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From: Stephen Montgomery-Smith <stephen@math.missouri.edu>
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To: Lothar Braun <lothar@lobraun.de>
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Cc: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org, freebsd-current@freebsd.org,
	Robert Watson <rwatson@freebsd.org>
Subject: Re: Sysinstall is still inadequate after all of these years
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Lothar Braun wrote:

> What about having two utilities for the installation process? Something 
> like a very small (non-gui/non-X) version of "sysinstall" that just 
> installs a base system and only has the functionality to
> 
> - partition/label a disk
> - configure the network (if needed for installation)
> - install the base system (or parts of it)
> - install a boot manager
> 
> and a second utility "sysconf" that provides the other stuff like post 
> installation system configuration (sshd, mouse), installing packages, 
> etc. The second utility could have an X-based GUI without disturbing the 
> installation process of serial console users or people that don't like X 
> on their machines.
> 
> Would that be a good idea?


Why not leave "sysconf" as a curses based interface?  To my mind, the 
difference between X-based and curses is cosmetic.  (Plus one of 
"sysconf"s duties will be to install X, so it would be a bit 
self-referential.)

Next, it seemed to me that the OP's main complaint was that he had to 
change the CD's about 40 times when installing packages.  Why not just 
fix that?