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To: Chris Shenton <cshenton@apollo.hq.nasa.gov>
cc: hackers@freebsd.org
Subject: Re: Thoughts on the install and on Red Hat Linux. 
In-reply-to: Your message of "Sun, 26 Nov 1995 10:57:00 EST."
             <199511261557.PAA10995@wirehead.hq.nasa.gov> 
Date: Sun, 26 Nov 1995 15:13:18 -0800
Message-ID: <13398.817427598@time.cdrom.com>
From: "Jordan K. Hubbard" <jkh@time.cdrom.com>
Sender: owner-hackers@freebsd.org
Precedence: bulk

> 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