prerelease install report

[jdassen@WI.LeidenUniv.NL (J.H.M.Dassen)]

I've just installed the 0.93R6-prerelease, and my overall opinion
is very positive. 

This report contains some observations that should probably 
bugreports. I'll try to indicate the category of a remark
as follows: [B] probable bug [S]uggestion [Q]uestion [?] weirdness 
[ ] unclassified. It is ordered chronologically.

I'm not too sure of some of the [B]'s. Please submit them to
debian-bugs where appropriate.

--- INSTALL ---

[S] The first message (text displayed by syslinux) states
    "the table below indicates whether you need a parameter"
    I suggest "the table below lists some cases in which you 
    must specify a parameter", since the table is not exhaustive.

[S] Add to the message "You must have a formatted empty disk ready."

[Q] Kernel message: "VFS: Insert ramdisk floppy and press ENTER".
    Does the install document state clearly that "ramdisk floppy" refers
    to what we call "root floppy"?

[S] An attempt to mount /dev/hda1 on /DOS via the menu results in
    "mount: /dev/hda1 not a mount point". Maybe it's better to check
    the existence of the mount point first, and ask if it should be
    created if it doesn't exists.

[S] Base install has a message "Please insert disk 1 and press ENTER".
    Change this to "Please insert base disk 1 and press ENTER".
                                  ^^^^

[B] When makeing a bootfloppy directly after the base install (without
    configuring the system), one gets the message
    "Now you may reboot your system with the bootdisk".
    Is it possible to use a variabele to remember if the system has
    been configured yet, and issue a warning at this point if this
    variable says "not configured".

[S] Perhaps some extra explanitory text before the question
    "What is the short hostname of your machine?", to indicate that this
    name can be freely chosen for a standalone system.

[S] State clearly if "additional network setup" pertains to SLIP and PPP.

[B] When asking about which _net_ modules to install, the text scrolls of 
    the screen.


--- WORKING BASE SYSTEM ---

[S] After booting to the new system, I get
    "Calculating dependencies... *** Unresolved symbols in module 
     /lib/modules/1.2.13/scsi/scsi_debug.o". Perhaps we can make this
    display errors about the modules in /etc/modules and the modules
    they depend on.

[Q] Syslogd says "/dev/xconsole: No such file or directory". Should this
    file be present, or is it dynamically created?

[S] Add a temporary message "Please log in as root now" to /etc/issue.

[ ] With 'dselect' it is now obvious how to escape back to the menu 
    after choosing to select the install method.

[B] /bin/perl is a symlink to /usr/bin/perl. From the packaging 
    guidelines I gather that /bin/perl should be a separate binary, 
    for use in critical situations (when /usr is unmounted or broken).

[Q] Is perl still being maintained? The current perl package is 5.001e,
    while the current perl is 5.001m.

[B] /bin/gunzip and /bin/zcat are copies of /bin/gzip, instead of 
    symlinks to it.

[S] "dpkg -S nm" results in "dpkg: serious warning: files list for
    package <PACKAGE> missing" for PACKAGE in (ncurses-runtime, samba,
    librl, binutils, libc, netbase). Is it possible to have a separate
    status indicator for "partially installed package" to give a more
    apropriate message?

[S] Add to /etc/fdparm a message "# See package(section)" 

[B] /etc/group appears to contain a copy of a virgin /etc/password:
	--
	root::0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash
	[...]
	nobody:*:65534:65534:nobody:/dev/null:

	root::0:root
	[...]
	users::100:
	nogroup::65534:nobody
	[...]
	--
    I have no idea what caused this. Please indicate which additional
    information is needed.
   
[Q] Why is /etc/rc.local a file while /etc/init.d is a directory?

[B] /etc/slip.hosts and /etc/slip.tty contain non-commented example 
    entries.

[Q] /lib/ld.linux.so.1 is a copy of /lib/ld-linux.so.1.7.5
    /lib/ld.so is a copy of /lib/ld.so.1.7.5
    Can these be made symlinks?

[Q] Why is /lib/librl.so.2.0.3.dist the readline libary?
                              ^^^^^

[Q] Why are there no newlines when doing "cat /proc/self/environ"?

[Q] Why "mesg n" in /root/.bash_profile?

[B] updatedb was not executed, although there is code for this in
    /sbin/setup.sh.

[B] There is no manpage for "chvt".

[B] There is no /etc/services, resulting in failure of "ftp".

[Q] What's the difference between "env" and "printenv"?

[B] "users" and "who" result in "/var/adm/utmp: No such file or directory".
    /var/adm is a symlink to log; utmp is in /var/run. 

[Q] Is the /var/{adm,log,run} setup following the latest FSSTND? It is
    important to have this set up correctly for elf-libc.

[S] Isn't it better to have /usr/doc/<package>/examples instead of
    /usr/doc/examples/<package>?

[Q] Why is there a /var/home dir?

Regards,
Ray
-- 
J.H.M. Dassen                 | RUMOUR  Believe all you hear. Your world may  
jDassen@wi.LeidenUniv.Nl      | not be a better one than the one the blocks   
Dassen@stpc.wi.LeidenUniv.Nl  | live in but it'll be a sight more vivid.      
                              |     - The Hipcrime Vocab by Chad C. Mulligan