Re: Potato Installation guide-Mac
On Fri, Jun 23, 2000 at 11:40:58AM +0200, Michael Schmitz wrote:
> ROTFL. I wrote my thesis using Signum on my Falcon. No need for TeX.
> Seeing the TeX nuts around here labor over subtle formatting issues I
> guess even using Word would have been faster.
Might be faster, might even be easier for subtle formatting, but TeX knows
more about how to do a nice format. Anyway, no TeX wars here and now. I
heard signum is good, but never had a chance to do anything with it.
> I get the idea of conditional processing, but the sheer horror from
> fighting SGML for the slink boot floppies won't go away.
I only did a basic test, conditional processing works. However using the VME
text does not work yet, have to take care for sgml commands which are
probably used in the text, or something that looks like it. Also ascii
grafics (for the partion naming scheme) could be difficult if not
impossible. But then, I only want an easily maintainable quick(!) install
guide, all other more detailed explanations _have_ to go into the real
documentation. And thats sgml or debiandoc or whatever.
> > -Debian distributions are known by various names. This version, 2.2 is
> > +Debian distributions are known by various names. This version, 2.2, is
>
> I'm not an expert on punctuation in english. That change would be correct
> for german spelling but what's the proper english spelling?
I allways thought that you use much less commas in BE, but my boss said, if
you want a pause in the sentence for "highlighting", use a comma. He not a
native speaker either. Scott, your turn.
> > If you chose to install from the floppy images, create a new folder named
> > -"install". Move the base2_2.tgz, resc1440.bin,drv1440.bin and Pengiun files
> > -into this folder. Do not rename any files.
> > +"install". Move the base2_2.tgz, resc1440.bin,drv1440.bin and Penguin files
> > +into this folder. Do not rename any files.
> > +(FIXME: whats this? You need the floppy images anyway, they are called
> > +rescue.bin, driver.bin and _have_ to live in images-1.44, right? Ok to
> > +delete this paragraph?)
>
> I must have missed part of that. We need to create that directory
> structure if installing off the hard disk (floppies are not an option with
> potato).
Unpack macinstall.tgz and your done.
> > +(FIXME: install from floppies? On a Mac? I thought you can only install from
> > +HDD or CD-Rom?)
>
> Yep. You could try to boot from the rescue.bin image in case the booter is
> on that image, unpacked. But you would need to load the ramdisk from a
> second floppy.
And this works? On my amiga, I never got the floppy to do anything...
> > yourself. It must begin with a "/", followed by the directory components
> > leading to the files (e.g. "/tmp/newstuff/install" if the files reside in
> > the directory/tmp/newstuff/install/ on that partition).
> > -
> > +(FIXME: I do not think this is true. On Amiga the partition you selected is
> > +mounted under /instmnt, you have to give a path relative to this. Also, if
>
> Nope. The instmnt is prepended by the installer, you only need to give it
> the path on the actual filesystem. On the CD that would be /install, why
> not use the same name on the HD?
Did you try the installation? I can only say what happens on Amiga (forgot
how it looked for i386) and I'd wonder if it'd be different for Mac. When
you select operating system and modules or base.tgz, you first choose if its
on hdd, CD, mounted filesys and whatnot. Then you get a selection window
where you are asked for the path. /instmnt is set there allready as the
default (if using harddisk, the partition you selected is mounted under
/instmnt). If you _add_ the right directory there, files are installed (I
did not try removing /instmnt though). If you just press return, you have two
choices, list or manually. If you press return again, a list of all suitable
files is built, you can select then from there with the cursor keys. If you
choose manually, you have to _add_ a path to /instmnt. What I want is not to
confuse the user, its so simple if you press return, let the installer
search through the harddisk and then select from the possibilities (in case
you have several copies on that disk). Its really really simple, no need to
explain the most difficult choice, if you can do it easier. You know about
what most new users complain the most. I personally find potato nearly too
simple to install... but I did not test all possible installations, I
allways chose the fastest for my tests (read, return, return, wait, cursor
down, return, return, ... get the idea?)
> > +Is it really different on a Mac?)
>
> Yes, it will find three locations (install/.finderinfo, install/.resource,
> install/), only the last one is useful.
It will _find_ base2_2.tgz in install/.finderinfo? Sounds weird, did you
actually try this? My experience says, it is searching for files and
directories, ie when installing OS and modules, it is searching for
images-1.44/rescue.bin or something. If its not in images-1.44, you can not
install it. This is a change from slink, I had to do several tests when we
started updating the boot-floppies.
Michael, will you make a patch with your suggested changes? Somehow I do not
fully agree with all of them, but then I don't have a mac to test things on.
Russel, your patches? Or is it all included, in what I put up on my debian
page?
Scott, comments, improvements?
Anyone else? "Amigans"? Atari users? C64? (oups, they only got a browser,
not linux/m68k..)
Might be good to check this in today, maybe a new bf version will be tagged
during the weekend, but if I look at the Release-critical Bugreport...
Christian
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