From owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Jul 17 14:25:17 2008 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 35D8C1065680; Thu, 17 Jul 2008 14:25:17 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from jhb@freebsd.org) Received: from server.baldwin.cx (bigknife-pt.tunnel.tserv9.chi1.ipv6.he.net [IPv6:2001:470:1f10:75::2]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id AC5178FC27; Thu, 17 Jul 2008 14:25:16 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from jhb@freebsd.org) Received: from localhost.corp.yahoo.com (john@localhost [IPv6:::1]) (authenticated bits=0) by server.baldwin.cx (8.14.2/8.14.2) with ESMTP id m6HEOvFW032292; Thu, 17 Jul 2008 10:25:09 -0400 (EDT) (envelope-from jhb@freebsd.org) From: John Baldwin To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Date: Thu, 17 Jul 2008 09:19:49 -0400 User-Agent: KMail/1.9.7 References: <784966050807021123l267aa20en39eb513c12c90ad2@mail.gmail.com> <486F8C57.9050908@wubethiopia.com> <20080705161614.O19209@fledge.watson.org> In-Reply-To: <20080705161614.O19209@fledge.watson.org> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline Message-Id: <200807170919.49756.jhb@freebsd.org> X-Greylist: Sender succeeded SMTP AUTH authentication, not delayed by milter-greylist-2.0.2 (server.baldwin.cx [IPv6:::1]); Thu, 17 Jul 2008 10:25:10 -0400 (EDT) X-Virus-Scanned: ClamAV 0.93.1/7736/Thu Jul 17 09:11:09 2008 on server.baldwin.cx X-Virus-Status: Clean X-Spam-Status: No, score=-2.6 required=4.2 tests=AWL,BAYES_00,NO_RELAYS autolearn=ham version=3.1.3 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.1.3 (2006-06-01) on server.baldwin.cx Cc: Mike Makonnen , Lothar Braun , Robert Watson , freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Sysinstall is still inadequate after all of these years X-BeenThere: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Technical Discussions relating to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 17 Jul 2008 14:25:17 -0000 On Saturday 05 July 2008 11:22:09 am Robert Watson wrote: > On Sat, 5 Jul 2008, Mike Makonnen wrote: > > > The installer can already install a basic FreeBSD system (including the > > ports collection) from CD, UFS, or DOS partition. I'm currently working on > > getting FTP/HTTP/NFS installation to work. Next on my list after that is > > setting Date and Time Zone. At that stage the installer will be more or less > > feature-complete, and I can start code cleanup, getting it to work on > > additional architectures, etc. I had initially intended to include package > > installation as one of the criteria for feature-completeness, but after > > reading through this thread I've decided not to use sysinstall's package > > installation code and instead write one from scratch once I'm happy with the > > rest of the installer. > > Sounds pretty much in line with what I was looking for. However, I think I > would like to see it be a bit more complete than sysinstall in the area of > geom partition labeling (concat/strip/raid/encryption), and perhaps also ZFS > support. I realize that adds complexity a fair amount, but one of the biggest > areas of feature lack in sysinstall today is that you are basically stuck with > the original BSD partition structure and UFS, whereas we expect increasing > numbers of users to deploy ZFS. We don't have boot support currently, but > being able to set up /data as a ZFS file system would be great. Today, people > have to do an initial install on, say, a small boot partition and then > relabel/deal with the rest of the disk, boot a live CD, or worse, discover > they have to repartition, which really fails to expose some of the excellent > ease-of-use, auto-configuration, etc, features that we otherwise have in this > area. I think the best route to that is to have a separate utility for managing disk partitioning. The installer can then use that utility, and sysadmins can also use it later after the system is installed. -- John Baldwin