Re: Installer report
hi
On Fri, 2003-09-26 at 05:22, Chris Tillman wrote:
> I tried the powerpc version of the installer built recently by Gaudenz
> Steinlin. Since the root image was missing modprobe, I wasn't able to
> get too far. But seeing a lot of errors gave me some insight into the
> error handling code, and I thought I would enter my observations.
There are now cdrom images on
http://gluck.debian.org/cdimage/testing/netinst/powerpc/
We are working on makeing them better, but they have already some bugs
fixed, that were in my images. Probably I should remove my images
alltogether.
>
> I chose the language, which was fine, but I agree (and I think there
> may already be a bug) that the Choose language should be a separate
> dialog, ala boot-floppies, so people that don't read English have a
> chance. If I was presented with Japanese characters on the first line
> of main-menu, I surely wouldn't feel confident about choosing it -- I
> wouldn't know what the result would be. Another option might be to
> display all the other language translations of 'Choose a language'
> around the main menu box when the first item is highlighted? Nah.
File a bug if there isn't already one. I think it will be difficult to
make an installer for which one doesn't even have to know what "Choose
your language" means.
Probably there should be a way to preselect the installer language and
to build custom images for special languages. So a japanese debian based
distribution can make a japanese installer for people not know any
english.
>
> In netcfg-dhcp, the message says 'This may take some time. It
> shouldn't take more than a minute or two.' However, this is presented
> in a dialog box where 'Continue' needs to be selected for this
> 'lengthy' process to start. I understand we shouldn't refer to the
> button name directly, but how can we make the user understand that the
> Continue button should be pressed to start the operation? I think a
> new user could sit there looking at that message for a long time,
> thinking that the operation it referred to was already in process.
file a bug. IMHO this message is bogus anyway. In my experience if a
dhcp server doesn't respond within the first 10 seconds, you won't get a
lease.
>
> The Detect a keyboard and select layout step failed due to the lack of
> modprobe. However, it was very difficult to figure out what was going
> wrong. When the step was selected, the background would momentarily
> change to blue; I could see SIGSEGV in the upper left corner and some
> other words, but the main menu was quickly re-displayed. I checked
> console 3, there was no message there indicating what had happened. I
> repeatedly selected the menu item so I could piece together the
> messages displayed as they flashed quickly by. There is no error
> message after the step fails in this way.
This bug is fixed, kbd-chooser was segfaulting. File a bug against
main-menu if there isn't one that it should not simply return if some
step segfaults. I think now it assumes that the udebs display an error
message if they fail, obviously this is not true if they segfault.
>
> I found it odd that the Configure network via DHCP step and the
> Configure static network step were separated in the main menu by the
> keyboard configuration. I guess this is a result of the
> Installer-Menu-Item conflict at #12. netcfg's item 14 also conflicts
> with choose-mirror, as I noted back on June 6.
please file a bug.
>
> Perhaps this is a result of the way this build was executed; but when
> Configure network failed, there didn't appear to be any way to choose
> a CD mirror instead. The Choose Mirror step said it was dependent on
> Configure Network, and offered to take me back there. When that
> happened, and I used the Go Back button to try Configure Network
> again, and it failed again, Choose Mirror didn't realize that
> Configure Network had just failed again, and went ahead with its
> function anyway. It should have gone back to the main menu or
> complained again about Configure Network.
These are netboot images. They don't include cdrom-retriever.
>
> Another new-user trip-up might occur after executing a shell. It's not
> evident how one exits from the shell; I'd suggest adding "Use the
> 'exit' command to leave this shell and return to the main menu" in
> the brief intro which appears at the top.
file a bug.
>
> One last suggestion: I don't know what version this test represents,
> because I didn't build it myself. Obviously a common problem. I think
> it would be appropriate to add the build version right there in the
> main menu title, like "This is the main menu for debian-installer,
> version x.xx"
file a bug
Thanks for your testing efforts!
gaudenz
Reply to: