Re: installer defaults for desktops (was Re: Suggested edit)
On Fri 24 Mar 2017 at 18:23:26 +0000, Steve McIntyre wrote:
> Catherine Gramze wrote:
> >
> >The point of free software is not to cater to your personal
> >preferences, or mine, but to make that software accessible and useful
> >to the greatest number of people. The netinst installer doesn't do
> >that when it allows a very broken installation to result. There will
> >inevitably be "arbitrary" decisions involved in a project like this,
> >like not including the non-free firmware in the installer, and the
> >switch to systemd.
>
> To be honest, I think we have a mostly reasonable setup right
> now. I've just tested the stretch RC2 netinst in a VM without
> networking. It did give a prominent warning from the netcfg step:
>
> No network interfaces were found. The installation system was unable to find
> a network device.
> You may need to load a specific module for your network card, if you
> have one. For this, go back to the network hardware detection step.
If the interfaces exist but are not connected (cable or wireless) the
message is different. Basically, no DHCP protocol on the network or slow
DHCP server or hardware not working. A user who proceeds after either
message either knows what they are doing or is being perverse. Or is
just in it for the laughs. Either way, it doesn't matter; there is no
connectivity.
> *If* you continue the installer past that warning, you will still get
> prompted about network mirrors (which is not all that clever,
> admittedly!) before tasksel. You can choose (again, with a warning) to
> not use a mirror and *then* you'll get the option to just install the
> base system ("standard").
There is no prompting for network mirrors. After installing the base
system you have "Configure the package manager". The installer doesn't
offer any mirrors because it knows it is pointless. In fact, it says "No
network mirror was selected". The only thing you can get out of this is
a line in sources.list for security updates.
After that you get the option to "Select and install software". Relating
it to the "base system" is misleading and confusing. Skip this step
(install standard system utilities or not) andthe machine will still be
functional.
> I don't have ready access right now to a machine *with* network
> devices, but only those that need firmware. What exact messages do you
> get there?
>
> As a separate point, there are *unofficial* netinst images including
> the non-free firmware packages, and we've been making those for a
> while. I'm tempted to add a version of DVD#1 including the firmware
> too, starting with stretch.
I've always found giving in to temptation very satisfying. In this case
we would have some parity between netinst and DVD#1. Go for it!
--
Brian.
Reply to: