From owner-freebsd-doc Fri May 25 20:55:51 2001 Delivered-To: freebsd-doc@freebsd.org Received: from winston.osd.bsdi.com (adsl-64-173-15-98.dsl.sntc01.pacbell.net [64.173.15.98]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D787537B422 for ; Fri, 25 May 2001 20:55:47 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from jkh@osd.bsdi.com) Received: from localhost (jkh@localhost [127.0.0.1]) by winston.osd.bsdi.com (8.11.3/8.11.3) with ESMTP id f4Q3tU843056; Fri, 25 May 2001 20:55:30 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from jkh@osd.bsdi.com) To: pyriformus@hotmail.com Cc: freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.ORG In-Reply-To: References: X-Mailer: Mew version 1.94.1 on Emacs 20.7 / Mule 4.0 (HANANOEN) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: Text/Plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-Id: <20010525205530N.jkh@osd.bsdi.com> Date: Fri, 25 May 2001 20:55:30 -0700 From: Jordan Hubbard X-Dispatcher: imput version 20000228(IM140) Lines: 70 Sender: owner-freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.org > my name is william mccartin and i have at long last successfully installed > free bsd onto my desktop computer [Chorus of voices]: "Hi William!" > i couldn't be that stupid I think we can spare you the charge of stupidity and simply substitute a charge of selective blindness. :) > in your online documentation make mention of the fact that you have to > select the items to be installed with the SPACE BAR and not the enter key In the Distributions menu ifself, you'll see this notice: "Choose an item by pressing [SPACE]. When you are finished, choose the Exit item or press [ENTER]." A point which is subsequently restated for emphasis in the source distribution menu: "Select the sub-components of src you wish to install. Please check off those portions of the FreeBSD source tree you wish to install (remember to use SPACE, not ENTER!)." And in the configuration menu: "This menu allows you to configure various aspects of your system's startup configuration. Remember to use SPACE to select items! The RETURN key will leave this menu (as with all checkbox menus)." Finally, and most importantly, in the first default item one is presented with on installation, namely the Usage instructions, one sees: "Selecting OK in a menu will confirm whatever action it's controlling. Selecting Cancel will cancel the operation and generally return you to the previous menu. Note also that "checkbox" menus use SPACE to select their items, not ENTER! Pressing ENTER will leave the menu with either an OK or Cancel status, depending on which button at the bottom is selected, and is probably not what you wanted to do if still selecting options. Remember the spacebar!" So, as you can see, it is mentioned in a few places and those are just the first few I turned up in a quick grep - I may have repeated the instructions in a few more places. One might also be forgiven at this point for asking why checkbox and radio menus behave in so finicky a fashion as to require all those prominent notices posted everywhere. Clearly if you were the first to run across it, warning signs wouldn't be posted in quite so many places. The answer is that libdialog, the library on which sysinstall depends for these menus, is genuinely evil. It is the unloved, satanic bastard child of multiple parents and torturing users like yourself constitutes the only joy in life it has left. Its source files are all chmod'd 0666 and dire README files warn against trespass by neophyte programmers. It is the 7th gate of Hell. It makes the baby Jesus cry. Were libdialog given anthropomorphic representation, it would be promptly burnt at the stake and its ashes scattered in the desert, to be then doused with holy water from altitude by fire-fighting aircraft. I hope this answers any questions you might have had. Regards, - Jordan To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-doc" in the body of the message