Re: Installation
On Sat, September 15, 2012 5:33 am, Andrei POPESCU wrote:
> On Sb, 15 sep 12, 04:36:36, Weaver wrote:
>>
>> Partitioning: Entire disc selected. Separate /home selected.
>> In my opinion, the third option of separate /usr, /var, /tmp/ /home here
>> are wasted, as anybody that is going for that sort of option set are
>> probably going to go for the more fine-grained approach the 'Expert
>> Install' option caters to.
>
> Agreed. How about a wishlist bug against d-i?
Yes, but at this stage, I'm just looking for opinions.
I don't want to waste developer's time with my imperfections.
People can kill me here before I do any damage.
>
>> Computed Partitions.
>>
>> / = 10 GB – Bootable ext3 – I would probably go for a little more than
>> this, because the newbie appetite wants to try out everything! koffice,
>> libreoffice, calligra, gnomeoffice along with gnumeric and abiword to
>> see
>> what they look like and make a preferred selection. Likewise with every
>> single video player, music player, browser and mail client. They'll pare
>> everything down after the first six months when decisions are made, but
>> they need plenty of room initially. I'd be looking at at least 12.5 GB.
>> Worked out on the percentage of drive space, of course.
>
> Is this a guess or did you actually calculate the installed size?
Neither.
It's from personal experience.
The other two installs are this one I'm posting on = 2778 installed
packages, which was about 1000 more than that before I pared it down - I
have a lot of font packages and editors for writing.
And a GUI-less system of just over 800 packages.
I remember I wanted to check out everything. Find out which was best.
Resentment at being tied to Gnome. Annoyed with segmentation faults with
KDE. Recognising that, to a large extent, XFCE was just a GUI for Gnome.
Now for a graphically-based system I have a selection from all of them,
usually tied together with Enlightenment. Actually, with LXDE with Openbox
over the top and fbpanel, at present
>
>> /swap = 4.1 GB which fits nicely with the 2 GB of RAM.
>> /home =105.9 GB ext3.
>>
>> I wondered at ext3 being the default, instead of ext4, but that may well
>> be just the time slot that squeeze fitted into.
>
> This and the fact that Debian people are quite conservative when
> switching defaults. I hope it is (going to be) changed for wheezy,
> didn't check though.
>
> [...]
>
>> Here's an example – rough, not at all polished:
>> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>> Partitioning
>> Partitions are allocated areas on your hard drive, set by the installer,
>> where different parts of your working operating system reside.
>
> I'd remove "set by the installer" since the user might have done that.
>
>> The root (/) partition is where all your programmes will be installed
>> and
>> must be bootable so that your operating system is accessible after
>> installation.
>
> Ok.
>
>> The swap partition is an area on your hard drive where process exchange
>> takes place when your system is working. It is the equivalent of
>> 'Virtual
>> Memory'.
>
> Still very technical, and why the reference to Virtual Memory?
Because they have probably come from a Windows environment and may
identify with that concept.
Let me
> take a shot:
>
> The swap partition is a scratch area on your hard drive used by the
> operating system.
Yes, but they may wonder what 'a scratch area' is.
>
>> The home (/home) partition is where all your personal and professional
>> data will be kept.
>
> Ok.
>
>> By selecting any of these – arrow keys and 'enter', you can adjust the
>> size of them to suit your particular needs. This automatic partitioning
>> would probably be most suitable for initial use, however you will still
>> be
>> able to adjust their size in the future if needed.
>> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
> Mmm, the last sentence seems to imply that re-partitioning is easy,
> which it is not, especially in such a setup. As said before, I'd rather
> go for all in one partition, which solves the / size problem above and
> won't require repartitioning later.
Yes, it's just a way of making the original annotation more accessible.
>
>> There is absolutely no need to get into $ cat /etc/fstab at this point
>> in
>> time. Or separate /boot partitions, or any other complexity. They'll get
>> to that later. What is required now is to convey the simplest of
>> pictures,
>> but still convey the required information and only the required
>> information. This provides information, orientation and a jumping off
>> point for further advancement, without the confusion born of complexity.
>
> Agreed.
>
>> So, onward we go....
>
> [...]
>
>> There might, from a newbie perspective, need to be a short note at the
>> proxy configure stage. What's a proxy?
>
> I'd go for an addition like:
>
> "If you don't know what a proxy is just leave this blank".
Yep!
Regards,
Weaver
--
"It is the duty of the patriot to protect his country from its government."
-- Thomas Paine
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