[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread] 

List:       freebsd-hackers
Subject:    2.1.5R sysinstall comments
From:       Chris Shenton <cshenton () it ! hq ! nasa ! gov>
Date:       1996-07-29 15:15:39
[Download RAW message or body]

I recently installed 2.1.5R  -- twice, but that's another story -- on
a machine and had a couple comments/suggestions.

I like some of the new features, especially the status at the bottom
of what packages its getting and the transfer rate.

MULTI-USER SYSINSTALL DISK/PARTITION PROBLEM:

The second time I installed, it was because my first disk appeared to
be getting corrupted. So I installed a second SCSI drive along with
the first and ran sysinstall from multiuser. Answered the questions,
and told it to label the partitions, which generated a core
dump. Tried again and didn't label them, did the COMMIT, and it
started downloading, but installing it on my currently-running disk in
/, /usr, etc, blowing away perfectly good copies of stuff like sh! I
tried again, labeling the partitions /new, /new/usr, /net/var on sd1
but it did the same thing. Finally, I downloaded the boot.flp, pulled
the running drive out so it could only write to the new drive.

RESTART WANTED:

While downloading, my !#$@ing ISP dropped my PPP link. The download
failed. I had to start from ground-zero. This is really painful at
28.8. It would be really cool if you could say "RESTART" on some menu,
and it would examine what was already fetched versus what you wanted
installed, and pickup from where it left off. Perhaps retrieval by sup
would be a good thing.

SAVED INSTALL CONFIG WANTED:

I'd really like it if when you say COMMIT, it wrote a little config
file to disk which said what partitions were where, what the network
config parameters were, what packages were requested for
installation. This way, if the install fails, you can start over (or
restart!) without having to go through all the specifications again. 

PORTS CD/DIR CONFUSED, NO CANCEL OPTION:

After sysinstalling, one of the menus asks if I want to install some
ports. I said yes, and it told me that I need to insert CDROM-2; kinda
difficult when I'm installing over PPP :-). I hit CONTINUE, cuz that's
the only choice it gives me (*everything* should have a CANCEL option
which backs you out), and it then talks to the ftpN.freebsd.org
server, fails, and repeats its demands for the CD. After a couple
iterations, it appears to give up, demands CDROM-1 this time,
connects, fails, and eventually leads me back to the main sysinstall
menu. Fortunately. Not sure why it isn't aware that I'm installing
from ftp, not CD. It does go to the net to do something, but looks
like maybe it wasn't finding the proper ports directly -- not sure. 


If I'm confused, let me know. Otherwise, I think this went pretty well
and is an improvement over previous versions.


PS: why don't you change the name of "boot4.flp" to "boot4mb.flp" to
    make it more obvious? just a suggestion.

[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread]