On Jan 13, 2009, at 2:23 AM, Martin Michlmayr wrote:
2) Assume a user has a slug they've been using with the Linksys software for a while and wants to switch to Debian: What should they do to make sure d-i gets their network configuration right without having to resort to the fixups you describe below?... the docs clearly say that a) the network configuration has to be complete when you use a static IP address and b) if you configure the Linksys firmware to use DHCP that will be used. So to make sure d-i gets it right you either have to: a) put in all values in the Linksys firmware or b) tell the Linksys firmware to use DHCP and configure your DHCP server properly. I think both are pretty clear. Maybe I should explicitly mention "hostname" and "domain" somewhere, though...
The docs are clear if you know what you're looking for. If you don't, it's easy to miss the important stuff. (This is, of course universally true, and not a solvable problem in general. But in this specific instance...)
I think explicitly mentioning "domain" as well as "hostname" and IP- address should be all that's required.
The existing docs mention in a general way what happens if parameters are missing, but do not provide a complete list of needed parameters. So maybe a footnote giving the complete list of network configuration parameters that the d-i will use if it can get them out of the mtdblock1 area (IP-address, netmask, gateway address, DNS server, hostname, domain -- have I missed anything?) and some details on what it will do if any of them are missing?
Maybe I'm just over-thinking the problem because it happened to be me who got bitten by it.
In any case, "Thanks!" for all your efforts. The slug is a really neat little box, and your work makes it really easy for general users like me to join in the fun. I'm grateful.
Enjoy! RickPS: I'll leave it to you to close this bug if you think it's served its purpose.