how the solaris 2.6/sparc installer is better than ours
I just ran the Solaris (2.6) installer on my Ultra; it only runs on
CD-ROM, btw, and uses OpenWound, *ahem*, OpenLook, to install. Which
is fine for sparc hardware which is very consistent. And of course
you can only install from CD-ROM or network.
A caveat is that I think they utterly replaced the installer for SunOS
2.7.
Anyhow, although for the most part their system is around the same
overall level of quality. In fact, more opaque -- they ask if you're
part of a subnet -- if not, you don't get a router or a domain name!
Their system can be used to upgrade the OS as well as install it.
Which is something where I think we should do a better job of
detecting and notifying of this (Bug#31449).
Here's where their installer really rocks:
Their partition manager!
Of course, Sun disk labels are simpler; and we don't have the luxury
of only dealing with Sun disk labels. Still, I think the number one
comfort item for newbies would be to have a really nice partition
manager, and options either to have a 'wizard-like' walk thru creating
reasonable paritions (based on disk, possibly 50MB root, 100MB /var,
1GB /usr (if available).
The Sun installer asks what file systems should have their own
partitions (i.e., root, /usr, /usr/openwin, /opt, /var, /export/home).
Then it goes ahead and slices and dices the disk accordingly, using
reasonable sizes.
Another nice feature is that it keeps a running total of disk sizes,
and that you just set the *sizes* of the partitions (normally), and it
takes care of the cylinders and all that.
Also, you can mark a partition to be *preserved* and it won't touch that.
--
.....Adam Di Carlo....adam@onShore.com.....<URL:http://www.onShore.com/>
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