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Date:      Mon, 27 May 2013 19:31:18 +0000
From:      "Teske, Devin" <Devin.Teske@fisglobal.com>
To:        Alfred Perlstein <bright@mu.org>
Cc:        Bruce Cran <bruce@cran.org.uk>, FreeBSD Hackers <freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org>, Devin Teske <dteske@freebsd.org>
Subject:   Re: FreeBSD installers and future direction
Message-ID:  <13CA24D6AB415D428143D44749F57D7201F631FD@ltcfiswmsgmb21>
In-Reply-To: <51A39FEC.5070402@mu.org>
References:  <51A0DC3F.9030301@cran.org.uk> <CAK6u07WDZrWU4dnrBzQGYf%2BpbmibK7KxSUZyvie8jJQ1SMODuw@mail.gmail.com> <51A1025A.2020607@cran.org.uk> <51A14445.4060305@freebsd.org> <51A15EDF.6050600@erdgeist.org> <CA%2BWntOtrgkstTOamTZh9_FvATd8a55ca9hCUFF1sE=2zSd4EQA@mail.gmail.com> <13CA24D6AB415D428143D44749F57D7201F5B337@ltcfiswmsgmb26> <51A38051.8040909@mu.org> <51A39039.1070202@cran.org.uk> <51A39FEC.5070402@mu.org>

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On May 27, 2013, at 11:03 AM, Alfred Perlstein wrote:

> On 5/27/13 9:56 AM, Bruce Cran wrote:
>> On 27/05/2013 16:48, Alfred Perlstein wrote:
>>> Why can we not use in the interim use pc-sysinstall on the platforms th=
at it performs best on and use bsdinstall on the others?
>>=20
>> Because pc-sysinstall doesn't have a UI - it's only a backend. If we upd=
ate bsdinstall to use it, then it won't work on other platforms.
>>=20
> This still doesn't make sense to me.  Why can bsdinstall not conditionall=
y use it?
>=20

Because, believe it or not, not all programs are split in twain, having a f=
ront-end and a back-end.

I'm not defending it, and I'm not promoting it, but bsdinstall does things =
in a different way where
pc-sysinstall wants to be just a back-end. bsdinstall would have to go thro=
ugh a major revision
to make it use any external back-end. Currently it's one self-enclosed enti=
ty.


> Do we always have to seek the lowest common denominator for our user expe=
rience?
>=20

When the situation*is* that the release engineers can only embrace one inst=
aller for the release
media of more than just x86 architecture, the answer is=85 yes (common deno=
minator required).

My thoughts are=85 let me toil on a new installer and then we can think abo=
ut opening the can
of worms that is "how to enable conditional installers."

HINT: I already solved that problem=85 by modifying the boot loader Forth m=
enu to allow the
creation of custom boot menus. Now all we need is another installer to elic=
it the use of that code
to present the choice the user. However=85 (and this is a big however), unl=
ess the 2nd choice
installer is as half-as-bad as bsdinstall=85 I don't see why it wouldn't ju=
st replace it (therefore
negating the need to invoke that code I put in to allow multiple choice ins=
tallers at beastie menu).
--=20
Devin

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