On Fri, Mar 09, 2001 at 12:14:38PM +0800, Dan Jacobson wrote: > sure hope non subscribers can mail to this group, and hope one day to > be able to read it via nntp. also the name "boot" doesn't 100% match > the description "installation' ... the next generation installer, debian-installer, should more match your expectations. the name boot-floppies is mostly historical, and in a pinch the install disks can be used as an emergency boot disk. > why so many submenus with no way to back out, only one choice, > "<continue>" most of those are informational only. no questions being asked, no need to confuse with a ``yes or no'' > I use chrony on my other linux distribution. please ask the user if > he agrees to writing the software clock to the hardware clock before > doing this in the rc. scripts! the first time we notice it it is too > late. during the install, you are asked if the real time clock is set to localtime or GMT. it does not actually set the hardware clock. > could at least tell user '35/44 steps thru installation' or something > so we have some idea on screen. this is a good idea. i like it. > XF86setup: big disaster for me this is after the install, and into package installation. the installer just gives you a very minimal system (called ``base'') then hands you over to the real package management tools. > please when asking the user about 'initializing' disks, use the word > 'format' as that better implies the danger. for hard drives, formatting is a low-level procedure done usually at the factory. it is unfortunate that one company's misconception between formatting and creating a filesystem (``initializing'') should affect such a large number of people :( so although the term ``initializing'' may be confusing for some, it is an acurate term. there are plenty of warning that data will be destroyed. this is similarly true for floppies. but some tools will actually both format and lay a filesystem at the same time. the tools provided with debian do not, however. > why not when giving the list of partitions to format, mention which > ones have already been formatted. you mean initialized. you format a drive, and initialize a partition. any partition that you have already mounted will not be listed. any partition that is not of the proper type will not be listed. i hope that the next generation installer, debian-installer, can handle this a bit more gracefully. this is a good idea. > ALT F2 shell window of ramdisk: I set set -o emacs but still couldn't > use ^P the shell on the boot-floppies is ash, not bash. ash has no sense of history. i beleive the shell warns you of this when you start it. > module selecting: yucky agreed. however, this can usually be skipped (the documentation to this affect seems to be rather sketchy) > when debian gets larger, perhaps do the installation that doesn't need > answering questions in the background at the same time as that that > does? the next generation installer, debian-installer, should be much more accomodation to this. > many <y/n> questions aren't clear about what will happen if one hits > RET only. the default value is highlighted. (but i will agree that trying to determine if the highlight is blue or red can be difficult) > v19 emacs the default?! how about a newer default emacs19, emacs20, and xemacs21 are all available in the potato (stable) distribution. > before writing any files on the hard disk, please ask about the time zone > or something. the installation leaves files that seem 8 hrs younger > than now [I'm a Taiwan localtime user ] time stamps are written in GMT. if you correctly answered the question about if the RTC is set to GMT or localtime, then the timestamps should be correct. > red/blue for default choice might not always work for perhaps > color blind on your yes no questions. a black/white screen is also available. one of the first questions you are asked is color or b/w. (default is color) > I'm actually glad that x windows isn't a requirement to run your > installer script. me too. > depending on a separate installation instructions document isn't > feasible ---- well, unless you tell a user how to see it at the same > time on ALT F4 etc. windows. this is a space consideration. the entire installer and all support files have to be able to fit on a single 1.44M floppy. this make adding all the things we would like (such as online documentation) very difficult, especially when you consider translations for all text. the next generation insaller, debian-installer should address this better. > entering passwds: no echo *** chars: bad no * echos is very good, and a UNIX standard for years. so you really want to tell the shoulder surfer exactly how long your password is with a slight glance? > no message on how to redo screwed up parts of the install from the shell in the install itself (before the reboot) you can go back in the menu and correct almost any step you might have made a mistake on. -john
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