Date: Sun, 26 Nov 1995 15:13:18 -0800 From: "Jordan K. Hubbard" <jkh@time.cdrom.com> To: Chris Shenton <cshenton@apollo.hq.nasa.gov> Cc: hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Thoughts on the install and on Red Hat Linux. Message-ID: <13398.817427598@time.cdrom.com> In-Reply-To: Your message of "Sun, 26 Nov 1995 10:57:00 EST." <199511261557.PAA10995@wirehead.hq.nasa.gov>
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> A Mac-friend and I just spend about 16 hours trying to install Caldera > (RH Linux, plus Visix desktop, plus Novell, plus ...). What a > nightmare. The usual Linux root+boot disk (plus two, for Caldera), but > I can live with that (tho I certainly prefer *one* disk with FreeBSD). It definitely makes it a lot less confusing to deal with. The emergence of the ATAPI floppy was something I felt less than happy about. Every time I've looked at distributions from Slackware to RH, I've always been struck with the thought: "which of these 97 different images am I supposed to friggin' *use*?!" It's a bad first impression to make on any user who'd rather remain unconcerned with such minutia. > A simple design goal: don't let the user get down the road fail > because of something that could have been determined earlier. I agree. In fact, I'm coming around to a very different way of thinking about how "media devices" are chosen. It should be something that you can specify as a "chain", so that there are successive types of fallback. This would help make for a successful CD/FTP installation combo with full DES in the non-U.S. scenario (something I've always wanted to have work). > I'd suggest aggressive probing, then confirmation with the user, with > an "out" if the user doesn't know. Failing good information on HW > config, default to something most likely to work (eg: VGA X11, rather > than nothing; WD8003, if that's the most prevalent ether clone, etc). Anyone keen to reactivate the subject of a 2-stage boot? I also feel that I and whomever else does sysinstall/setup the next time around will only be able to do so much, then it's going to come down to how much BIOS information we can squirrel away. Jordan
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