Date: Tue, 6 May 2003 15:31:30 +0100 From: Paul Robinson <paul@iconoplex.co.uk> To: "Benjamin F. Burke" <ben@dubuque365.com> Cc: Doug Barton <DougB@FreeBSD.org> Subject: Re: Bridge config in /etc/rc (patch) Message-ID: <20030506143130.GE11502@iconoplex.co.uk> In-Reply-To: <1052215193.41902.130.camel@watchtower.office.parksmediagroup.com> References: <011901c31390$7aef5730$0300000a@antalus> <20030505225826.G666@znfgre.qbhto.arg> <015601c3139d$e5ae3b60$0300000a@antalus> <20030506002824.G666@znfgre.qbhto.arg> <1052215193.41902.130.camel@watchtower.office.parksmediagroup.com>
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On f, "Benjamin F. Burke" <ben@dubuque365.com> wrote: > I wonder how many experienced freebsd users really dislike having to > use the current rc.conf setup. If it ain't broke... rc.conf is broken. It's ambiguous and sysinstall has to handle updates to the file by adding deltas at the end - if you look at a line for an option in there, it's no guarantee that's the one that matters. Nobody has submitted anything better yet. The whole config and setup/install stuff is now one of the most debated about topics that nobody has submitted anything sensible on, IMVHO. > But if this is about ease of use for the less-experienced, why not keep > putting all the options in /etc/defaults/rc.conf, and create a > sysinstall-like interface to them that new users can run? Actually, why > not add rc.conf-editing functionality to sysinstall? The only > prerequisites I can think of for this are a more parseable > option-grouping syntax for rc.conf and a database of ultra-friendly > option descriptions, which the man page already has a good start on. sysinstall is broken. OK, let me re-phrase that, it's broken from the point of view of being "user-friendly". I don't mind it, most users don't mind it, but if you want to change something in there, then god help you. FreeBSD has one of the worst install procedures of modern Unixes as far as beginners to Unix are concerned - the shots I've seen of libh seem to suggest nobody is working on a really user-friendly install yet, as libh is a tidy up but doesn't seem to have a beginner-friendly interface to it. Truly, when I have about a month of spare time and after I've moved house, this is right at the top of my "projects you should do real soon now" list. I have VMWare on my work XP machine, and I installed Mandrake and Redhat the other day to see how they felt - it's a different world. I don't like the fact you need an SVGA graphics card to run it, but the actual logical interactions are very, very good. If we're serious about getting the home desktop market, you need to get the install procedure up to the point where at *INSTALL TIME* you're prompting for e-mail address configuration information. Even better, it should be able to pick up the Windows config already on the disk and use that.... dreams, dreams... > If you think it's a good idea, I'd be happy to take a crack at a > prototype. I'd like to discuss it further, but I think this is the wrong thread to do it in. -- Paul Robinson
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