Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2000 13:45:17 -0500 (EST) From: John Baldwin <jhb@FreeBSD.org> To: John Reynolds~ <jreynold@sedona.ch.intel.com> Cc: freebsd-current@FreeBSD.org, freebsd-qa@FreeBSD.org Subject: RE: feedback on CD install of 4.0-RC2 Message-ID: <200002171845.NAA59070@server.baldwin.cx> In-Reply-To: <14508.8230.213769.821490@hip186.ch.intel.com>
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On 17-Feb-00 John Reynolds~ wrote: > > OK folks, here's some feedback on 4.0-RC2 from somebody who hasn't done a CD > install in a while ... I got my new HDD in last night, put her in the machine > and let it rip. Here's the things I found that either puzzled me or might > stand a bit of enhancement before RC2->RELEASE. > > o As I've seen other people mention, there was a considerable delay while > waiting for the kernel to get done probing IDE disks. This new disk I got was > a Quantum Fireball and the ATA code detected it and used UDMA33 without a > hitch. However after the probe message: > > ata0 at 0x01f0 irq 14 on ata-pci0 > > the kernel "sat there" for 30-50 seconds. I know I've read this is "needed > per the spec" but it would be much less mysterious if a message could be > printed before that wait had to happen (much like the scsi subsystem when the > bus is reset). I didn't see anything in the FAQ about this, but I'm sure it > will become one soon ... Soren's been bugged about this, bug him some more. :) <sos@FreeBSD.org> > o I then tried to configure X. I think sysinstall needs to present a dialog [ snip ] Hmm, it used to say something to that effect a while back. > o The configuration of GNOME+E. worked. However, I had to manually put > "gnome-session" in my .xinitrc file. It seems to me that a more "friendly" > install would be one where if you chose KDE or GNOME+<whatever> that it asks > you which accounts you want to setup and does the appropriate things. That > way, the first time the new user reboots, logs in, and types "startx" he/she > goes into the windowing environment that he/she chose in sysinstall. If I > were a completely new user to FreeBSD, I wouldn't have known to put > gnome-session in my .xinitrc in order to get it to work. I would have fired > up X and saw the ugly-as-sin twm setup that comes with X and thought to > myself "boy, GNOME sure is ugly and worthless...". It's a small thing, sure, > but a gigantic thing to new-comers. It modifies root's setup and the setup in /usr/share/skel. Note that since sysinstall must run as root, it can't possibly know what username you are using. If you do the Desktop configuration before adding new users, then it will DTRT. If you are prompted to add new users in the Novice install before you do the X Desktop setup, then the order of those two things may need to be switched around. > o Finally, again, it seems to me that the skeleton .cshrc, .profile, > etc. files that are used for accounts creating during install should have the > following variables set: > > setenv LC_ALL en_US.ISO_8859-1 > setenv LC_CTYPE en_US.ISO_8859-1 > setenv LANG en_US.ISO_8859-1 Then submit patches to the /usr/share/skel files in a PR. I'm not sure where they are in the src tree, maybe src/share/skel. > (to whatever values are appropriate--this could even be asked if not guessed > correctly from the time zone info). Lots of the GNOME/GTK stuff that I > installed and ran complained that "LOCALE could not be set" (or whatever--I'm > not at the machine and am paraphrasing--those who know what the above > variables are for know the error I'm talking about when you don't have them > set). When I went to compile a custom kernel, some perl scripts used at the > beginning of "make depend" complained about the same lack of these variables. LC_ALL=LC_CTYPE=LANG=C might be a good default. > Everything else seemed ok and very speedy. I tweaked rc.conf values to add my > default route, NFS, blah blah blah and it all worked A-OK like my 3.4 machine > (connecting and routine through my 3.4-S gateway). No problems there! > > All in all, I think most of the things I experienced last night were > "cosmetic" in nature--however, if they could be polished away, it would make > for a *completely* bullet-proof and awesome install experience--especially for > a new user coming to FreeBSD for the first time. > > "I'm John, and this has been my Report." Thanks. > -Jr -- John Baldwin <jhb@FreeBSD.org> -- http://www.FreeBSD.org/~jhb/ PGP Key: http://www.cslab.vt.edu/~jobaldwi/pgpkey.asc "Power Users Use the Power to Serve!" - http://www.FreeBSD.org/ To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message
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