Re: Failing to be of help with boot floppies
Dale Scheetz <dwarf@polaris.net> writes:
> So, it's fixed in woody ;-)
>
> Doesn't do much for a discussion of potato...
No, 2.2.17 is for Potato -- 2.2r1 we hope.
> 1. When it fails to find a graphics card the failure is complete and the
> rest of the work should just be skipped. Instead you get a very hard to
> read screen which implies that something good happened ... sort of ... and
> the process continues as though everything were hunky dory.
I agree. Please file an appropriate bug -- even severity Important is
called for.
> 2. Even when it succeeds at finding the card, very often the constructed
> config file is useless. I have three different machines to install on, and
> although one is pretty ancient, limited hardware, the other two are
> reasonably new machines with reasonable hardware, and I still must resort
> to some other configuration method after going through all the steps in
> the anXious config.
I don't know what we can do about that at this stage, unless, uh,
you're volunteering of course, in which case, more power to ya.
> 3. Dozens of single value entry screens make the whole thing very
> tedious. (this is true of the whole install BTW) Grouping together related
> items on one screen makes the install more reasonable.
Sure but not going to change in Potato I don't think.
> 4. Even though the X maintainer doesn't like xf86config, I would much
> rather have that tool here than anXious. I have always been able to build
> a working config with this tool, except for one case where the server
> didn't quite support my graphics card. The next release fixed that problem
> as well...
> While the decision may have been made then (by the working group) I have
> a set of CDs toasted for me by a client (I can't afford the bandwidth to
> follow these myself) which were produced by one of the developers, and
> there was no anXious involved in the second stage installation...
Even the briefest grep thru the debian/changelog file would tell the
inquiring person that this was added in boot-floppies 2.2.4, Mon, 3
Jan 2000 01:44:40 -0500. Get your facts correct before you throw
around accusations, please.
> 2. Put all the "chatter" now present on installation screens back into
> help files, and build dialogue boxes that have some content and structure
> to them. This is specially true for the current second stage installation,
> which currently has more individual screens to go through than the base
> install.
Have you tried the 'quiet' boot argument?
> I realize that I'm an idiot about many things Debian, but one thing I've
> been involved in from the beginning, and understand in all its ugly
> details, is the installation process. My overall impression is that
> historicly the Debian install has been getting worse, not better. I don't
> think this means that we must continue in this direction, but I understand
> the momentum issues in Debian well enough to have little optimism on this
> point.
I don't see on what objective basis you can claim this. Every 3rd
party review I've read has commented that Potato installation is much
smoother for most than the Slink installer.
--
.....Adam Di Carlo....adam@onShore.com.....<URL:http://www.onShore.com/>
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