Re: Partman

[Margarita Manterola <debian@marga.com.ar>]

> See last IRC meeting log. Anton mentioned he will work on
> this. Manpower is missing aroung this, I'm afraid....

Ok, here is my report, for what it's worth.  I hope it can help making a
difference.

*   Main screen.

-= This is about moving the things on the screen.  A few string changes. =-

The problem with partman main screen is that everything is an option,
and it becomes really confusing to the user.  A simple change, like
putting the hard-drive information at the top and joining all the other
options at the bottom may be a bit more clarifying.

Then, I think that a GREAT difference could be made by transforming the "Help"
and "Finish" options into buttons at the bottom of the screen.  In this
way, we could have two less lines on the selection screen, and the help
and finish options would always be visible.  

Help and Finish being buttons rather than options is a more intuitive
approach (from my point of view, and some others I've collected as well)
and more user-friendly.  Please think about it.  I know it's different
from the rest of d-i, but it can make a real difference to the user.

* Formatting screen

-= This implies changing strings.  But it's quite important!! =-

The formatting screen is the one that I've found out to be more
confusing.  Specially when people that's new to partman try to find
where the swap is.

We've discussed this with some friends, and we came to the agreement
that if in "Usage method" it said "Create a File System" or maybe just
"File System" instead of "Format the partition" it would make the user
realize that that's the option he wants to change to use swap.

I think this is not enough, though.  I think we need some sort of "tips"
to allow people to realize where the things are, but this is much more
difficult, I know.

-= This is a code fix.  No string change needed =-

It's kind of dumb to show the "Bootable flag" for certain partition
types (like swap), I think it would be better to not show it when it
makes no difference, so as not to confuse the user unnecesarily.

* LVM and RAID

-= This is a code fix. No string changes =-

LVM and RAID options should NOT appear on the screen until the RAID or
LVM partitions have been selected.  These are two options, that eat up
screen space, when the user might not be interested at all in them, no
matter debconf level.

* More recipes

-= This implies adding some strings, please do think about it though =-

partman-auto is awesome.  I think it would be really nice to have some more
recipes, so that the least amount of people has to use partman to
actually set the values.

The one I already submitted is a "Server" recipe, that exchanges the
/var and /home sizes from the "Multi-User" recipe (or something like
that), I think that having this one would make a lot of people's lives
easier.

I can't think of any other sensible general recipe right now, but if
there are, I'd certainly say it's a good idea.  Remember: the least
people that use partman, the more people that will love debian installer
:)

> Also, some usability issues may require too much changes,
> unfortunately.

I've tried to keep the changes to the minimum possible.  But I think
that we *have* to address this before release.

-- 
 Besitos,   {o_
     Marga. (')_