Re: user feedback during (un)installation
On Sat, Apr 02, 2005 at 12:31:25AM +0200, Bas Wijnen wrote:
> Sven Mueller wrote:
> >
> >Installations with debian packages are far too verbose already for my
> >taste. Please don't bother the admin (me) with questions at uninstall
> >time as well. I hate giving an (un)install command, only to come back a
> >few hours later to see that it waits for my input approx. 10% through
> >the process.
> >
> >Actually, with (network) installs, this is even worse:
> >When installing the system (sarge, with current debian-installer in
> >expert mode), you often get the situation where you answer a (few)
> >question(s), wait for more questions to come up but only see it
> >downloading more software, so you leave the host alone to for a while (a
> >few hours possibly), only to come back, seeing it waiting for you to
> >answer another few questions, you do that again only see it doing more
> >downloads, .....
> >
> >The debian installation improved quite a bit over the last two years,
> >but it is still faaaaar away from where I would like to see it:
> >- Boot CD/DVD
> >- Answer a few questions (e.g. partioning, boot loader type, packages
> > selection, language, keyboard type, network setup, mirror selection)
> >- Wait for all packages to be downloaded and unpacked (*)
> >- Answer all the questions those packages might want answers to
> >- Have a running system
> >
> >* This is the most important point: We can't avoid a wait here, since we
> >need time to partition the disk, download/unpack packages etc., but
> >there shouldn't be multiple prolonged waiting periods during an
> >installation.
>
> I'm actually only reading this list to get useful tips, because I might
> want to become a DD in the future. However, I have an idea for this,
> and I would really like it to be included in the installation.
>
> Whenever a package asks a question, the package should be added to a
> list of "needs answering". While waiting for the answer, the
> installation should continue with other packages (which don't pre-depend
> on any package which needs answers). That way, after waiting some time
> (possibly hours), most of the work has been done, and you can just
> answer the questions which are queuing up. After that, only a few
> packages (those that needed answers and the ones pre-depending on them)
> need to be installed.
Everything which can be done at compile-time should be done at compile-
time.
Some thing cannot be done at compile-time, and are done at
installation time, usually via the postinst script. (F.E., if the
hostname is needed, you have to defer until postinst).
Sometimes the questions are interrelated, and so it is not possible to
ask all the questions at once ("Do you want to run the sshd server?",
followed by "On what port do you want to run the sshd?" wouldn't make
sense if the answer to the first is "no".) The 'config' script allows
all the questions to be asked at once, "preconfiguring" all the
packages with the answers needed during postinst. If a package
doesn't work correctly, I suspect it is a bug (well, a wishlist bug at
least: "Please allow preconfiguration". Sometimes, there might be
db_input in the postinst; I don't know if that's strict wrong, but
putting it in the config script allows preconfiguration, which is
otherwise not possible). Note that pre-depends and similar might
screw up an otherwise nice division between questions and other
install tasks. Otherwise, I think it is supposed to be true that all
the packages are preconfigured (if the system is so configured), then
they are all unpacked, and then they are all configured (without
asking additional questions).
Correct me if this is wrong:)
Justin
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