Date: Wed, 9 Jul 2008 15:06:33 -0700 From: "Freddie Cash" <fjwcash@gmail.com> To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org, freebsd-current@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Re: Sysinstall is still inadequate after all of these years Message-ID: <b269bc570807091506s4176e0f7mfcedeecaaa81e841@mail.gmail.com> In-Reply-To: <487380FA.6080004@wubethiopia.com> References: <784966050807021123l267aa20en39eb513c12c90ad2@mail.gmail.com> <20080702235800.H47773@fledge.watson.org> <486C8700.5020100@lobraun.de> <20080703092511.T69986@fledge.watson.org> <486F8C57.9050908@wubethiopia.com> <b269bc570807071155u364225dfi298be797b728dca4@mail.gmail.com> <20080707213625.69bb0bf4@soralx> <487380FA.6080004@wubethiopia.com>
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On Tue, Jul 8, 2008 at 8:00 AM, Mike Makonnen <mtm@wubethiopia.com> wrote: > soralx@cydem.org wrote: >>> Hear, hear! To be honest, this is the only bit about the current >>> sysinstall that I really dislike: the fact that it can be used for >>> post-installation configuration and package installation. This causes >>> no end of trouble for newbies, who seem to view sysinstall as "The One >>> True System Admin Tool" and try to use it for configuring/installing >>> everything. Too many times, on various BSD forums, I've had to walk >>> people through cleaning up /etc/rc.conf and showing them how to >>> correctly install/configure things (using standard FreeBSD tools), >>> since they used sysinstall for everything. >> >> That may be true, but sysinstall did help me do basic, essentical >> configuration of my very first installed system, and a few installs after >> that (until I learned about /etc/rc.conf et al). And I never regarded it >> as The One True Sysadmin Tool, because I did not use Linux distros, thus >> never got used to their ways. It's just that the simple configuration menu >> really helped me to get a useful system running in a few minutes (though menu >> items certainly could make use of more verbose descriptions). And then I could >> play with the working system and learn ways to configure it. >> >> So, IMHO, a basic curses system configuration utility is still needed, and >> should be run after sysinstall or it should tell the user how to run it >> (maybe in motd, or sysinstall itself?). > > Yes, I agree that such a tool is useful, but it does not belong in the > installer. In fact, the BSD Installer framework can be used here also to > separate the implementation details from the user interface. Exactly. There's nothing wrong with having an TUI/GUI for configuring /etc/rc.conf, or ports, or whatever. And there are pointers to the handbook and man pages in the default motd, so one can learn to do it manually via a text editor. All I'm saying is that a generic system configuration tool should not be an integral part of the installer (and all mentions of sysinstall, IMO, should be removed from the default motd). They are separate tasks. -- Freddie Cash fjwcash@gmail.com
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