And the only way FreeBSD > > > is going to get a graphical anything is by using Xorg, and FreeBSD does > > > not maintain that distribution - so we are now dependent on the Xorg > > > group writing their code with no bugs for our installation program to work. > > > While I admit that sysinstall could be polished at the rough edges, > I vote for a non-graphical installer for server aimed installations. Nobody is going to put a graphical-only installer in FreeBSD. How do people get that idea? Currently, FreeBSD's installer runs on standard VGA graphics cards, on monochrome Hercules cards, on serial VT100 terminals, maybe even on hardcopy terminals and everything else that you could imagine. Not to mention the scriptability for easy installation of a larger number of headless machines. And all of that won't change. If the installer -- sysinstall or other -- will support graphical mode one day, it will be an addition, not a replacement. For example, look at the "BSD installer" that's used by DragonFly BSD: It consists of the actual code that performas the various installation actions (and is also scriptable), and supports a number of front- ends. The standard front-end is curses-based and will run in text mode on any VGA and serial terminal. But you could as well have a graphical front-end or a web- based front-end. Or one that communicates with your cell-phone. Or whatever else you could think of. All based on the same installer code (back-end). If FreeBSD grows a new installer, I' sure it will use similar concepts. Best regards Oliver -- Oliver Fromme, secnetix GmbH & Co. KG, Marktplatz 29, 85567 Grafing Dienstleistungen mit Schwerpunkt FreeBSD: http://www.secnetix.de/bsd Any opinions expressed in this message may be personal to the author and may not necessarily reflect the opinions of secnetix in any way. Python is executable pseudocode. Perl is executable line noise.