Installation Manual Revisions
I hope to revise the install manual this weekend. I want to preview the
most significant change, which is to the chapter on Installation Methods
(ch 5). I know some people may prefer to react to a concrete proposal, and
that's fine.
The current chapter 5 has been sliced and diced so much that it is a
confusing mix of things. It has a bunch of material which seems to belong
in the next chapter (on booting the initial install system), and I would
like to relocate that material there. It also says ad nauseum that there
are many different choices.
I would like to focus chapter 5 on an overview of the installation process
and on the concrete steps needed to get things going. At the moment it
lists media and files, but offers only modest help in choosing from these
options.
I would begin with an overview of the installation process. In particular,
emphasize the various "media" choices available at different installation
steps, and the fact that the installation process gradually expands the
options available.
Second, discuss some common scenarios for installation:
* bootable CD-ROM -> skip to next chapter
* use diskettes to kick off the install, getting other files (drivers and
base) from somewhere without size constraints
* diskettes all the way
I know that different architectures support different options, and that
some don't support diskettes at all.
Third, discuss proper choice of subarchitecture or flavor. For i386, offer
direct advice like "if memory is limited, use limited memory option. If on
a laptop, use safe. If using diskettes all the way, use
compact. Otherwise, use standard." (This probably belongs before the
advice to stop reading if you have a bootable CD-ROM, since the user may
need to know about the different install options different CD-ROMs offer).
Fourth, provide a guide to the files in the archive, oriented toward "which
ones do I need to download and what do I do with them." This would relate
the different files to the different installation stages.
Fifth, specifics of the different choices of media and methods
(nfs/ftp/ppp/hard drive...).
I believe there will be a lot I don't know for sure. I hope that by
offering concrete wrong advice I'll make it easy for someone to insert the
concrete right advice, whereas now a lot is left to the imagination of the
reader.
I would love to use some tables, but the current infrastructure does not
support it. Any suggestions?
Reply to: