> Perhaps a two part installer. Part one is totally automated, and sets up > everything that it can be really sure about. Then the second phase which should > have, say 4 level 1 choices, each of which have an update variant: > > a) Easy Install : assume that the user doesn't have any idea about what's going > one. Obey the rule "First, do no harm". Automated install that asks as few > questions as possible. > > b) Power User : This title is chosen to make the user feel good. It actually > refers to the skill level of someone who writes Excel macros. A bit > adventurous. Give them lots of choices that are harmless. Be sure that their > network connections are safe. > > c) Customized: This guy is expected to be able to handle fdisk, set up > partitions, choose what should be formatted, etc. This is the one that has > choices on network access that read (1)wide open, (2)normal, (3)cautious, > (4)paranoid. Applications are in groups, but the user can open up the group to > select or deselect any package that is chosen. E.g., if the user select > Editors, the opened list will show ed, edlin, vim, joe, ... all selected. The > user is allowed to choose to unselect particular ones. > > d) Expert: This isn't really a standard installer. It starts with three > choices: > 1) recovery: Assumes that the software has already been installed, and that it > needs fixing. This has a large pallet of tools, as it doesn't assume that the > versions already installed on the disk are reliable. (You may think you've been > rooted.) > 2) installer: This one lists all of the packages, and lets one install either > the package, or selected files from the package. (Presumably the original > install was done with one of the other levels. But you CAN select packages to > install from here. It would just be very inconvenient to select many of them.) > 3) scripted: This one starts with three options. > a) "Write a basic installer script to the floppy" (Probably not necessary, but > useful.) The basic installer script should be a disk that is bootable, given > that the CD is inserted. It should be sufficient to do the customized install, > and can be machine specific if it must, but I'd rather it wasn't. > b) Edit the floppy script. > c) Run the script from the floppy. > What I really have in mind for this option is that SysAdmins would be able to > set it up to do a custom install, but with all of the questions answered by the > script. That way when a new machine came in, they could just take the CD and > the floppy, and boot the machine with the CD in place, and the floppy in the > drive. Possibly the computer would need to be set to boot from the CD, even > when the floppy was present. Then they could depend on autoprobing to handle > most hardware changes, but the script should be in, say, Python. That way > complex choices could be made. The script would, for instance, ask the > installer how big the disk was, and once it had the answer it would calculate > how much space for each partition, what partition type, etc. > -- (c) Charles Hixson > Excellent Ideas. To carry it (run script from floppy) farther... the first part of the install would ensure an internet connection, the second part would call into play someone's (sorry forgot who) idea of a web based script that would allow a user to select from packages to load and either write a script to floppy/hard disk to install the remainder of the available packages from the CD's (assuming that local access is faster than d/ling from inet.) -- Joseph S Gardner Senior Designer / Technical Support Kirby Co., Cleveland, OH [EMAIL PROTECTED] The box said, "Requires Windows 3.x or better", so I got Linux. Registered Linux user #1696600
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