From owner-freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Jun 30 18:51:15 2003 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-doc@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 03D1237B401 for ; Mon, 30 Jun 2003 18:51:15 -0700 (PDT) Received: from ms-smtp-02.texas.rr.com (ms-smtp-02.texas.rr.com [24.93.36.230]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4DD3C43FEA for ; Mon, 30 Jun 2003 18:51:14 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from dub@infowave.com) Received: from infowave.com (cs24243231-226.austin.rr.com [24.243.231.226]) h611pCef025081 for ; Mon, 30 Jun 2003 20:51:13 -0500 (CDT) Message-ID: <3F00E832.9000109@infowave.com> Date: Mon, 30 Jun 2003 20:47:30 -0500 From: Dub Dublin User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US; rv:1.0.2) Gecko/20021120 Netscape/7.01 X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: doc@FreeBSD.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Subject: Install instructions badly out of sync with 5.1 X-BeenThere: freebsd-doc@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Documentation project List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 01 Jul 2003 01:51:15 -0000 Someone needs to do a MAJOR rework of the installation instructions for 5.1. It's quite obvious that a LOT has changed w.r.t. the install since those instructions were written, especially since CD-ROM installs are barely mentioned and I cannot find any information anywhere on the site as to what exactly the miniinst ISO image is supposed to do - if it's there, it's well-hidden. This compounds the fact that the installation process itself is quite painful due to its seriously counterintuitive nature in many places. In addition, documentation on hardware support, perticularly for laptops and PCMCIA cards appears to be completely lacking - I only hope that it doesn't reflect an equivalent lack of real hardware support. (For instance, my very common Netgear PCMCIA Ethernet card is apparently not supported on anything on the CDs, leaving me stranded without net access, which is completely unacceptable, especially for someone that can't figure out how he's supposed to find and install new drivers on an OS that's only half-installed. To put this in perspective, let me say that I am NOT a newbie - I have nearly 20 years of Unix expereince, and was once a Sun SE and Network Ambassador. I have installed and worked with nearly every major Unix out there starting with Version 7, as well as several Linux distros including the dreaded Debian. The really sad thing is that I have so far been absolutely unable to get anything remotely approaching a fully functioning system installed in three tries. If I can't do it, you guys are hosed. I really want to use BSD, and I am staunchly opposed to the GPL, but really, the area of installation needs some major work or you're never going to win anyone over simply because they'll never see it run. I'm not a coder, but I'm a pretty good architect and a darn good product manager, so if you need someone to head up a new installer effort, please let me know - I'd be happy to help. Thanks, Dub Dublin dub@infowave.com