Newbie experience
Greetings,
I am writing this to provide some feedback, in the hope that this will
contribute to the Debian project.
I recently embarked on installing Debian from scratch, downloading the
disk images pointed to in the install instructions, pointed to from the Web
page.
Point 1: by following this route, I was led to rex - rather than
rex-fixed (which I take to be a better choice) - should this link be updated?
The base installation went beautifully! I like the way it leads me
through, but without being dictatorial. well done!
I was then confronted with dselect. Oh dear! Confusion then set in. I
was confronted with this, and it was *not* what I needed at the time.
Some background: I have been round unix systems for over 10 years, main
at the application level, so have a fair overview of things. However, I
have very little system installation experience, even less Linux
experience and no Debian experience. I downloaded the base system with a
view to getting a minimum system up and running, then adding *some*
utilities etc via PPP connection to work/ISP.
Point 2: from the path I took, it was *not* at all obvious what I had at
the end of the base installation. With the benefit of a weeks tinkering
and a recent re-install, I think that simply the output of "dpkg -l"
would have been *invaluable* at that point. This could be done in
several ways:
2.1: installation instructions suggest doing a "dpkg -l > file" and using
ae to have a look.
2.2: include output of dpkg -l in base installation, instructions refer
to it.
2.3: page it over the screen *before* running dselect.
I favour 2.1 as it is the most educational.
The point at which I was confronted with dselect seems illogical: I had a
handful of floppy disks, and nothing else. OK, on re-reading the
instructions, I see that it says "If you have CD-ROM or hard disk ...
this will be useful right away, Otherwise you may want to quit dselect
and start it later ...".
Point 3: it may be less intimidating to not run dselect, but rather
display a message suggesting (1) if you have the Distribution (CD-ROM,
net-connected, whatever) then running dselect is a good idea now or (2)
if you don't have the CD-ROM etc then now is a good time to organise
files/access etc.
In running dselect, it asked me about the Packages file and the location
of the top of the distribution - neither of which I was familiar with.
Point 4: it would have been helpful if I had read an outline of the
organisation of the ftp site. If such document exists, it should be
pointed to from the install instructions and/or the Web pages. If not,
it would be a worthwhile endeavour.
Having battled with dselect and de-selected almost everything (after
finally finding the Packages file, but still too ignorant of the
significance of the ftp site layout) I gave up and installed a couple of
things the old way - dpkg -i. This was progress, it worked, it told me
about dependencies etc, I like it. It was the right tool for the job
(the task at hand being getting vim happening).
Having reflected on my initial experience, listened to the chatter on
debian-users and slept on this message, I think the angle I am coming
from is:
a) Yes, dselect has its place - for an experienced user upgrading a
net-connected system or for a CD-install it would be cool.
b) But there are situations where is is, to put it bluntly, intimidating.
c) Newbies like me can easily fit into point b) above.
d) My suggested solution is that we (inclusive language intended) (1)
provide documentation to head this off at the pass and (2) not confront
first-time users with dselect (rather suggest that now *may* be a good
time to run dselect).
The one real hitch in my install was the infamous xlib6 shared library
bug. I later found this to be #1 on the (un-"official"?) 1.2-FAQ. Ah,
such a gem of information!
Last point: Why is it (or similar information) not more prominent?
Yours constructively,
Neale.
PS: I am finishing this from a vc on my newly installed and ppp-connected
machine (using telnet and running pine). From that point of view, I am
not just satisfied, but thrilled!
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